Farage denounces ‘cretins’ in charge of the economy as he pledges ‘big bang two’

“Cretins” have been running the UK economy for “too Long”, Nigel Farage said, as he pledged to repeat the “big bang” reforms in the City of London introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

Speaking at the Digital Asset Summit in London, the Reform UK leader took aim at Gordon Brown, who he accused of selling off gold reserves too cheaply, and imposing too much regulation in a bid to stop “boom and bust”, as Labour chancellor at the turn of the century.

Speaking on the day his party confirmed it would now not implement huge tax cuts pledged in its manifesto, Mr Farage mocked Mr Brown as a “genius” for selling off 50% of gold reserves at 275 dollars an ounce at the same time as imposing “massive regulation”.

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.”

Mr Farage claimed Rachel Reeves is planning to sell off five billion dollars of seized Bitcoin, saying it should be kept by the Bank of England to start to “build up and make Bitcoin a reserve category”.

The Reform UK leader described the banking system as “outdated and not working” as he bemoaned “thousands of bank accounts being closed every single year”.

There was controversy in 2023 when private bank Coutts closed an account held by Mr Farage, claiming he had not met eligibility criteria.

It later emerged that the bank’s action was in part due to Mr Farage’s political views.

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.”