REFORM UK leader Nigel Farage has said he intends to run for Prime Minister in 2029 and wants to build a “mass movement” for political change before then.

Asked about his appearance on the BBC’s Question Time, he told Camilla Tminey on GB News: “Right from the start of this campaign the BBC have behaved like a political actor.

“I remember the first interview I did on the Today programme, I came off air and thought, ‘there’s no point.’ There’s literally no point and no opportunity to talk about policy, about ideas. But what happened on Friday, with that Question time audience was truly astonishing.

“First question gets asked by a chap who has himself produced eight programmes for the BBC, including the very woke now Doctor Who, right? So he gets to ask a question…[the]third question is asked by a chap, as a well known street Palestinian campaigning activist.

“I think question number seven or eight was asked by a girl who’s a very active left wing campaigner, which is perhaps fine. But the point I’m making is that a Question Time audience is supposed to be representative of the country. As we go into the final week of a General Election, it was miles from that and I did ask the BBC for an apology.

“I mean, I’m all for free and fair debate, goodness gracious me. But I’ve now done a series of big BBC programmes over the last few weeks, and every single audience has been tilted towards either the Green or the Labour in the most astonishing way.”

Asked about the Channel 4 News report on comments made by an activist, he said: “Channel 4 will stay as far away from it as possible. Of course, Channel 4 use production companies, that gives Channel 4 deniability.

“Let’s just get the facts. This chap bowls up, right. Big, larger than life, a really big strong and almost slightly comedic accent and that’s how he is. He hangs around the office. He hangs around with two people who I didn’t understand at the time were working for Channel Four,

“They were together. He then says, I’ve got a big car, canvassing team come with me, a couple of our activists get in the back with Channel Four in the front, and from the minute he got in the car apparently, he was saying all sorts of things about people of different colours and sexualities and trying to gee-up the the Reform activists who didn’t play.

“Then we get to the canvassing spot and he comes out with this stream of invective against Rishi Sunak. He says that all the mosques should be turned into Weatherspoons and I looked at this and thought it doesn’t quite ring true.

“They came back, one of the leaders that was with him when she came back said, ‘look, I’m really alarmed at some of the behaviour that I’ve just seen, anyway…I didn’t find out till the next morning, because I wasn’t there.

“The next morning I found out he was an actor, right?. Go to his website. He speaks, he’s very posh. Yes, not quite Jacob Rees-Mogg, but he’s very, very posh and yet he has this alter ego, where he does what he calls ‘rough speaking’.

“He even posts on Tik Tok. He’s a modern day Alf Garnett type. The stuff on Tik Tok is – the language is horrendous. Why, if you’re a genuine reform canvasser, why would you turn up in the office using your alter ego voice and not your real voice?

“He’s worked for Channel 4 in the past, he’s done acting roles in the past. He seemed to know the Channel 4 infiltrators very well, and by sheer coincidence, on a day when there were 100 canvassers, they were all together in the same car.

“The morning after this all came out. He was rung by us and the Telegraph. He denied that he was an actor. He lied then. I’ve seen lots of this in the past. This is the biggest smear stitch-up I have ever seen. We will get to the bottom of this.”

On why people with controversial views are attracted to Reform, he said: “I think ironically it’s because I destroyed the BNP, I put them out of business, so where else can these people go? You know, when I led UKIP – when the Brexit party, when 29 of us turned up in Strasbourg five years ago, we were the most diverse group ever seen in the European Parliament.

“And you know where I am on this. I’ve been leader of this for a month, okay? I inherited a start-up party that had almost no money and almost no staff and said, ‘volunteer, we want candidates’. So we have finished up with some people who are rotten.

“I tried to fix it by getting a well known, prominent, in fact ex-Number 10 man, who had a vetting company, we gave him 144 grand, he didn’t do the job. So we have finished up with some people who are truly dreadful. I apologise for that, but it’s not reflective of me and it’s not reflective of the party, and it certainly isn’t reflective of where we’re going…”

Asked if he was planning to become Prime Minister in 2029, he said: “Unless somebody younger and better and better looking comes along…it is a little start-up. I’ve done it before. We actually by 2015 had built UKIP into a proper professional structure with 400 branches around the country.

“And this is remarkable. We will go through 60,000 paid up members today. That’s doubled in the space of a month, all paying their 25 quids. We have a mailing list of over 200,000.

“I am going to build a mass movement in British politics for real change. Because, you know something? Labour don’t represent them.”

Asked about his remarks about Vladimir Putin being off-putting to potential supporters, he said: “It’s the hoax. Look, unlike the Conservative and Labour Party, I was opposed to the Iraq War. I was opposed to the Libyan war. And I predicted 10 years ago what Putin would do in Ukraine. None of them saw this coming at the fact that I predicted it doesn’t mean I support it. But that’s the sort of nonsense that you get in politics.”

“…I’ve been in this game for three decades. So I understand that but I’ll tell you why. Today, we launch a star. I think perhaps, if somebody is going to replace me, maybe you’ll see him today. We’ve got 5,000 People coming to Birmingham at midday today and Zia Yusuf, who is a self-made, highly successful businessman, patriotic, he’s going to be the big star.”

Farage said he did not believe the party’s policies need to be modified: “No, because I think what we’re talking about is the fact that Britain is broken, that nothing works, that the population explosion has devalued the lives and quality of life of pretty much everybody. I think these people are joining up the dots out there now they’re beginning to understand it.”

On proportional representation, he said: “Next Sunday, you’ll be sitting here, and there’ll be a massive national debate about the fact that the Labour Party got 37% and 450 seats and that Reform got, I don’t know, six million votes and 15 seats, and we’ll see…that first past the post now doesn’t work for anyone.”

He said he would not have to work with the Lib Dems to change the electoral system: “No, we were on our own for 25 years campaigning to leave the European Union with no representation in Parliament whatsoever.

“…this thought that you only change things within Parliament is nonsense. Brexit happened because of a grassroots upwelling in this country.”

He said he was opposed to 16-year-olds being given the vote: “My support amongst youngsters has just gone through the roof in these last few weeks. Now, I don’t think you should ever vote in an election that you can’t be a candidate in and I don’t think 16-year-olds should be in Parliament.”

One being challenged to a debate by George Galloway, he said: “He’s a fascinating figure. I do find his views on Israel pretty offensive. I don’t like the kind of sectarian politics that we saw that got him elected. But you know, there wouldn’t be much of a debate because he’s more opposed to cross-Channel migrants than me.

“He’s a bigger supporter of Trump than I am, I’m not sure what the debate would be.”

Asked if he would agree to a debate, he said: “Not in the next three days. I’ve got too much to do, but the principle of having debates, I’m all for that because what we’ve seen is Keir Starmer not wanting to say anything and Rishi Sunak telling the country he supports low taxes or low immigration, having done the opposite.”

Farage went on to describe Joe Biden’s run for president in the USA as “almost elder abuse”.

He said: “The Jill Biden role is extraordinary. What has happened to Joe Biden is almost elder abuse. It was hard to watch. Even Trump didn’t attack him because it was just so awful…

“I think the Trump team have always wanted him to stay in place. Gavin Newsom is of course much younger, quite photogenic, but comes with a hell of a millstone around his neck and that’s the state that California is in.

“He has been the governor of the worst education system in the whole of America. So I still think Trump wins.”