Reform leader tells ARC conference the UK needs ‘some sense of optimism’ and praises ‘Judeo-Christian culture’
Nigel Farage has called for the “reindustrialisation” of Britain and “180-degree shift” to reverse the declining birthrate, as he praised the “Judeo-Christian culture” that he claimed underpinned western civilisation.
Addressing a global gathering of rightwing activists in London, the Reform leader said the UK should rebuild its heavy industry, including through the domestic production of steel, oil and gas.
He said the country needed an “180-degree shift” in attitudes to reverse the decline in birthrates, including an acknowledgment that “what underpins everything is our Judeo-Christian culture”.
Farage has come under fire for invoking the “Judeo-Christian” tradition in the past. On the campaign trail last summer he claimed “Judeo-Christian values” were at the root of “everything” in Britain.
On Tuesday he was addressing the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference, a gathering of conservative thinkers, politicians and businesspeople from dozens of countries. Its backers include Paul Marshall, one of the owners of GB News, and Legatum, a private investment company.
Farage told the meeting that his party’s platform was “to reindustrialise Britain”. He said: “We’ve closed down our steel industry. We think closing down the steel industry is good because it means our national CO2 output is down. All that happens is the plant closes in Redcar, the plant closes in south Wales, it reopens in India under lower environmental standards, and then the steel is shipped back to us. So let’s produce all the stuff we need in this country.”
Referring to oil and gas, Farage said: “Our view is that if we’re going to be using them, we may as well produce them ourselves in our own country and genuinely become energy independent”.
The Reform UK leader was being interviewed on the ARC stage by Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and rightwing political commentator. Discussing declining birthrates, Farage admitted he “may not necessarily be the best advocate for monogamous heterosexuality or stable marriage, having been divorced twice”.
He said: “Of course, we need higher birthrates, but we’re not going to get higher birthrates in this country until we can get some sense of optimism. And we need a complete 180 shift in attitudes.
“I mean, god, doesn’t Rachel Reeves make you want to reach for the cry tissues? It’s all so miserable, it’s all so declinist. Frankly, the Conservatives have been no better. We need a change of attitude in Britain.”
He denied that the right in the UK was divided, saying: “The right is not split in this country. The Conservative party is not on the right in any measurable way.”
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative party leader, addressed the conference on Monday and vowed to bring about “the largest renewal of policy and ideas in a generation”. She argued that western civilisation was under threat.
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Farage attacked the Conservatives’ record in government, telling activists: “Fourteen years that caused the highest tax burden since 1947. Fourteen years that saw mass immigration – legal mass immigration – on a scale hitherto never even dreamed of.
“Fourteen years that saw illegal immigration, small boats crossing the Channel, and the government completely incapable of dealing with it because they couldn’t face up to what membership of the European convention on human rights was all about. And 14 years that saw net zero enshrined into law by a Conservative government, and Boris Johnson and Theresa May as evangelical about net zero as the current [energy secretary] Ed Miliband.”
The second day of the event at the ExCeL centre in east London opened with footage of the Parthenon, the Colosseum and Great Pyramid of Giza, followed by warnings from rightwing commentators that the modern western civilisation was under threat.
“All great civilisations in the past can only be found in three places. They’re in ruins, they’re in museums or they’re in history books,” said the author Os Guinness in the video. “At a certain point in the course of their history they lost touch with the inspiration and the dynamism that made them what they were.”
In the same video, John Anderson, the former deputy prime minister of Australia, said western civilisation was “at a tipping point” because “the alternative fuels that we’ve tried to put into the great engines of democracy have failed”.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/18/nigel-farage-calls-for-reindustrialisation-of-britain-and-higher-birthrates