Speech of the Month, May 2025 - Nigel Farage

When Nigel Farage decided to call a Reform UK press conference this month, it received a huge amount of media coverage – which is saying something when Gaza, Ukraine and DJT are active players in the news cycle.

Yet, Farage is easily the most consequential UK politician of the 21st century. If he manages to kill off the 200-year-old Conservative party in less than 20 years, then he might just be the greatest political disrupter of all time. Although Keir Hardie will give him a run for his money. Farage doesn’t pass the Prime Minister Test for me but, when Reform UK membership has increased by 800% in a year and the people of Runcorn & Helsby opted for a Reform MP instead of replacing a Labour one with another Labour one, maybe there’s something wrong with my imagination. 

‘Speech of the Month’ is about considering what we can all learn (and possibly nick) from a speech that’s been in the news. So, if you didn’t catch the speech, do have a listen before you read on…

Now, there’s a lot that Farage can get away with that you and I couldn’t. I want to address these first so that none of us gets inspired by potentially damaging elements.

Farage opens his speech by slagging off Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Keir Starmer. We can’t do similar. If you open up a presentation by slating your rivals (who your audience might have done business with in the past) then you’ll not only come across as being needlessly aggressive, but you’ll also inadvertently tell your audience that they’re idiots for ever having used your rivals’ products or services. 

Farage makes unfunded policy statements (abolishing the two-child benefit cap and not taxing people till they earn above £20k) which is easy to do when you’re four years away from a general election. Again, you can’t do that. Or you can, but you may end up letting down the client with devastating consequences or your employer could decide that you’re a liability and send you on your merry way. 

But here’s what we can learn from Farage’s presentational style…

He talks to his audience – not the autocue

At the end of panel debates, when representatives from the other parties are asked to make a closing statement, all of them – bar Farage – will read their statement from autocue. Meanwhile, Farage is always quick to point out that they’re doing this and implies that they can’t mean what they’re saying particularly firmly otherwise they wouldn’t need the autocue. 

And again, during his press conference, Farage looked down at notes a few times to propel him through his speech, but he didn’t use autocue. This is pretty impressive when giving a 30-minute speech in front of the UK media. 

Having prompts, not reading from a script, is something we should all aim to do. If we know our stuff, we shouldn’t need a script, but I understand that having a script can feel reassuring. I’ve seen people giving two-minute updates during virtual meetings where they’re clearly reading from a script (eyes flashing horizontally) because they don’t trust themselves to cover all their points without it. Of course, ironically, the viewer trusts the person who needs the script less than they do the person who can look them in the eye as they speak. 

So, take your cue from Farage here, just note down a few bullets. Back yourself. If you can speak, then you’ll illustrate those bullets and move to the next one just fine. And if you practice, just once, saying those words out loud before you have to do it for real, then you’ll be good. 

He anticipates refutation

Ahead of his speech, he knew that presenting policies that aim to support people to have more children and stay together in family units could sound hypocritical coming from a divorcee who, back in 2014, was the very person who gave the Tories the idea of the two-child benefit cap, so he acknowledged this in his speech. By freely admitting that he’s no priest and that at times he’s fallen short of the ideal, he quelled some of the criticism that could be fired his way. 

What this tells us is that you don’t have to be a role-model to be a disciple. St Peter was always going to fall short of Jesus, but he still believed in Jesus’ message and preached it. Likewise, it’s fine for the slightly over-weight health professional to advise would-be heart attack patients on nutrition if they believe in the information they’re espousing. But this person also needs to anticipate refutation - “Don’t tell me you don’t like a pie?” - and have a prepared, unoffended reply.  

He answers questions

And this is so refreshing. He doesn’t do that thing that most politicians do when they don’t like a question which is: 1, empathise with the situation that’s sparked the question and go on about this for too long in the hope that listeners will forget what the question was, 2, then deliver a key message that’s topic-related - “So our approach to housing is…” - but doesn't answer the bloody question. 

As we prepare a presentation, a significant amount of time should be spent considering the questions we might be asked, especially the questions that we’d find embarrassing or could expose a weakness. Don’t run away from this work. It’s tempting to be uber-optimistic and hope nobody would be mean enough to pose such questions, but that’s also being naïve and could land you in trouble.