Former United Kingdom Independence Party leader and current Member of the European Parliament Nigel Farage is set to bring conservative, Trump-supporting Turning Point USA to the United Kingdom.
In a recent interview with me at the TPUSA Student Action Summit, Farage explained how he was working with TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk to make Turning Point U.K. a reality. “I’m looking forward to Turning Point U.K. opening. … I’m going to go speak at the events in the U.K. and try and get this thing moving on the other side of the pond. It’s real. It’s happening.”
Farage added that conservative gains from Trump’s election or Brexit could be lost in the future should conservatives fail to challenge the liberal orthodoxy on college and university campuses.
“It’s a great battle that’s going on. I’m convinced we’re going to win it, but my worry is we could re-lose it 10 or 15 years down the line unless we get a younger generation coming out of schools, colleges, and universities with a balanced opinion. And that’s where Turning Point comes in. That’s where these movements come in. We’ve got to stop the brainwashing of our youth because that’s what’s going on.”
Farage also spoke about the differences he sees in young conservative groups of the past and TPUSA.
“I’ve been speaking to young conservative movements across the world for nearly 25 years,” Farage said. “They’re worthy, but there’s no buzz. There’s often an element that’s a little bit geeky about the whole thing and so it only reaches out to a narrow demographic. When I first met Candace [Owens] and then met Charlie [Kirk], I thought, ‘there’s something different here.’ I just thought, ‘wow, look at these people. Look at the energy.’”
On Brexit, Farage played down worries of a failed U.K. exit from the European Union.
“The worst case scenario is they make us vote again. And do you know what happens if we vote again? We win again. And we win bigger next time. I think the genie is out of the bottle. I think this sense of empowerment that ordinary voters have got in middle England, in flyover states in America … this isn’t going away. They’re excited about the fact in 2016 votes changed things fundamentally. Now look. The globalists never give up. The big money never gives up. People don’t give away rank, title, privilege, and position for nothing.”
Farage recently made headlines for leaving UKIP, the party he was instrumental in founding 25 years ago. Farage explained to me why he left the party.
When asked if he would be forming an alternative to UKIP, Farage hinted that it was a possibility.
“Let’s wait and see how the cards fall and what happens with Brexit,” Farage said. “I’m not a career politician, I was a businessman. I came into this because I wanted Brexit. If Brexit gets delivered I will be a very happy boy and I won’t need to be in politics. But if they drop the ball on Brexit, they’ll have me to deal with.”
Eduardo Neret (@eduneret) is a contributor to Red Alert Politics. He is a senior at the University of Florida, where he runs The Daily Nerv, a student-run conservative online publication.
