Nigel Farage

This article is an edited transcript of Nigel Farage's speech at the Brexit party rally in London on 21 May.  Do you know we only launched this party five and a half weeks ago. In that space of time we’ve managed to assemble this fantastic team of candidates. We’ve managed to go to the top of the opinion polls in five and a half weeks - that’s not bad, is it? We’ve managed, in five and a half weeks, not just to frighten the establishment. Oh no, they’re not freighted  – they’re absolutely terrified. Perhaps most important of all...

After the referendum, I retired from active party politics, saying I wanted my life back. And I’ve had a great deal of fun since. Better still, I no longer have to resolve arguments between association chairmen and branch secretaries over how to fold the napkins at their work Christmas dinners and so on. But I’ve watched in dismay as Ukip, the machine that won the last European elections and scared the legacy parties into offering the British people a referendum, has descended into a bunker of its own making. By focusing on radical Islam, it has restricted its ability to get the votes needed to keep Westminster honest. So, with some reluctance, I’m strapping on the breastplate again and am going to lead the Brexit party.

I'm aware that not everybody in this country is happy. Indeed, a lot of young people have been wound up by scare stories and are actually very angry and very scared about their future. It's an irony really, that it's the youth of a country that appear to be worried right across the whole of the European Union. It is the under-30s that are protesting in the streets against undemocratic centralised control and indeed against the Euro and virtually everything that emanates from Brussels. In time, I hope that some of these sharp divisions can be healed when people start to realise that actually life outside the European Union is really very exciting and we've got a much better, brighter future in charge of our own lives.

This is an abridged transcript of Nigel Farage's Brexit interview with Andrew Neil IMMIGRATION Reducing the level of immigration has been central to your pitch to voters, can you tell the British public at what level broadly you’d expect net migration to fall if we left the EU? Up to us. The point about this referendum, too much of this is sounding like a manifesto, a Remain manifesto, a Leave manifesto.  The real point about this referendum is who makes the decisions, do we have the ability to control the numbers that come to Britain or not, that’s the first and most important point to make.  What do I think would be the right number?

The aftermath of a general election is a difficult time for any party leader, unless like Mr Cameron you have received a shock majority. I had promised to stand down if I did not win in South Thanet, and confirmed this a few minutes after the result. My huge consolation prize was that Ukip took control of Thanet District Council with a working majority of ten. I am enormously proud of them, and expect them to be a beacon of good governance. However, the level of scrutiny they will be under as the first Ukip-controlled local authority will of course be enormous, as the establishment will be willing them to fail. To the National Executive Council meeting. I said that I intended to resign, and the letter was being typed as I spoke.

What a week! I was thrilled to have a chance to confront Nick Clegg but my excitement was tempered with disappointment that neither Cameron nor Miliband agreed to take part — although both were invited. I’d love to have challenged Miliband about the effects of uncontrolled immigration: wage compression, for instance, and the erosion of job opportunities within working-class communities. Why did he chicken out? My bet is he knows these facts are unanswerable. Cameron is, by all accounts, having kittens about Ukip but I think I can set his mind at rest. Our current wave of support seems to be thanks to working-class former Labour voters, which makes perfect sense.