NIGEL FARAGE: POLITICAL RIVALS ARE LASHING OUT ‘BECAUSE THEY’RE SCARED’ OF REFORM UK

NIGEL Farage has said that political rivals are hitting out at him “because they’re scared” of the rise in support for Reform UK.

Asked about claims that he does not like Scotland, he told GB News in an exclusive interview: “Look, to say that I don’t care about Scotland means I don’t care about Northumberland, or don’t care about Wales – they’re just ridiculous comments. What we’re seeing are mistakes being made by other party leaders.

“They’re lashing out at me, left, right and centre, because they’re scared, and they’re scared because the Reform vote is on the rise. They’re scared because we’re prepared to take on the failed consensus.”

Asked if he would support the building of battery storage for wind farms in Scotland, he said: “I’ve been told for 25 years, since 2000, that battery storage for wind energy was coming and it would be effective. Twenty-five years on, it is not.

“What we must not do, what would be a huge mistake, is to put all our eggs in the wind farm basket and to hope that battery storage comes along that is affordable and effective.

“What I’m here to talk about is the wilful destruction of an oil and gas industry that is going to be needed for decades to come, and this is being done for reasons of political ideology, and it makes no sense at all.

“It will do enormous damage, not just to Aberdeen and the surrounding area, to Scotland, to the whole of the UK. It is a wilful wanton destruction of an industry that has frankly been supported by both the Conservative and Labour parties.”

On Reform’s local government efficiency drive, he said: “This is day one of Doge. The Doge team has gone into County Hall in Maidstone in Kent this very morning, a team of young tech entrepreneurs who are not being paid. They’re doing it of their own free will, and we’re going in to have a look at Kent, have a look at the contracts, to have a look at the expenditure.

“We hope that the Kent chief executive and the council will work with us because, of course, many of the decisions, decisions on spending, would have been political decisions. No, Doge is active, up and running as we speak.”

Asked about opposition to nuclear, he said: “I think the SNP and John Swinney are wrong on nuclear full stop. The rest of the world is saying, ‘you know what? The one thing nuclear gives us is base load, continuous, reliable energy’. They turn their backs on that when it comes to nuclear submarines.

“Well, frankly, there is no better way of being able to have to hold and use a nuclear deterrent than nuclear submarines.

“There was a story in the press over the weekend that we might have new bombers that carry nuclear weapons. I don’t believe that for a moment. I think deep water submarines are the only way.”

On the Ukraine conflict, he said: “Obviously what’s happened overnight seems to be an astonishing attack. I wonder how Ukraine was capable of doing it on their own. They must have had some help from somebody.

“The real problem right now is Putin, who appears not to want any negotiated peace of any kind at all, hence President Trump’s deep frustration.

“Trump thought he’d bring them together and a deal would be straightforward. Putin is the obstacle.”