16/09/2016 UKIP Conference

Thank you very much for that warm welcome.

We achieved what we set out to do, we have succeeded in getting

ourselves out of this sclerotic, out-of-date European Union.

And aren't we getting off this

Only 48 hours ago, in the European Parliament,

we heard the president of the European Commission,

Jean-Claude Juncker, inform us that's full steam ahead for a

When Nigel Farage warned of this back in 2014, Nick

Clegg called him a dangerous fantasist.

As I was travelling back from

Strasbourg the other day, I came across Nick Clegg on television,

Yes, he has crawled out from under that stone under which he has been

And they replayed some of his Brexit warnings.

He literally just stopped short of warning of nuclear

Holocaust, a plague of locusts, and the murder of every

It was clear, there and then, there was only one person

living on Fantasy Island, and it isn't Nigel, and it isn't us.

Because we know, as a country, we will go now from strength to

strength, free from the shackles of our Brussels masters.

I'm celebrating with my Brexit beard, which meant nobody

At least it has lasted longer than Nigel's 1970s moustache.

On a serious note, we have achieved so much in so little time.

Undoubtedly, our greatest achievement has been this

It would not have happened if it hadn't have been for Ukip.

In 2013, we pushed the Prime Minister into

offering a referendum that he never wanted to give.

Because Ukip was steadily rising in the polls and scoring local

Mr Cameron thought he could seek the Ukip votes by offering this

The membership began to rise rapidly.

We began to speak to huge audiences across the country.

Nigel set off on his purple taxi the length and breadth of Britain.

He literally spoke to thousands of people.

I did 200 public meetings in two years.

We exploded into local governments, and we now have 500 hard-working

We forced the referendum, and you helped to win it.

You were the foot soldiers, you manned the stalls,

you delivered leaflets and got our country back.

You have made us proud again.

You will be thanked by the next generation for giving them the power

Do not underestimate what you have achieved -

Brexit will shape the direction this country will take in the first

And what direction do we want it to take?

We want to see a Britain that can stand proud in the world,

A Britain that makes its own laws and has the ability

This means there can be no backsliding on Brexit.

Any attempt to maintain freedom of movement of people

I want to see us have access to the single market,

I want a Britain that is friends with our European neighbours,

We want all of our laws to be made at Westminster by people we elect.

I also want to see a Britain that looks to the emerging markets

of the Far East and Asia, and reignites its links

with the Commonwealth, which we so shamelessly

This can now all be achieved, and it's thanks to you -

I stood on this very platform eight years ago

and said that I believed that Ukip's future lay as a party

Very few people believed me at the time.

But it is clear this is Ukip's great opportunity.

Where, in many of these working-class opportunities,

where the Labour Party has dominated for years,

The Labour Party has lost touch with its working-class roots.

It is a Labour Party that is increasingly

dominated by the views of the Islington dinner party,

and a Labour Party that actually sneers at our own flag.

Ukip can make great strides in these areas as a party

that wants to see firm but fair border control.

That wants to see prison sentences mean what they say.

That wants to see all children of all classes get a fair start

in life, and one that is prepared to put British people at the top

Now, let me talk about the future of the party

and the new leader, whoever he or she may be.

I will be frank at this point, because I can now, Ukip has not been

And the animosity has spilt over into the media.

No-one, no-one, has emerged from this with their heads held high.

The designation process between Leave.EU and Vote Leave

created a cancer in the heart of the party, and led

to its leading lights using Ukip as a football.

So much so that, at this present moment, the party resembles a jigsaw

that has been emptied onto the floor.

The new leader must put it back together.

This can only be done through talking to people,

not issuing empty threats or pursuing internal navel-gazing

schemes that will most likely amount to nothing.

Today is a breakwater in the history of this party.

Both Nigel and I are standing down from the stage and standing down

The new leader will not benefit in any way shape or form if any

They must stand their own mark and they must take control of every

The new leader must be a unifier, not a divider.

Seek compromise, bring people together.

As Winston Churchill once said, jaw jaw is always

They must not lead what the Westminster journalists

They must ensure that the party is a big tent, where all

People are not marginalised or simply holding

I have always believed that the barometer of the maturity

of any political party is how it deals with people who have

This, unfortunately, is something we have failed to do

This must change because if it does not, and the new leader continues

to preside over the infighting we have seen over the past year,

This is a great opportunity to put all that behind us.

To look forwards and not backwards, to let bygones be bygones.

The new leader has a clean state and my advice is this,

Do not get bogged down in internal squabbling and focus on fighting

Ukip's enemies and not on fighting each other.

Of course, as Lord Stevens said, there will have to be some form

I was the first person in the party back in 2010, to talk

about the need of a party board, a political board.

I never envisaged for one second that this board would not have

elected representation from the membership.

Do not allow democracy within the party to be taken away.

Do not allow the party to become like the European Commission

My advice is simply this, yes, let's have a political board

for the party, but let's also have a national executive

Eight years ago when I stood on this platform, as your new party

chairman, we were a party that was not registering

Our membership was a near third of what it is now.

We were deemed so irrelevant that not one single national

journalist actually turned up to cover the conference,

seeing as I was Michael Crick'ed outside so that probably

I am as proud as punch by what we have all achieved.

In 2014, we became the first party since 1906 that wasn't

the Labour Party or the Conservatives to go on and win

We took 4 million votes at the general election.

We got the people the EU referendum and we have given this country

the opportunity to put the great back into Great Britain.

It is fitting that it ends for me on the very spot

My colleagues, my friends, it has been a great honour

and a pleasure to have been your party chairman

and then your deputy leader for the past eight years.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the support that

you have given both me personally and the party in general.

Never forget, you are its heart and lifeblood.

Leaders and deputy leaders can come and go.

You, the membership, without you, the party

On that note, it is time to hand over to the next generation.

I wish whoever succeeds me as the deputy leader of Ukip,

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.

I have to say, when Paul first asked me to speak at this

conference, I was quite uneasy, because having been involved

in organising a lot of conferences, I realised I don't

But he insisted he wanted me to be here to introduce our next

I started getting overexcited, and thought, amazing,

this is my last big opportunity to make a ground-breaking speech.

I've always kept a bit of a low profile, as you know,

I have so little public profile, at least one member at the NEC

Last November, I looked at the betting odds

I found that Gyles Brandreth has a greater chance than I do.

I just want to say thank you and give a few words of advice,

such as they're worth, on what I think Ukip needs to do

next, and handover to the man you've come to hear.

Before we continue, who was at the Derby

What is it we need to keep reminding ourselves?

When I was approached by Nigel to become party chairman

in the unlikely event he would be re-elected as leader,

chairman in the -- -- likely event he would be

re-elected as leader, he said, in the worst job ad ever,

He in fact give me the most precious opportunity of my life,

the opportunity to contribute and a very minor way

in the momentous events, dated in June 23 and changing

I've been the chairman of Ukip and its National Executive

Committee now twice as long as any previous incumbent.

I've depended on many people in that time,

and I would like say a special word of to Paul Oakden and others

for their fantastic work in the last two years.

And for enabling me to enjoy my summer while they were left holding

I'd like to say a quick word about the NEC, if I may.

It has come in for a lot of stick in the last few months.

Before you sweep away what you have, you need to know

what you are getting rid of and what you are

The constitution we put out in 2011 deliberately

Like the great powers before the first war,

constant diplomacy is needed before falling into a conflict.

We need to avoid a Balkan tinderbox setting the whole thing off.

The NEC is not perfect, but during the years

of my chairmanship, they were a delight to work with,

courageous, collegiate, courteous and dedicated

Unfortunately, it has been more about the pressure of personal

The majority of NEC members have been exasperated by this.

Reform is overdue, and the regional model being talked about may now

The most important thing of all is that Ukip,

under its new leader, get its house in order quickly,

reforms the columns of the People's Army,

and is back in battle order without delay.

Because the country needs Ukip - stronger, unified,

Because British democracy is on trial for its life.

So what happened on the 23rd of June?

We didn't win a PR battle, we didn't fight six other

people for a council seat, we won the largest popular vote

The 17.4 million votes were way more than Margaret Thatcher

got in 1974 or John Major's record in 1992.

It was more than the Yes campaign got in 1975 which kept us

It was the biggest exercise in popular democracy this

As Tony Benn said, after being on the losing side

in the 1975 referendum, when the British people speak,

everyone, including Members of Parliament, should tremble

The margin was 1.27 million, Leave gained 52% of the vote.

No-one has had that higher margin since Stanley Baldwin in 1971.

If you look at it on a constituency basis there was a majority of 229.

That is 50 more then Tony Blair had

In England and Wales, over 70% of seats voted Leave.

Then we hear that some people have decided it isn't.

The man trying currently to make Jeremy Corbyn look like a competent

leader of the Labour Party, Owen Smith, says if he becomes

the Prime Minister, he won't allow Brexit.

Or maybe he'll apply to rejoin the EU and the euro.

Fortunately, the chances of Mr Smith becoming premise are vanishingly

are small, despite his glittering career as a BBC producer,

adviser to Ed Miliband and board member of pharmaceutical companies.

Then we hear someone called Tim Farron, who apparently leads

the Liberal Democrats, demands, for the sake of democracy,

we need to have a second referendum on the terms

What would be little question in that referendum?

Do you agree with the terms of Brexit,

place a cross in the box if you agree with the terms

of Brexit, yes, no, some of them, please write in your own ideas

But it's not just politicians on the make banging this drum.

To be fair I would like to pay tribute to most

side, who recognise, like Tony Benn, everyone should tremble before

The gilded elite of this country has signalled it is not prepared to let

the uneducated plebs take away its pet project for

The standard bearer for this legion of the intellectual elite.

Is the baroness used to edit the Wall Street Journal

British democracy and announced that what is needed is a rebellion to

kick out the Brexit bill when it comes to the House of Lords.

I am generally a mild-mannered, polite,

I believe in the monarchy, the House of Lords,

our tradition of individual and civil rights, law and order,

parliamentary democracy and respect for our institutions.

Baroness, I have to tell you, not only is it a

suicide note for the House of Lords, your plan,

it is a blueprint for the

destruction of democracy in this country.

The plebs voted for something you do not like and you

propose to tell them they cannot have it.

The fact is, senior Conservative peers could possibly

advance this view shows that Ukip's oft heard cry that the elite

stealing democracy from the people is bang on the money.

That is why Ukip's continuing strength is so vital.

The interesting thing about the Baroness's title,

is that's where all the revolting peasants gather

The Kentish men in 1450, the Cornish rebels in 1497

all gathered on Blackheath to make London tremble.

Although I am happily withdrawing from day-to-day politics, if

baroness, after the good folk of this country

have given their view, if you and your chums attempt to

overturn the will of the people as expressed

in the largest exercise in direct democracy ever

I would be happy to join the peasants from every county in

the country, especially the Welsh, and be on her doorstep with flaming

torches before she can call an uber to escape it.

Thank you for coming. If you came by train, I hope you got a seat. If so,

it makes you more qualified for public office than Jeremy Corbyn.

Let's go on to what is important. We won the referendum. We want it here

in Bournemouth. We won it in the south west. -- won it. We won it in

the UK as a whole. Over 500 parliamentary seats voted to Leave.

APPLAUSE Without the UK Independence party,

the referendum would not have happened at all. Congratulations to

everybody and you all deserve a strong round of applause. But, I'm

afraid there is a but, we won the battle but have yet to win the war.

We could still find ourselves in a Brexit that is not really a Brexit.

That is against our national interests. Kenneth Clarke, Nick

Clegg, the luvvies and the rest of them, still want the UK to be a

province in a protectionist European superstate. We must guard our

victory. I did not hear that's. We must guard our victory so that at

the risk of getting technical and nerdy, I am going to talk most about

trade agreements that is my brief. Here is the first one. New Zealand's

trade agreements. Trade agreements, although they are not necessary,

they are desirable. Whilst we Remain in the EU, the United Kingdom, one

of the biggest trading nations in the world does not have the right

and cannot sign trade agreements on its own be. To name three countries,

Chile, New Zealand and Iceland. We all have the right to negotiate

their trade agreements because they are not part of a trading bloc and

not part of the European union. They are independent, we, for the moment,

are not. There is a list of New Zealand's trade agreements. It

disproves and contradicts the proposition one hears all the time

that a country has to be part of the big trading block in order to

negotiate trade agreements. Jilly, new Zealand, even Iceland have

agreements with China. -- Chile. The EU does not and will not any time

soon. There is a compelling reason for this. It is easier and more

straightforward to negotiate trade agreements for one single country

and one single economy than attempting to do the same for a

block of 28 countries with different economies. The EU trade Commissioner

has to take into account and encompass the interest of all member

states. That is difficult. In a metaphor I wish I had come up with

but Boris Johnson did, the EU and trade negotiations is rather like a

gigantic 28 strong pantomime horse. It is ungainly, it does not go

forward and that is why it takes the EU seven or eight years to negotiate

a trade agreement, or very often not at all. On Brexit, we in the UK

would then negotiate our own trade agreements and much more easily than

a dysfunctional contraption that is the European Union.

APPLAUSE Now we're going to talk about access

to the EU markets. We do complete rubbish spoken all the time,

particularly on Newsnight. Despite what you hear, access to EU markets

does not depend on having a trade agreement or being an EU member

state. This slide shows the value of a trade between 20 countries outside

the UPN union and the EU member states. -- European Union. The key

figure is the one at the bottom. 2000 700 million euros. Numbers do

not mean very much unless they are compared to something. What is the

comparison? The answer is, the value of this trade, imports plus exports

by these 20 countries outside the European union. It is just 20

countries that is worth more than the entire economy of France, more

than the entire economy here in the UK. It was even more than what David

Cameron and Samantha Cameron expected early next year.

LAUGHTER The fact is, a country does not have

to be in the European union in order to be able to trade with it and

trade very successfully. Next fact, let's look at China's exports to the

EU. This has been sent to the BBC but unsurprisingly, it has yet to be

seen. China includes a loan exports roughly one and a half times what

the United Kingdom exports to the EU. What we see here and what the

facts demonstrate is that China, not an EU member and without a trade

agreement with the EU, nevertheless has access sufficient to export more

goods to the EU than we do in the UK to the tune of one and a half times.

People say, as Philip Hammond wrote, you are not mentioning services.

Here is a slide showing the United States's exports of services to the

EU compared with the UK's exports of services to the EU. As you can see,

it is the same thing. The export more than we do. Here is another

slide. This is the list of the top ten exporters to the EU. The key

point here is that the top three, China, Russia and United States, six

of the top ten and 11 of the top 20 trading countries do not, repeat

not, have trade agreements with the European union. The facts are clear,

people and businesses do not need to be in a country that has a trade

agreement with the EU in order to trade successfully and profitably

and have access to the EU markets. These countries, all trade with the

EU within the framework and under the rules of the trade organisation

and that is one option for the UK, that is always available.

APPLAUSE One further academic and nerdy fact.

Because we are in the EU, our seat can be reactivated once we Leave the

EU. We can speak up for EU trade and the national interests. Until we

Leave, our boys they are in submerged in one of 28. -- our

voice. This is the second last slide. This is the Steve Crown

point. Steve was the brilliant chair of Ukip. To give food recognition,

Steve made this point to me. You cannot see the detail easily. Jilly,

Republic of Madagascar, the Seychelles, so on. The EU in Short

has 100 trade agreements and we make 141. That is a conclusion to this.

It would be very odd not to say absurd, not to say bizarre, and,

this is the key point, not as a wholly against the commercial

interests of the EU, given all the countries that do have trade

agreements with the EU, for the EU not to have one with the UK on

Brexit. APPLAUSE

Thank you, Steve, for pointing that out to me. Let's look at free

movement of people. This is the last slide. Free movement, or what they

call free movement, is simply what gives over 450 million citizens of

EU member states the app salute right to live, work and settle in

the United Kingdom. We have no control. -- absolute. The EU has all

these trade agreements and these trade agreements, with one

exception, do not, repeat not, have discrete movement clause. For

example, no free movement of clause with Mexico, South Korea or Canada.

The EU has trade agreements with ten European countries with no free

movement clause. Turkey, even managed free movement. It is only

the four countries, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Iceland and Norway

that has trade agreements requires free movement of people.

Lichtenstein is a delegation and Switzerland voted against free

movement in a referendum in their breed doesn't and 14, we never hear

about. That leaves two countries -- to does than 14. Two countries in

the world, Norway and Iceland, in the middle there, who still have

free movement of people in return for access in a trade agreement with

beer. There is no EU requirement on other countries for free movement

and trade agreements. None. Not at all. Not at all.

APPLAUSE This is a simple basic obvious and

incontrovertible facts. What we hear on the BBC is always the reverse.

Let's explore this. I wonder if anybody here has ever watched yes

Prime Minister ought yes Minister. These shows demonstrate better than

anything the power of the civil service. As a resident of the south

west, I can recommend Devon clotted cream fudge. But, we do not want and

cannot accept a Brexit fudge cooked up by Sir Humphrey.

LAUGHTER APPLAUSE

Incidentally, we did win and there has been an honours list that David

Cameron... If you modifications. Will Straw,

who ran the Remain campaign was made a CBE. That is not enough. He should

have been made and Errol at the very least. For services to Brexit and

the league campaign. -- Earl. George Osborne was made a companion of

honour. It should have been a companion of dishonour.

APPLAUSE For Paddy Ashdown, Mark Carney and

Tony Blair, they should all be made Jukes. -- Jukes. Given the

provocations of doom, they should all be the same title, the Dukes of

Hazzard. To go back to yes Minister and yes, Prime Minister. These were

co-written by Anthony Joshua who worked with the BBC. He worked in a

row about his time, we were not just anti-Harold Macmillan, we were and

industry, anti-capitalism, and he's selling, anti-profit, anti-monarchy,

anti-police, and Armed Forces, anti-bomb, anti-authority. Almost

anything that made the world a freer, safer, and more prosperous

place, you name it, we in the BBC were anti-it.

APPLAUSE That was the 1960s. The BBC were

biased then and the BBC as biased now. Into thousand and 16, we can

add the BBC are also anti-Brexit and Andy Nigel Farage. -- anti-Nigel