Watch LIVE as Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf lay out our plans to keep criminals behind bars.

All right.Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.It is, I think, the biggest issue in our national lives that is reported on, spoken about, and debated around the least.It is the area of law and order.We did our best last year in an August campaign to try and raise the salience of the issue.And we are in no doubt, as a party, that Britain now is a party.

I guess the reason it's so little discussed is that for the Labour and Conservative parties to enter into this debate they would have to admit their own culpability.But whether it's the streets of London where men dare not wear watches and women dare not wear jewellery, to what is happening and the constant living in fear that we see in our rural communities, Everyone knows the state of law and order is considerably worse than it was five or ten years ago.And yet, senior journalists and commentators rely on the England and Wales Crime Survey, a survey that is put through doors and filled in with a pencil and paper, and they say, look at the figures of this survey and it will show you that crime at all levels is falling.That is because it is a completely outdated way of measuring it.No, we are living through a breakdown in society and it is very, very serious.Now, prison sentencing has proved to be Andy Burnham's first big test as Prime Minister.

In the wake of the PC Harper case, the Prime Minister's instincts were, well of course they shouldn't be released early.But once he's told the practical facts of life, he has to back away and back down.So at least we are having a proper debate about this.But we need to face some serious facts.During 14 years of Conservative government, through mass immigration, especially the Boris wave, the net population of the country rose by 6 million people.And?

They only built 455 new prison places.So early release isn't some new idea.that this Labour government's just come up with, it was the Conservative governments that introduced it, and for all we hear on the radio and see on the telly, Conservative spokesmen and women on this issue, perhaps we'd better remind them that it was the Conservatives that gave early release to 158 ,000 prisoners.So they were very much the architects of this mess, and certainly it's true, that Labour have inherited a very, very difficult situation.But they don't appear to have the imagination or the will to solve it.And that is where, keeping criminals behind bars, that is where this document comes in.

Because, once again, reform are proposing practical policy solutions to difficult national issues.And quite often when we do this we find within a few weeks one or more of the other parties tend to follow our lead.So let's begin with the over 10 ,000 foreign national offenders that are currently in Britain's prisons.That figure is rising all the time.In fact, our expenditure on this is 50 % higher than it was as recently as 2019.This is really quite straightforward.

We send people back to their country of origin, so it needs a phone call with Edirama from Albania, etc.And if they refuse, we then send foreign national defenders off to third parties.Kosovo, is perhaps one good example currently being used by Sweden.And we are organizing a trip to El Salvador, and by the way, not all of it.the cages that you've seen on television and Lee Anderson and Vanessa Frake the former prison governor They will both be visiting El Salvador soon to house a foreign national offender in El Salvador Will be half the cost of housing a foreign national offender in this country and will give us more prison spaces.Add to that a concept that we did announce last year, but perhaps bears repetition, the concept of Nightingale Prisons.

We did it during the pandemic with Nightingale Hospitals and we're confident and we believe we can have 12 ,000 Nightingale Hospital places within the first 18 months of a reform government.Underpinning this are some basic principles.That dangerous criminals must serve their full term.The public demands nothing less.That crimes such as child rape, deserve full life sentences and lower down the scale because of Labour's recent legislation anybody that is given a prison sentence of less than a year is now highly unlikely to serve any prison time at all which is frankly opening the door to shoplifting and lower levels of burglary and we insist that every single shoplifting incident should be prosecuted and you know there are big benefits in keeping serial criminals behind bars.Sweden have a comprehensive survey showing that 60 % of violent crime in Sweden is committed by 1 % of the population.

And the figures in this country are not dissimilar.Repeated criminals, those who cannotbe rehabilitated.And by the way, we would all say for first time offenders, every attempt should be made within prisons to educate and rehabilitate.But when people pass beyond that measure, the never ending cycle of causing violence and distress to others, of going to prison, of serving a third or 40 % of a sentence, and then coming out and doing it again, is having a very, very grievous effect.on large numbers of people in society.

Prison is there in the first case to rehabilitate, but in the second it's there to punish, and in the third it's there to protect the rest of society.So I commend keeping criminals behind bars, and I would ask Sir Yusuf to give us more details.Thank you.

Thank you, Nigel.Britain's justice system is broken, and reform will fix it.Under changes made by Labour and the Tories, when someone is sentenced to prison, by a judge in this country.They only serve a fraction of their sentence.A reformed government will reverse Burnham's soft on -crime changes to ensure that dangerous criminals serve the entirety of their prison sentence.We will deport foreign criminals to serve their sentences abroad rather than in British soil, and rapidly build Nightingale prisons to create the necessary prison capacity.

For proof of just how broken Britain's justice system is, Look no further than the fact that the killers of police constable Andrew Harper are about to be released early from jail.On the night of the 15th of August 2019, Lissy Harper received a knock at the door.She expectedher husband Andrew to walk through it after a long shift.Instead she was met by uniformed officers delivering the devastating news that the man she had married just four weeks prior had been killed in the line of duty.Lissy later described that moment of catastrophic loss.

She said that everything she knew and every ounce of peace had been cruelly robbed from her.The couple had been together for 13 years, having first met when they were teenagers.During his funeral, she remembered Andrew as a childhood sweetheart, recalling how he used to pass her notes during their school days.She spoke of a love that grew stronger every day, binding them together since they were children.They were about to go on their honeymoon.But on that night, nearly seven years ago, everything changed.

Albert Bowers and Jesse Cole dragged Police Constable Harper behind their car.for over a mile across country roads at speeds of up to 60 miles an hour.He suffered catastrophic injuries and died at the scene.The men who brutally killed him are about to be released early, along with thousands of others.Just imagine the pain for PC Harper's widow and his other loved ones.And make no mistake, this mad policy of releasing criminals early has directly led to more British people being killed.

Take Liam Matthews who was released early from jail last year and within hours...savagely killed 26 -year -old Lewis Bell with a chisel.Labour's Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has already released a staggering 70 ,000 prisoners early.And it's not just Labour.The Tories released thousands of prisoners early too, including murderers and rapists.It was the Tories that created the prison capacity crisis.

They imported 6 million net new people through immigration And as Nigel said, built 455 net new prison places to cope, not 455 ,000, 455.Reform will bring justice back to Britain.We will change the law so that those who commit serious crimes like murder, manslaughter, rape and serious violence serve their full sentences.Unbelievably, there are over 10 ,000 foreign nationals in British jails.We will deport all of them.sending them to serve their sentences in countries like El Salvador or Kosovo if their home countries will not take them back.

And we will use that space to ensure that serious criminals stay where they belong, behind bars, because this is a national emergency.British people are literally being killed because there is not enough space in our prisons.And that's why a reformed government will embark on the fastest expansion of the prison estate since the Victorian era here at home.We will rapidly build capacity.we will take advantage of new prefabricated modular technology and build 12 ,000 prison places in the form of Nightingale prisons on Ministry of Defence land and the Army will be called in to assist.Together, these measures will

create an additional 22 ,000 prison places, compared to Andy Burnham's plans.And this will mean we can make the following promise to the British people.Under Prime Minister Farage, killers, rapists and violent thugs will never be released a day early.And this vastly expanded prison capacity will also enable us to ensure that those sentenced to jail terms of less than a year truly go to jail.overturning Labour's shameful attempt to effectively decriminalise theft and shoplifting.The British people are being tormented by convicted criminals who should be in jail.

We live in a country that is becoming ever more lenient on those who break our laws and ever harsher on those who follow them.All that changes under a reform government.When Nigel Farage is Prime Minister, those who commit grave crimes will never be released early.We will keep them in jail where they belong and we will keep the great British people safe.Thank you very much.

conversations could be had with Lithuania for example or perhaps Estonia.well.And on the El Salvador one, which is where there is the most capacity, you know, that's the reason that we're going to send Lee Anderson and former prison governor Vanessa Frake.You know, we want people – we want to make sure that the conditions are sensible and reasonable and appropriate.We estimate the cost will be half, half per prisoner, the difference, of course, being that everybody else will be serving fuller sentences.So what is the cost of building Nightingale prisons?

Well, frankly, Frankly, pretty cheap, just as were the Nightingale hospitals.They would be very basic, and we have to admit that.There might not be too many colour TVs, we have to admit that.But the actual construction of these sites is very, very small money.And the foreign prisoners being sent overseas, or back to their home countries, is going to save us, over the next decade, several billion pounds.Thank you.

Any more on that for you, sir?

Yeah, I mean, so just to give you some context, you know, as Nigel said, we're going to make sure that the prison conditions in El Salvador, look, it's not going to be a summer camp.It's not going to be particularly fun, but it won't be cruel.and it won't be unreasonable.And where we got to that half figure, just so you understand what the current parameters are, so this government currently spends, British taxpayers are currently spending 600 million pounds, 600 million pounds on housing foreign nationals in our jails.If you look at what the Americans paid, and all we can really go off at the moment, given we're not currently the government, so we can't formally negotiate deals, if you look at what the Americans were paying per place, about 20 ,000 US, which is a quarter.of what it currently costs us to house foreign nationals in our jails.

So we're talking about half because we are assuming we're assuming therefore a standard of prison broadly double for example what the Americans were paying for.So that would be the first point.And yeah in terms of other countries we're going to look for as many countries as we possibly can.can.I mean, look, the broad point we would make about a Farage government, a reformed government, is our posture will be, you know, our focus is going to be keeping law -abiding British citizens safe, right?There will be a lot more people in prison.

So when you talk about cost, yeah, you know, there are going to be a lot more people in prison under a reformed government, because that's where violent criminals belong.

Yeah.Keith Bays, Jimmy News.

Thank you.More than 950 migrants have crossed the channel this weekend and more than 2 ,500 since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister despite Labour's pledge to smash the gangs.Now your party wants to send some migrant criminals to El Salvador.Is this a serious workable policy or is this a Trump -style reaction to the Burnham bounce and your party's falling poll performance?Thank you.

Well, look, I mean, you know, Sweden, Sweden send prisoners, foreign prisoners to Kosovo.So I think if Sweden do that and operate that principle, as well as America operated that principle, I would have thought that was a very grown up way of approaching it.I have to say, I just find the sheer levels of inaction from both this and the previous government, you know, they confront these huge issues and they appear to be incapable of doing anything to solve the problems.And that leads us on to the first point you made.You know, a mega dinghy.It's not a dinghy, is it?

A boat carrying 230 people was taken into Dover Docks at 2 .30 this morning.That's a record.And we're rapidly heading towards the Mediterranean.Before long, there'll be thousands coming every single day.You can't smash the gangs.It's impossible.

You know, we can catch a gang leader.We can give them 20 years in prison.We can fine them millions of euros.It doesn't matter.The rewards are so great, somebody else pops up who's prepared to do it.We've even now got dinghies regularly leaving Dieppe, which is in Normandy.

So we're now looking at a stretch of coastline of about 130 miles long from which these boats can leave.And there is only one way to stop this.And the Conservatives fail totally.mostly through ECHR, Labour have failed totally and we put forward a proposal last week that said if you get to the 12 mile line in the English Channel, the Royal Navy, using border force boats, of which we have by the way four giant vessels, which are used every day, every day we pick people out of the water at the 12 mile line.We opt to take them to Dover.Our plan is to take them back to France.

And I tell you what, if we started doing that, within a couple of weeks there would be no more migrant boats.I also worry about the 230 in that boat today.How many of them are coming straight in to join criminal gangs?How many of them will have extremist tendencies in terms of their religious or political views?How many of them are sponsored by the Iranian state to come and be sleepers in our country?And I raised all of this.

Ten weeks ago in Parliament, I raised all of this to Shabana Mahmood that I had it on good authority, that the Iranians were using this route to smuggle in potential terrorists.And of course I was shouted at, you know, shame on you, by Labour MPs.Well, shame on them.What is happening in my channel is a national security emergency.So it's no to any potential new foreign criminals coming in, because they won't be allowed to, and if they do get in and get convicted, they will leave.And Jeremy Clarkson wrote about this.

yesterday and said, including Nigel Farrar, has never had a boat.I've actually run boats since the mid -1980s.As I explain, we pick people up from those dinghies or bigger boats onto border force vessels or RNLI.We do it every single day.It's probably happening literally as we speak on the 12 -mile line.And there have been some that say, well, the French won't like it.

Well, you know what?In time, the French will love it.Because just imagine living anywhere on that northern French coast, whether it's from Dunkirk, through Calais, down through Wimmerow, Ardlow, you name it.Those houses are now completely unsaleable, and you've got people living, literally, with gangs of men all around them.Stabbings, shootings, murders, drug dealing, rape, all of these things going on.Ending the Channel Crisis will not just be good for us, it'll be good for those northern French communities as well.

Jack Elson, the son.Thank you very much.

Just on your prison's policy, you want to deport foreign criminals to El Salvador if their home countries won't take them back.So what happens when these criminals have served their sentence?If they can't go back to their home countries, do they come back to Britain?Do they stay in El Salvador to build a new life?And then quickly, Mr Farage, is there anything you can tell us about the Anwidicom investigation, which obviously over the weekend we learned has been widened, to include an address linked to you.Thank you.

You better deal with these.

Yeah, so listen, in terms of what is the fate of foreign nationals who come to Britain, commit serious enough crime, who kill people, who rape British citizens.What is their fate upon coming out potentially of an El Salvadorian prison sentence?Well, obviously, that will form part of a negotiation with the El Salvadorian government.As Nigel said, we're already having some discussions there.But I'm going to completely frank, they're not going to be allowed ever to come back to Britain.And so the people you should be asking that question to are the leaders of their home countries.

And look, this is also an important point.At the moment, the current position, for example, of the Albanian government, you may have seen a Twitter exchange between Nigel and the leader of Albania not too long ago, saying that he's not going to take any of them back.Well, I put it to you that not only are we going to look at things like visa bans and actually apply some pressure to stand up for British people and negotiate on behalf of the British people, I think they will come under significant pressure at home.If we make a call, if Nigel's Prime Minister and he makes a call and saying, listen, if you don't take them back, just FYI, for example, they're going to El Salvador, I think that's going to place an enormous amount of pressure on them.So the direct answer to your question is that will come down to some negotiators of the El Salvadorian government.But our priority is simple.

It is to the British people.And to them, we can assure them those people will never be allowed back into this country.

Shortly before the horrific murder of Anne Widdicombe, I did publicly say something I hadn't said for a year which was about an incident that had occurred at my home address and it was around the issue was basically arson and the attempted forcing of the door.I hadn't mentioned it for a year because I generally don't mention in public the security concerns that I have because there have been too many of them that have happened.I spoke about this in the context of me needing to be provided with security clearly to the end of my days.I'm 78, been out of office for many, many years.And I discussed that around the issue of money and my own future protection.Of course, most of the media organizations in this room called me a liar.

remember that vividly half of you in the room called me a liar but the truth is there was a there was an investigation into this and clearly counter -terrorism made some mistakes which is why they've referred themselves to the independent office of police complaints I understand this is a completely unprecedented move and yes this is directly linked to the murder of Ann Widdicombe and I'm afraid I just can't tell you any more than that at this stage.It's a great, great tragedy that it took the death of Anne for the security services in Britain to finally take seriously the safety and security of reform politicians and reform prominent figures.Up until that moment, we had been treated very differently to everybody else.For example, four days after the murder of Charlie Kirk, I had nearly all of my security removed.from me.We have been ignored, our situation has been undervalued, but I'm not going to say anything now to prejudice because I do actually believe in my heart that counter -terrorism are now seriously doing this job and I have confidence in them.

I'd love to tell you more, it will come out, but I just dare not breach that trust and confidence with counter -terrorism at this stage.Thank you.Karl Dineen, ITV.

Thanks.Moving back to your policy announcement today,can you tell us how many people you think that getting dangerous prisoners to serve their full terms would add to the prison population?And can you tell us what a Nightingale prison is?Will they be secure?What classification of security will they have?

And how long will people be expected to stay in them?

So in terms of the latter question, Nightingale Prisons, we're going to model this off things that have already been done.So as I said, we're going to use prefabricated modular technology that allows you to house, this is going to be a lower category of prison of these are going to be rapists uh... and murderers uh... they're gonna be people who've been convicted of things like shoplifting for example but absolutely they will be secure it's not gonna be a summer campers michael said you know provision of color televisions might be uh... to some degree of at a premium and you can look at countries where this has happened uh... look at for example what happened in florida under the trump uh... administration uh... they managed to stand up i think it was within the space of eight days he stood up 3 ,000 3 ,000 detention facilities.So it is absolutely doable.We're going to put it on MOD land.Again, one of the reasons why it currently costs £600 ,000 to build a single prison place.It's because of the insane number of quangos, because of the insane number of prisons that don't actually ever get built because they're blocked at the planning stage.

So there's about a third of a million hectares of MOD land, for example, that is available for us to use.And because we will call upon the army to assist, a key point about this, there's a very high, without getting into the minutiae, there's an extremely high threshold, as you would reasonably expect, for contractorsprisons will be important in terms of how many new prison places we're going to need.So all of the changes we're making to ensure that under Nigel's Prime Minister people who kill people, people who rape, people who are seriously violent never get to set out of jail early and ending this insane, you know, reversing this insane new policy.from Burnham, which is going to be all but eliminate jail sentences of under a year, completely undermining our justice and policing system.All of that is going to add, we estimate, we're going to need to incarcerate an additional 18 ,000 people.

But as I said, if you look at, if you compound the numbers here, we're talking about 12 ,000 new Nightingale prisons, we're talking about 10 ,000 additional places that we're going to rent abroad, and that's on top of the 14 ,000 that Labour are going to build.So we're talking about 36 ,000 there.

Yep, thank you.Noah Hoffman, Spectator.

Thank you.Miss Farage, a lot of videos taken from France of dinghy crossings actually capture so -called human rights charities effectively facilitating the illegal arrival of migrants.I wonder if you have any plans or thoughts on possible ways of tackling so -called human rights charities that facilitate illegal arrivals.

Yeah, you're right, and Lee Anderson was out at the Lune plage camp last week and he met some of these NGOs, most of them interestingly British -based and raising British money.I've been of the view, I won't name them because that might spoil my afternoon, but their names are quite well known and they should be charged with aiding and abetting illegal immigration of that I have no doubt at all and you know when we were back if I go back to sort of late 20 into 21 and at that point we didn't have drones we didn't have spotter planesetc.And the dinghies that were coming were ribs, carrying 16 to 18, so you might get 28 of them on one day.So what was happening then, quite a lot were making it across for beach landings.And it was, I mean, very interesting.

You know, there's one particular beach landing I can think of at Kingsdown, just near Deal, where the dinghy was met on the beach.You know, three people were there on the beach.They knew exactly where they were coming into and did their best to spirit these people away, but mercifully, the police caught up with it.So yes, yes, there are NGOs who are aiding and abetting illegal immigration into Britain, and that includes bringing in criminals and potential terrorists and people that will cause this country very, very great harm.And it's all done under the masquerade of the use of the word refugee.You know what?

This country has taken 500 ,000 refugees since 2016.We have never been backwards at coming forwards when it comes to genuine refugees in distress from other parts of the world.This criminal trade is not bringing in refugees, it's bringing in young men, far too many of whom are very, very dangerous and will be injurious to our future.Thank you.Rob Powell, Sky News.

Thank you, Rob Palsky, Sky News.On the 230 people that arrived this morning, Mr Farage, you've said that we're heading towards a situation similar to the Mediterranean.Yes, this is the largest number of people in one boat, but overall arrival numbers are down quite significantly, 42 % down on last year.And the reason why bigger boats are being used is because the smaller dinghies are being taken, they're being dismantled.No one is claiming that this job is done, but will you acknowledge that actually the numbers are not getting more severe, the numbers are coming down?And are you being straight with the British public when you suggest that this is an issue that is getting worse?

I've always thought the boats would get bigger.I've always thought they would.And we were pretty shocked the other day.Do you remember 173?That was about two weeks ago, if I remember rightly.We were shocked at 173.

Well, we're already up by another 25%.And yes, the overall numbers this year are down, but they're still horrendous.If I told the British people 10 years ago that tens of thousands of people, young men, who discard their IDs into the sea at the 12 -mile line, some of whom are going to be terrorists, would come into Britain, you wouldn't have believed me.So whether we have fewer bad people thus far this year than last year, the situation is desperate.It should be declared a national security emergency.And yes, we have managed to stop some of the dinghies.

But it doesn't stop the problem.It doesn't go away.It is still something that is completely out of control.And who knows?You know, we could sit here in October and we could find the numbers and, you know, all it needs is four of these boats to be a thousand people a day.You can't predict the future, I can't predict the future.

All that we know is our only real deterrent is the weather in the English Channel.So, the idea that we should be celebrating the numbers are not as extreme as last year.I'm sorry, I believe that's for the birds.Jonathan Walker, The Express.

Thank you.Hello Nigel.You mentioned earlier the threat from, or the potential threat from Iran, and I think that the Home Office has said that it believes what it calls proxies of the Iranian government are behind terror attacks in the UK.Very little action seems to be taken about that.I don't know what could be done.What could a British government do, or what would you do to protect us from this threat from Iran?

Well, I mean for years and years, you know,I thought there were two potential real dangers in this country coming out of the Middle East, one being the IRGC, the other being the Muslim Brotherhood.The Muslim Brotherhood, which is now building a network through this country, allied to so -called charities, and I believe that they are one of the major sources of genuine extremism being spread in Britain, and yet no one wants to talk about it or deal with it, despite the fact that that it's prescribed in lots of Muslim countries in the Middle East because they understand what a threat it is.The same goes for the IRGC.Government has been very reluctant to prescribe or even condemn the IRGC, believing if they did that, that was tricky because it was an arm of government.At last we have had some action, haven't we?

from the British government on this, at long, long last, some action on this.But no, as you well know, and many of you have reported on, there have been repeated attacks on Iranian exiles that have taken place in London.So prescribing IRGC, a good start.But above all, being vigilant.Vigilant, but not letting people into our country who could cause us harm.And that has been happening again this morning.

Natasha Clark from LBC.

LBC.You're saying today you want the most serious offenders to serve their entire prison sentences behind bars.Do you think that it is possible for them to repent, to rebuild their lives, or are you essentially making that impossible for some of these very serious offenders if they serve their entire sentence without the hope of turning things around?And Mr Farage, if I may, on your safety and security and the terror cops reporting themselves to police, you've talked about mistakes.Do you still have the confidence in our police forces?Thank you.

So I'm happy to take the first part.You know, use the word repent.Repentance is a religious term.While people believe in their hearts and their relationship with God, it's a matter between them and God.We're talking about the safety of the British people.And what we're saying very clearly is that those who kill people, those who rape violent thugs, will not be allowed out of jail a day early under a reformed government.

That's our message.

Yes.Look, I made it very clear.I do believe in the attempt to rehabilitate first -time offenders, I really, really do.I want prisons to offer them education, teach them to read, all the things that they may lack, get them off drugs, whatever it takes.And there will be a percentage that do actually move on, right, I've made my big mistake and we should do everything we can to help and encourage that.But when you get to a situation where 1 % of criminals are causing such a huge percentage of crime, you've gone beyond that stage.

You've gone way beyond that stage.They will, once they're released, go back into violent crime.They just will.And that's where protecting the public becomes a higher priority than trying to rehabilitate them.And that will mean longer sentences, or at the very minimum, sentences actually served, which has not been happening for a long time.Look, this is a very difficult question to answer, because I want to be on the side of of the police, of course I do, instinctively, I want to be on the side of the police.

I think I've made it clear already that up until this moment in time, I think this political party and its senior figures have been treated with contempt by many organisations of the state, not just the police force or the counter -terrorism unit.Within it, I do think that the murder of Anne, and I wish it hadn't come to that, but I do think the murder of Anne has changed things.And do I have confidence now?Yes.The fact counter -terrorism have been honest enough to say, Mr Farage, when it came to the incident that happened to you in April 2025, to publicly admit they got it wrong and to refer themselves to the IOPC, now, they're obviously very, very scared, of what the truth is when it comes out but the fact they've done that shows you they're not trying to cover up, they're not trying to ignore and I have to say I have met Lawrence Taylor and I did feel a great degree of confidence in him and long may that last.Thank you.

Lucy White from Bloomberg.

Thank you.Following on from that question, I wanted to ask whether you're doing any work with criminologists or the like to improve the efficacy of rehabilitation in prisons.And if I may ask as well, you spent this summer, the latter half of this summer, challenging your political rivals on ground that you're very comfortable on, on immigration.If we are to expect an election later this year, as you've suggested that you think Burnham might call, When are we likely to see anything from you on areas like trade, foreign policy, defence, business?

I've never said there will be an election this year.I've always thought an election this year is very unlikely.You don't leave university and go into politics and finally at 56 become Prime Minister and risk it all within a few weeks.It's a very natural human thing to think that.Plus, perhaps if we're being honest, the Burnham balance is not quite as profound as they perhaps might have liked.And now he's facing some very difficult issues.

He's beginning to understand that standing up and telling people what they want to hear is one thing, but being able to deliver on it is quite another.I still believe, I still believe, and I've said this since 2024, I still believe that a general election next year is quite likely.I still believe that.I don't think we're focusing properly on the state of government finances or the confidence that there is in investment and business in this country.We are passing through the three trillion mark in terms of our national debt.Our national debt is rising more quickly than any other country in the world than Botswana.

And we're in big trouble.We're in really, really big trouble.And I do think there is...Markets are funny old things.You know, confidence can last, confidence can last.

Then something happens, some unforeseen A little thing happens and confidence in markets can erode in 24 hours.And that is my great...I'm not willing this.I don't want us to have a debt market crisis, but I believe the likelihood of it increases with every single day that goes by.So I still believe an election next year is more than likely.

rehabilitation.Yeah, so in terms of discussions with criminologists, look, the policies that we've created are fully aware of the academic literature in this area.I'll make the first point that a lot of criminology academic literature is extremely captured by left -wing ideology.But what is absolutely true, just demonstrably in all the longitudinal studies, like cross -culturally all over the world, is that in any large population there is a small, tiny fraction of the population that is violently criminal cannot ever be rehabilitated again.a longitudinal, multi -decade study.And therefore, as Nigel said, sadly, as much as we would all wish in our hearts this wasn't true, there is a tiny number of people in any country the size of Britain who need to remain in jail.

And if they are not in jail, they will commit serious crime and bring harm to British people.And it is with that realism that we are announcing these policies.Thank you very much.

Frances Reid, Channel 4.

Good morning.Mr Farage, first of all, without, let's go back to what we were here for, without bilateral return agreements, foreign governments cannot be legally forced to accept deportees.So then you're in some version of what sounds like the Tories' failed Rwanda plan, not to mention the poor human rights record that we see in El Salvador.That means you then end up clogging the courts with people taking legal action against this and there are many people in the justice system and people that work in the courts every day who will say you are creating a problem with this.So what's your answer to them?The second thing I want to know from you is just clarification.

What about people waiting to be tried?How's that going to work?And then Zia Yusuf, This isn't meant to be trite at all.I'm genuinely interested.You were a member of the party that you say apparently broke it, and so are many of your colleagues within Reform.So now you're claiming to be able to fix it.

What was it that you got wrong?What's changed?What have you learnt from it that you're taking forward?Why do you feel able to kind of revolutionise this now?

In terms of the court backlog, which is a massive problem and a huge issue, and yet another hangover that we suffer from Covid in many many ways although there was a problem even there before that.Abolishing jury trialwas not the answer, Mr Lammy.Actually having courts that operate efficiently.You know, I was up in court last year.Charming fellow, crossed the English Channel with a Kalashnikov tattooed on his face, threatened to kill me repeatedly.

You know, I turn up at court, the hearing's supposed to be 10 .30, but my silk says to me, well, you know, he might not be here till 12.What do you mean?So those accused not being arrived on time, juries not always being sworn in on time, an incredibly inefficient process being run through the courts.If you want to deal with the backlog, then I would suggest there are quite a high number of cases that could be dealt with by the lay magistrate, although many of them have run away and packed up in the last few years, just as we've closed down magistrates' courts all over the country.So I think there's a bigger role for magistrates that could play with minor offences.But I also think, if you want to clear the backlog, actually have a full working day.

Have the courts running 12 hours a day, or 15 hours a day, or 18 hours a day.This backlog could be cleared if the will to clear the backlog actually existed.Look, the Conservatives' Miranda Plan never had a cat's chance in hell of working.Literally impossible.And even when Boris launched it, and he launched it at Lyd Airport.I remember the speech.

Well, of course, we could have some trouble with some lefty lawyers.Well, yes, of course, you could have trouble with lefty lawyers, because they're members of the ECHR.So even as he was launching it, he was admitting it wasn't going to work, which is a very odd way of conducting politics.What we're trying to do is offer solutions.When everybody likes those solutions, it'sperhaps determine how they choose to vote at the next general election.

But unapologetically, we believe that whilst the European Convention on Human Rights may well have been you know well intended in every way as it was being drafted in the late 1940s in a post -holocaust Europe it is now way past its sell -by date not fit for purpose and open to being abused in all sorts of ways and because we will not be part of the ECHR because we will we will have amended Tony Blair's Human Rights Act we'll be free to do these things on the bilaterals I mean I mean literally you know I will get on a plane and go meet Eddie Rahmer and I believe I can negotiate for him to take Albanian criminals back.I have actually had this conversation with him already on the phone, and we sort of laughed and joked about it, but I believe that with the right attitude, with the right attitude, you can say to countries, look, if you do this for us, we'll do that for you.There are ways and negotiations.Perhaps what it needs, It's the people negotiating on behalf of this country who've been in business before and know what doing deals really is.Okay, moving on.By the way, the question that was asked earlier, as we approach our conference, we will broaden, we'll give you, you know, defence spokesmen, etc. I mean, I started off this year with us being called a one -man band, right?

You know, we've got spokesmen in different areas, leaders in Scotland and Wales, a proper structure of leadership, deputy leadership, you know, four major positions covered.We've got people speaking for us on prisons, like Vanessa Frake.We've got people speaking for us on policing, like Colin Sutton.And we have come on, you know, in month eight of the year, we've transformed the look of the party in terms of the breadth of people that are able to go out and speak.and do things for us, a new head of policy, a new policy team.We've moved forward a lot, lot, lot this year.

Are there more gaps for me to fill?Yes, there are.But it's very much a work in progress, and we will be ready.Sorry, I should have answered that earlier.

Can I just quickly add on, just to add to Nigel's point there, you know, when you hear about people saying, aren't you going to clog up the legal system?Yeah, I get that.Our inbox is full of people, especially journalists, saying, are you not going to clog up the legal system?Well, it's actually a really, really good example of the learned helplessness of someone who's kind of new to politics that I find fascinating.One of the really cool things that a government, that His Majesty's government can do, is change the laws.And I know that sounds crazy, but as Nigel said, the reason why the Rwanda plan stood no chance of success is because they weren't even willing to leave the ECHR.

And that's just the first of many steps that you would need to take in order to in order to do the things we're talking about and looked we are in an extreme situation in this country we are in a mix extra ordinary situation and the only way you resolve an extra ordinary problem is for extraordinary uh... solutions and so you know for example we announced that we put the navy in the channels to form a hard perimeter and ensure that not a single unauthorized vessel makes it to our shores.There's all sorts of talking heads popping up all over the place exactly the people by the way almost none of whom have achieved anything of note in their lives The one world leader I know of who can honestly say that they have stopped a large -scale, mass illegal migration crisis by a boat, Tony Abbott, the former Prime Minister of Australia, came out within hours of us announcing our plan, endorsed it, said that, quote, it can be done and it must be done.And I would point people to that.

Absolutely.Let's go Sophie Church, Daily Mail.

Thank you.Mr Farage, you just said that you had full confidence in the police, but would you now support the police going back and re -looking at all offences against reform politicians?

Well, I wouldn't necessarily support them going back and looking at all offences.It just would depend how sinister they are.But as I say, I repeat the point, I repeat the point, It is tragic that it took the murder of Anne Whittacombe for the police and the authorities to take the situation that many reform public figures face seriously.I do now believe that they are.Thank you.Peter Schneppvangers from The Telegraph.

Thank you.I just want to go back to Nightingale Prisons.So we know how local authorities and local areas push back on prisons and that's been one of the reasons why we've not built any in this country.So how are you going to tackle that opposition to Nightingale Prisons and what if that criticism comes from a reform MP who's trying to block it in their local area or a reform council?And just if I can ask a second one, Nightingale it kind of in COVID terms it was sort of a temporary measure right to do with hospitals so what's the end date on on these prisons do we have a point at which you're saying they're going to be for this many years and then they'll stop?I'll do the first part.

So we're proposing MOD land all right and in many many cases what you'll see around the country are former MOD sites that used to employ a lot of people where because those people have now been laid off The local towns and villages have suffered economically really, really grievously.A lot of these facilities are in very out -of -the -way places and I would put it to you, that use of MOD land, that more employmentand more money in the local economy, in some of those rural areas, is far less likely to meet with big objection than the plans that I saw for the last few governments, where basically green space land next to rural settlements was being proposed.I think this is a better way of getting far fewer objections.But in the end, we're going to have to do it anyway.But I think MOD land is, as I say, we don't need the vast air.

We haven't got huge numbers of people in our armed forces anymore.We want more, but we don't need all the land that we've got.

Yeah, north of a third of a million.hectares of M .O .D.land to use.To answer your question about local authorities or people, not just local authorities, but all these totally unaccountable quangos able to block things, all that ends under a reformed government.

I can't stress this enough.We're not going to be stopped.I love animals, but if I'm going to prioritise the safety of a badger over the safety of a human British citizen, I'm going to prioritise the safety of a human British citizen.I'm unapologetic about that.Not to mention, by the way, actually looking at a lot of these, I was looking at the extraordinary amount of bureaucratic pressure to stop, whether it's prisons, whether it's nuclear power plants, infrastructure, the reservoirs, infrastructure that's really important to British people.A lot of it, frankly, is bad faith.

It's not actually saving any animals anyway.It's just bad faith, far -left activism.So we're going to make prisons.We will categorize it as a national critical infrastructure, which will mean that there will not be a local authority in the country that is able to prevent a reformed government from building it.Very good.

Let's go to Raheem Kassam, National Pulse.Thank you, chaps.Given the state of the illegal alien invasion into the United Kingdom, if you were to get a calluh... from downing street to ask if you could help to implement operation fortress which announced last week uh... would you take that call would you be willing to work with the labor government on that and nigel off the top of my head name a few news outlets lbc uh... the mirror the guardian the standard uh... and others the ridicule to the idea that you were Your house was firebombed last year.To flip an earlier question on its head, have you if you ever had any, lost faith in the British press, like much of the public has, and will you be writing to the editors of those outlets asking for corrections, retractions, apologies, or firings?

Well, you know, I mean, look, the relationship between people in politics and the press is, you know, potentially a fractious one.I have always taken the view that you shouldn't moan too much, because it's like a sailor complaining about bad weather, and you take the rough with the smooth, but there are limits.There are limits, and my limits are my family, and several family members of mine have been put through hell by irresponsible journalism from well -known national publications that should have known better.And that's what really upsets me.As for whatever claim I make being ridiculed, well, I guess I have to live with that.And there is an ongoing event that I can't mention here for reasons that we understand, but perhaps my recent political actions were spurred as much by the way that children of mine and those close to me have been hounded and their lives fundamentally changed, and I think that's a relationship that we have to get right.

Would you help the government, Zia?Absolutely.

If such a call came, not only I, more importantly the senior members of, the former senior members of the army,in this country, who helped us devise this plan, would be only too delighted to help.Sadly though, sadly, the chances of such a call coming from Andy Burnham's government, I would put at precisely zero.

Well, depends how many more boats come I guess.George Thompson Press Association.

Thanks very much.You said the Nightingale Prisons will be on defence land.Are you able to be more specific about where in the country they will be, who will staff them, and at what will be the cost?

Yep, so no in terms of giving you more precise locations, I know you'd like that.Suffice to say there's an enormous, an enormous amount of space that is available, assuming that we actually have a government, a prime minister willing to change the laws to categorize prisons as national critical infrastructure and as I said, to formally request the assistance of the army so that we can build these things much more quickly.In terms of cost, look, as I said, if you look at, for example, housing a criminal in El Salvador, if you just look at what the Americans are paying relative to what the British taxpayer is paying, it's a quarter.This 20 ,000 US is what the Americans paid a year, compared to 60 ,000 sterling, which is what British taxpayers have been paying.Now, against that, we have to admit, yes, if Nigel's our Prime Minister, there will be a lot more people in jail, which is where they need to be, sadly, given the population explosion.So broadly, everything we're proposing today, we anticipate being net cost neutral relative to Labour's existing plans.

Sam Blewett, Politico.

would uh the state would be reduced by but around third of those i think are on remand so are you sending overseas people who haven't been convicted yet or is that a bit of a hole in the numbers and just the second one whilst um this morning uh rupert lowe is still offering a bit of a makeup pact are you taking him as acting in good faith over this um and do you have any conditions before entering talks with him on this thank you well you know i mean there's a lot of people who there's a lot of people who indicate they might vote restore who would believe wholly in our agenda, but, you know, perhaps have been impressed by some posts on X or Facebook or whatever it is. I'm always happy to meet people and talk to people within reason, within reason.

But I do think it's fair to say that there are one or two people in the orbit of the upper echelons of that party, who if I sat down and talked to, I think our members, and our voters would be utterly shocked that I'd done it.I mean, don't forget, you know, I have fought the far right for over a quarter of a century.You know, I took on the BNP for years, and it was a tough thing to do, but I won.You know, I've always made sure that political parties that I've run have absolutely been non -sectarian, non -racially prejudiced, and I've insisted on that for year after year after year.And I wouldn't do anything to jeopardise that, not because politically it wouldn't work for me, but because it would actually be the wrong thing to do.So we can talk to Rupert Lowe, it's fine, you know, but when you have co -founders, etc, putting out what I would call the old theory, the old theory that we probably haven't heard in this country since 1936.

And you have other adjacent, publicly supportive people demanding that all Jews be removed from the country, just as an example.So the condition I would put on it is those people would have to be out of the inner circle.And I think that's, you know, that's that's that, for me, would be the only way we could sensibly proceed.And I suspect many of those who say restore, in answer to a poll, are perhaps not quite aware.They see Rupert, they see this farmer from Gloucestershire, I think they know he makes sense, but those he's got around him, I think they'd be pretty horrified too.There was something else, wasn't there?

Yeah, in terms of the, yes, 10 ,000 in our jails, but some of them not yet being convicted, look, that's not the gotcha that you might think it is.The vast majority of those people end up being convicted.So in terms of the practical plan that we have laid out, it makes no difference.

Okay, I've got to draw stumps and move on.There's a few questions I couldn't take, but thank you everybody.Thank you.