Nigel Farage confronted by confused voter in South Wales

8 November 2019, 16:56

Nigel Farage was challenged by a confused voter in Pontypool on Friday after mapping out the Brexit Party's election policies in south Wales.

The Brexit Party leader was told by an older voter that his policies do not "make sense" and that his explanations "certainly don't make sense," following his speech.

John Rogers, 80, approached Mr Farage to call him a "coward" for not standing himself in the upcoming general election.

The former Ukip leader asked the elderly man whether he would prefer a second referendum to a general election.

Mr Rogers responded by saying he would "certainly prefer a second referendum."

"Well, if Labour win you'll get one and the choice will be Remain or Remain," replied Mr Farage.

The MEP was laying the foundations for the Brexit Party's election plans whilst speaking in the Welsh town.

He told LBC News his party had been speaking about infrastructure spending "for months and months" and explained how it could be financed.

"We can fund it by cutting the foreign aid budget in half, scrapping HS2 and not paying what could be £65 billion to the EU by the time we've concluded the next round of negotiations in three years," he said.

Mr Farage also advocated political reform by suggesting a change to the current first-past-the-post voting system. In addition, he said he would "clean up postal voting" which he claimed was being undermined by "frauds" in parts of the country.

Additionally, the Brexit Party would get "rid of the House of Lords" as they are no longer "fit for purpose." They would also introduce "citizens initiatives and having rights to referendums on big issues."

The Leave campaigner said his party would roll out its contract to the people "piece by piece" and will talk about education, health and law and order over the next few weeks.

Mr Farage said the party would use the word "contract" instead of manifesto in the build up to the election and would "honour it" if they are in a position to do so.

"Manifesto equals lie in the minds of most people and the Tories were doing it again today on immigration. Every time there's an election they (Conservatives and Labour) say things about immigration. They don't mean them they just do it to get votes," he explained.

When pressed on what the party stood for, Mr Farage responded: "We stand for an independent nation that governs its own borders, makes its own laws with a radically changed democracy that people can start to have some faith and trust in and we want to stand up for the small people against the big people."

The Brexit Party leader said his message would particularly "resonate" in Wales because it is "an intensely patriotic part of the country" that was "helpless" under EU rules or "under Boris' deal" in protecting its traditional industries such as steel and the fisheries.

He was asked what he could offer the people of Wales, to which he replied: "Political honesty and not breaking our word. That's what the Labour Party has done. 'We will respect the result of the referendum' they said during the referendum and during the general election campaign and now they want people to vote again.

"That is not political honesty, that is not trust. We need to bring back trust."

Mr Farage was "absolutely not" worried about splitting the Tory vote in areas like south Wales and said he thought his message had "more resonance with Labour voters than it does anybody else."