Farage: trust me with the economy
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2025
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With Reform leading in the polls, Nigel Farage is determined to ensure that nothing can impede its growth. This morning he sought to bolster his credibility on an area that the Tories think could be his Achilles heel: the economy.
Reform’s £90 billion programme of tax cuts promised at the last election has been constantly used as a stick with which to beat its leader. So today, Farage took to the stage in the City, to – once again – formally bury ‘Our Contract with You’ – the platform on which he was elected in July last year. This morning’s speech was all about Reform claiming the mantle of fiscal conservatism and claiming that the party can be trusted with the nation’s savings. Who will win the battle to be the party of fiscal credibility?
Michael Simmons speaks to James Heale and James Nation, former deputy head of the Prime Minister's policy unit and Treasury special adviser to Rishi Sunak.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Megan McElroy.
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Transcript
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| 0:49.3 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm Michael Simmons and today I'm joined by James Nation, |
| 0:57.3 | who's the MD of Forefront Advisors and has also been a special advisor in both the Treasury and number 10. |
| 1:00.2 | And as well as him, we have another James, our own James Heel. |
| 1:06.9 | Now, Mr. Heel, you spent this morning another one of Farage's speeches where this one, |
| 1:11.8 | he was setting the record straight on some of his perceived economic sins. What happened? So today was Ndraudraja's big economy speech, long trailed, long expected, in the city, |
| 1:18.1 | the old banking hall there. And this was Farage very much in his element. This was him |
| 1:22.7 | talking nostalgically at points about his own time in the city. He gave a half an hour |
| 1:27.3 | speech. It was not |
| 1:28.6 | really intended to be a kind of detailed policy announcement, more a big picture economic philosophy |
| 1:33.3 | one. And one of the things that's hung like an albatross around the neck of Reform UK since |
| 1:38.5 | last year has been our contract with you, which is the not a manifesto because they thought |
| 1:43.0 | manifesters are full of lies, |
| 1:50.8 | effective manifesto that reform has had in July 24. And since then, other parties have used to say, |
| 1:55.8 | look, you'll be a Liz Trust 2.0. You are promising £90 billion worth of tax cuts without properly costed spending cuts. And Farage's previously junkness, he sort of came back. |
| 2:01.5 | Obviously, he took over the leadership from Richard Tice in May of last year. Then in September last year, he did a big |
| 2:05.8 | press conference saying all that contract was out. But clearly the message hasn't got through |
| 2:09.8 | yet. And the fact that the Conservatives and Labour still keep using this attack line shows how |
... |
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