‘The people have been betrayed over Brexit. That’s why I came back’
The Telegraph’s chief political correspondent, was the only national newspaper journalist to travel on Nigel Farage’s battle bus for the final days of the Brexit Party’s European Parliament election campaign. This is his diary
May 15, seven days to go Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil
A solid ball of around 30 reporters, photographers and cameramen is slowly moving up Merthyr Tydfil high street in south Wales. In the middle is Nigel Farage, leader of the five-weekold Brexit Party.
This is his sixth European election campaign – Farage represented Ukip in the first five – but this time he is leading the Brexit Party, a grouping only formally launched on April 12 that can now lay claim to be the fastest growing political party in modern British history.
Three weeks into his campaign, Farage is targeting south Wales, the Midlands and the north of England because they are predominantly Labour seats that voted heavily for Leave in the 2016 EU referendum.
He tells me: “The message I am trying to put [across] is that if you vote Labour here you are voting for a list of four candidates, all of whom support a second referendum.”
Farage is slimmer than many have seen him for years. The boozy lunches are – for now – a thing of the past. He is exercising regularly. Over lunch in a pub he sips a gin and tonic before pouring a glass of water and tucking into Welsh lamb.
As he leaves, Farage is accosted by Diane O’shea, a pensioner, who says: “I love him. We voted ‘out’ and nothing has happened; do you know how angry people are?” Not all are delighted to see him. Later on Merthyr high street, Stephen Williams, a local, yells at him repeatedly from a few yards: “You are not welcome in Merthyr.” Farage ends his 200 yard walk up the street in the doorway of a Wetherspoon pub – run by Brexit-supporting Tim Martin – with an impromptu press conference.
A German television reporter asks whether a vote for the Brexit Party will jeopardise the millions of pounds invested by the EU in towns like Merthyr Tydfil. Farage shoots back: “Whose money?” The reporter: “The European Union’s.” Farage replies: “Oh does it grow on trees? It is our money.”
Later the Brexit Party holds a rally for 400 supporters in a supermarket car park. The event is delayed by up to a dozen protesters lying down in the entrance. A fight breaks out.
Undeterred, Richard Tice, the party’s chairman, winds up the crowd as Farage prepares to speak.
He says: “The abuse, the vitriol, the threats to his own safety and that of his family have been utterly appalling. But the good news is that he is back!” Farage bounds on to the stage. “Hello Merthyr! Welcome to the Brexit Party rally! The sun is shining – I hope and believe that is an omen.”
He gets into his stride: “The appetite now for us simply to be free of this European club and to get on with the rest of our lives has never been stronger at any point in the last three years. If they think they can get rid of the Brexit Party by passing a terrible treaty that costs us
£40 billion, that does not mean Brexit ... they will be stunned at what we will do in the next general election to try to sweep them away.”
May 16, six days to go Essex and Willenhall
While Conservative and Labour MPS in the Westminster bubble row over the small print of Brexit, Farage is criss-crossing the country speaking to packed rallies about democracy.
This morning he was in a nightclub in Essex, where The Only Way Is Essex is filmed, trumpeting “The Only Way is Brexit” to a cheering crowd. In the evening he has driven 140 miles to speak to a 1,200-strong rally of his supporters in Willenhall. He enters from the back of the hall through the crowd. People hold out their hands to touch him. Mobile phones are raised.
His supporters have a blind faith in him to deliver Brexit – which he defines as leaving the EU on World Trade Organisation terms. Remainers call this “crashing out without a deal”.
He prides himself on sending away his Brexit Party supporters feeling happy despite their frustration that a clean Brexit has not been delivered by politicians in Westminster.
He says: “There is an anger underneath at what has happened – but this party is saying ‘we are going to change this’. People are leaving these rallies happy, not angry.”
His speeches paint himself as the outsider – even though he has run a party on and off for more than 20 years. “I have underestimated the sheer levels of dishonesty among our political class,” he says. “They have done everything to prevent the greatest democratic exercise in the history of our nation from taking place. The whole thing is an absolute disgrace.” But that’s about it. His speeches are scant on detail. I count a handful of pledges including reviewing the HS2 high speed train line, electoral reform and scrapping red tape during my six days with him.
Talk turns to which new Tory leader he might support. He makes clear he does not trust Boris Johnson. “People keep asking me – could I support Boris. Which Boris? Who is he?
“What does he actually believe in? He is not a true believer [in Brexit] as me. I cannot get my head around the fact he voted for that [Theresa May’s deal]. How could I trust any of them given what they have done? Why would I believe him [if he now voted against the deal]? It is not the hokey cokey – you just can’t keep changing your mind on this stuff. Will the real Boris Johnson please stand up?”
Farage cannot understand why Johnson is so poor at social media. He says: “He is useless at it. I don’t think many of them see the importance of it, yet I know it is vitally important. I could see it working in Italy, in the US.”
After his speech, Tice reads out questions submitted by the audience. One asks: “What are the odds on Nigel becoming prime minister?” Farage does not answer. Tice says they are shortening.
May 17, five days to go Dudley, West Midlands
For the first time in my week with Farage, it is raining on the Brexit Party. Farage is striding down the high street in Dudley, towards a market in his suit, wearing a waxed jacket for protection from the weather. Keen to find out more policies from Farage, I ask him if he is a climate change sceptic. “Ask me after next Thursday,” he says.
The blind faith shown by his supporters at his rallies is mirrored by his candidates. One of them, Laura Kevehazi, admits she only met Farage for the first time 16 days earlier.
She explains: “I come from a science background. I research facts. He is the only consistent politician on-message for 25 years. I don’t need personally to know a man to check his record.”
Martin Daubney, another MEP candidate and former editor of Loaded magazine, first met Farage when they were both guests on Jeremy Vine’s chat show. He decided to stand after his parents told him “we don’t think Brexit is going to happen before we die”, he says. Farage sounds a little in awe of the sacrifices made by his 73 candidates – who were whittled down from a list of 1,500 applicants for the European elections.
He says: “There are some who literally we met a couple of months ago – they have resigned their jobs, you can’t believe it. I feel the weight of responsibility on my shoulders – people just jacking in their jobs, I feel humbled by it.”
Around 100 supporters – including Maureen Jones wearing a home-made sticker saying “Nigel Farage you are a bostin’ bloke” – assemble in the drizzle in front of the blue open-topped battle bus. The UK had been ready to reach out to the UK’S “friends in the Commonwealth and America” after the 2016 referendum, Farage tells them, “Instead, we are still being talked down to by Donald Tusk...” The crowd boos. “By Michel Barnier.” The boos grow louder. “And by Mr Juncker – God help us.” The boos reach a crescendo.
Farage is now into his stride: “We are lions led by donkeys and it is time to do something about it. We are the fightback on behalf of ordinary people. We couldn’t care less whether in the past you have been Conservative or Labour, or never voted for anybody.
“We are doing this because we believe in our nation. We are not ashamed to say we are patriotic – and we absolutely believe in democracy, which is what our grandparents and greatgrandparents fought and sacrificed so much in two world wars.”
Farage is finishing now. “Do you want Brexit?” he asks. “Yes!” the crowd shouts back. “Are you going to support us next Thursday?” The crowd: “Yes!” “Are we once again going to be a great, independent, self-governing nation?” The crowd:
“Yes!”
May 18, four days to go South Ockendon, Canvey Island, Southend, Essex
“Give us a beep for Brexit! Come on guys! Thank you! Morning!” Farage is yelling through his megaphone from the top deck of his battle bus as it trundles through the countryside.
He turns to his team, laughing: “They have all got their windows closed. It’s probably against the law doing this but we won’t worry too much. There is a bloke back there who put his thumb out, and I waved at him. Then he put his other thumb out. I don’t know who was driving, he seemed very excited.”
He is in a good mood. I ask who he will support in tonight’s Eurovision
Song Contest. “I would boycott the whole bloody thing,” he says. “The sooner we are kicked out, the better. My next campaign is to withdraw from it.” He roars with laughter.
Farage is chuckling about the photograph in that morning’s newspapers of the miserable Tory MEP candidates wheeled out to launch Theresa May’s Euro elections campaign. “The candidates looked like they have just come out of court and been sentenced,” he says.
Farage’s battle bus is heading towards Canvey Island. He tells me: “These are all Leave seats, and they were big Leave seats with big turnouts. We are focusing on areas like this.”
The odd thing about Farage’s electoral message is that he wants people’s votes to help him influence the policies of another party altogether – the Conservatives. Earlier in South Ockendon, he talks as though the Brexit Party is a pressure group, not a political party. He says: “If we can win this next Thursday – and win big – we can definitely put leaving full stop back on the table and we have to pressurise whoever is in government to leave on that date [Oct 31]. The more power we have, the more likely it is we will get a prime minister who will honour the result of the referendum. And if that does not happen, we will have to fight to win the general election.”
His Brexit Party will also demand “a voice in the negotiating team”. He adds: “If the Government rejects that once again, they are sticking up two fingers at the democratic vote.
“Clearly the next Conservative leadership election, they will be looking over their shoulders at us in quite a big way.” He admits that he never wanted to return to politics, saying: “I didn’t want to come back and do this. Now I am doing it, I am enjoying it. I love doing it but I shouldn’t have to do it.”
Farage has been doing some more thinking about his party’s policies. “Most political parties’ members vote for delegates where these decisions are made. It is at that level where the backbiting goes on,” he says. “Committees are good at spoiling things. So my idea is to bypass that process and go straight to our support base, start polling them and asking them questions, looking for policy ideas. They are going to have a real say.”
He is still worried about getting enough voters out. But unlike in 2014 – when Ukip’s popularity peaked two months before the elections despite eventually winning – he says: “It feels like momentum is still with us.”