英国独立党领袖法拉奇辞职演讲
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 the 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 being in charge of our own lives. And certainly, the stock markets, despite everything George Osborne told us, have rallied very strongly. FTSE is now about 14 per cent higher than it was during its February lows, addling a great delight to see the number of Commonwealth countries rushing forward in a bidding war to be the first people to sign a free trade deal with an independent United Kingdom.
What the country needs is strong leadership; what it needs is direction; what it needs is not business as usual. I'm certain of one thing, I'm certain that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. We've won that. And in terms of our Parliament, and in terms of our courts, that's a great historic victory. What I'm less certain of is what deal is this government gonna cut.
And we need a new Prime Minister who puts down some pretty clear red lines that we're not going to give in on issues like free movement. And we need a Prime Minister that will not sell us out to what is known as the single market, but effectively a big business protectionist cartel. So we need a vision from our new leader, a vision that shows that we're going to engage with the world and turn us into an enterprise economy.
And to do that and to achieve that, we need a team of negotiators that include figures from across the political spectrum, which reflects that Brexit vote, and crucially, we need some business people, who know not only how the world works, but understand the importance of lobbying industry directly.
We need to be lobbying the German car industry, the French wine producers, because next year, both France and Germany have general elections. It is pressure on Merkel; it is pressure on Hollande. From within those countries, that is likely to get us the best possible deal. And we need to go global and there is no reason to wait for this at all.
As soon as we get a new Prime Minister, we need teams and negotiators. I'm told we haven't got the skill; I'm told we haven't got the competence or the expertise within our own civil service, which I suppose is the price you pay when you give away the ability to run your own country. So let's headhunt them. Let's get them in from Singapore, or South Korea, or Chile, or Switzerland, or any of these countries who've managed to achieve far more in terms of global trade deals than we have as part of the European Union.
So we are now in charge of our own future and I want us to grab this opportunity with both hands.
Now, one of the questions that is being asked is: What of UKIP? What is the future for UKIP after this result? Well, we've clearly established ourselves as the third political force in this country, and this year we have extended our elective representation to the Welsh Assembly and to the London Assembly. And there's no doubt that without us, without the growth in UKIP, there would not have been a referendum. And there's also no doubt that when it came to the ground campaign in this referendum, it was the people's army of UKIP who were out there, delivering the leaflets, putting out the posters, and doing all that work that needed desperately to be done. And I do believe myself, that it's UKIP, and UKIP's messages that inspired non-voters to go out there and make the difference. Without UKIP, there is no way that the Leave Vote would ever have got over the line.
So UKIP needs to be strong. We need to be strong and push to try and make sure that this country gets the best possible terms. And in electoral terms, well, the Party now has built up a very loyal following of people, who want to go out and vote UKIP at every given opportunity. And they see us, our voters, they see us as being the one Party that's actually prepared to stand up for ordinary, decent people. I feel that the deeper the crisis in the Labour Party becomes, and there are certainly no signs of that going away, and the further the Parliamentary Labour Party and Labour leadership get away from their own voters. I feel, perhaps, that's where our greatest potential lies. UKIP right now is in a very sound financial position, I do believe we need some reform of its management structures. I think there is further professionalism that needs to be done, but the Party is in a pretty good place, certainly, compared to all the others. And if we do not get, if we do not get a satisfactory Brexit deal – that allied to the woes of the Labour Party and that groundswell of support that is there amongst UKIP loyalists – if we don't get a good Brexit deal, then in 2020, watch this space.
And the other subject of speculation has been: What am I going to do? Well, all I can say on this long journey is a huge thanks to everybody who's helped me, many of whom are in this room today. And it has been a very long journey. Not at every stage of the way, an easy one, although most of it, I have to say, has been tremendous fun. But when I, when I think back, to when I first stood for UKIP, or in fact when I stood for anybody, in the Eastleigh by-election, which took place in 1994, and I managed to scrape past screaming Lord Sutch by a massive 164 votes, and to have gone from that, to being part of a national campaign that attracted 17.5 million votes for Brexit, says to me, tough as though it has been at times, it has certainly all been worth it. I came into politics from business because I believed that this nation should be self-governing.
I have never been, and I have never wanted to be a career politician. My aim in being in politics was to get Britain out of the European Union. That is what we voted for in that referendum two weeks ago, and that is why I now feel that I've done my bit, that I couldn't possibly achieve more than we managed to get in that referendum, and so I feel it's right that I should now stand aside as leader of UKIP.
I will continue to support the Party. I will support the new leader. I will watch the renegotiation process in Brussels like a hawk and perhaps comment in the European Parliament from time to time. I'm also very keen to help the independence movements that are springing up in other parts of the European Union, because I'm certain of one thing: you haven't seen the last country that wants to leave the EU.
It has been a huge chunk of my life, doing this, and it's not easy, perhaps, when you feel a degree of ownership of something, to let it go. But it does come, as I say, at a cost, it has come at a cost to me and perhaps to those around me. During the referendum campaign, I said I want my country back. What I'm saying today is that I want my life back, and it begins right now.
Thank you!
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