Nigel Farage says Peterborough has 'profound local issues' ahead of GB News show with local MP

MP Paul Bristow (Conservatives), was among the guests on Nigel Farage’s ‘Farage at Large’ segment on Thursday, 25 May, broadcast on GB News, live from Peterborough.

Mr Bristow was asked by the former Ukip and Reform UK politician about the Conservatives’ record on immigration; official statistics released this week show that it’s risen to its highest level on record despite Government pledges to bring it down.

The MP said that many of the people coming into the UK were from Ukraine and Hong Kong, which most people are broadly supportive of, and that the current Government has unveiled a policy to restrict postgraduates bringing their families to the UK from overseas.

He also expressed remorse after being asked to leave the House of Commons by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle for heckling, despite having been applauded for doing so by the GB News' studio audience.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Mr Bristow said that he chose to appear on the controversial show because it was an opportunity to speak to his constituents: around 70 made up the audience at the Post Office Sports and Social Club in central Peterborough.

He added that most local MPs invited, appear on the show to do so and that he didn’t want Mr Farage to “empty chair” him (i.e. ask the questions he would have asked him without being present).

Leader of Peterborough City Council (PCC), Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) was also billed to appear on ‘Farage at Large’ but didn’t attend.

Former PCC council leader John Peach was in the audience, however, as was former entrepreneur Mike Greene who ran for the Brexit Party in Peterborough in 2019, coming fourth.

Mr Farage, who supported Mr Greene’s candidacy, told the LDRS that he has no “personal ambitions” in Peterborough in future, but he does follow local politics in the city.

“There is no more marginal seat in the country than Peterborough,” he said. It’s also a city with “profound local issues” such as a “housing crisis” with “rents up significantly”.

As for the local elections on 4 May, the Conservatives bucking national trends and winning two extra seats likely reflects that “people think the Conservatives have done quite a good job at local level.

“Although four then defected, but hey – it’s all politics,” he added.

Asked what Brexit’s benefits for Peterborough have been so far, Mr Farage’s said that “I think on the world stage we stand taller” and that “constitutionally, the argument about staying or going, that's over”.

He then moved on to talking about his “disappointment” that migration hasn’t reduced.

“Everyone who voted Brexit wanted the numbers to be reduced and they’ve more than doubled,” he said. “There are huge disappointments about the way the Conservatives have, frankly, sabotaged it. So I’m pretty angry about that.”

Mr Farage says he believes that there’s currently an “enormous gap” in British politics because he sees “there aren’t many differences” between the Conservatives and Labour.

“I think the ingredients are there for another huge insurgency in British politics,” he said. “Whether it's going to be Reform UK, whether I come back and have a go, whether we get a BNP Nick Griffin type figure, I don't know, but something will happen because that gap is so big,” he said.

For himself, the question is “what I could achieve by doing it?”.

“Leaving the European Union was a historic goal for us to achieve,” he said. “I haven't quite worked out yet what I could achieve. With or without me, there's going to be some quite big political change in the next few years.”