Nigel Farage has blasted UK economic leaders as “cretins” and vowed to revive Thatcher-style 1980s “big bang” reforms to overhaul the City of London.
The Reform UK leader attacked Gordon Brown, the Labour chancellor at the turn of the century, at the Digital Asset Summit in London, accusing him of selling off gold reserves too cheaply and enforcing excessive regulations in an attempt to prevent "boom and bust."
Speaking on the day his party said it would no longer enact the big tax cuts promised in its platform, Mr. Farage called Mr. Brown a "genius" for implementing "massive regulation" and selling off half of the gold reserves at 275 dollars an ounce.
Referencing the former chancellor’s approach, Mr Farage said:
“These are the kind of cretins, I’m afraid, that have been running this for too long.”
Mr Farage earlier warned that the UK may “miss the boat” on the benefits of the trade in digital assets such as Bitcoin and called for sweeping deregulation to disrupt the status quo.
He said:
“The big bang of the 1980s, that’s worth mentioning because today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Margaret Thatcher.
Love her or not, she broke up the City of London and we got massive investment coming in and we really made London the world’s leading centre.
If you ever want to have a look at an example of sensible deregulation, getting rid of ridiculous market practices and customs leading to success, big bang in London in the 80s is one of them.
So what we’re going to need is big bang two, with (digital assets) being right at the epicentre of what we want to try to do.”
According to Mr. Farage, Rachel Reeves intends to sell off $5 billion worth of confiscated Bitcoin, but the Bank of England should hold onto it in order to begin "building up and making Bitcoin a reserve category."
The leader of Reform UK lamented "thousands of bank accounts being closed every single year" and called the banking system "outdated and not working."
The closure of Mr. Farage's account by private bank Coutts in 2023, on the grounds that he had not fulfilled qualifying requirements, caused controversy.
Later on, it became clear that Mr. Farage's political beliefs had contributed to the bank's move.
Mr Farage said:
“We have excessive anti-money laundering rules that mean if a bank sees an unusual payment, it just closes you down.
All this to stop money laundering – yet, every high street in Britain now has a proliferation of Turkish barbers, where they don’t cut any hair. They only take cash and there’s a brand new Lamborghini parked out the back.
So yes, our financial services industry needs disrupting, and there will be winners and losers, but there will be a lot more winners.”
Recalling his campaigning against the UK’s membership of the European Union, Mr Farage said:
“We got back our sovereignty, we haven’t used it very well.
The reason I’m sitting here this morning talking to all of you, this is about governments not controlling us.
It is about banks not closing us down. It is about crypto being allowed back into the fold.”
Reform UK confirmed on Monday that it has dropped its commitment to most of the £90 million tax cuts it pledged in its manifesto last year.
Interviewed on Times Radio on Monday, deputy leader Richard Tice said:
“A manifesto is based on a point in time. The principles behind it are rock solid.
We said we’ve got to make very significant savings in order to fund a different way to run the economy.
What has happened since then is that the state of the economy, because of mismanagement by this Labour Government, the numbers have got far worst. And we will be focusing relentlessly, as I’ve been saying, on savings.”
What are likely political consequences for other parties?
Mainstream political parties could face pressure to adopt more fiscally responsible policies if voters concerned about government spending and debt begin to demand their elected officials place greater fiscal responsibility above other policy goals. This could compel mainstream parties to move toward more conservative economic policies or introduce austerity measures from newer parties.
Some center-left and social democratic parties may begin to lose support if they are seen as not being able to address the important issues of economic growth (and public funding), and in particular if they reject austerity measures.
As Farage criticizes the "cretins" controlling the economy, anti-establishment and populist parties could either benefit from their uncertainty and positioning themselves as a vehicle for alternative and more radical reforms or lose out if their supporters see their policies as contributing to economic instability.