Nigel Farage wrote on Sunday that Reform UK would make Britain “a true power for peace,” arguing that the country can only help calm a world “riven with conflict” once it has rebuilt its own strength.
“Reform UK rejects the idea that we must be a nation in decline. We can be a nation on the rise once again,” he wrote in his closing lines. “Not just for our own benefit, but because of something I know most Britons agree on: the world is a better place when Britain is a better place, a safer place when Britain is safer, and a more peaceful place when Britain is at its best.”
“Our approach also puts peace, and our ability to deliver it, back on the agenda,” Farage wrote, pointing to wars “between Russia and Ukraine, between America and Iran, or further afield.” His case was as much about household bills as diplomacy: “If shipping lines are open, prices come down. If bombs aren’t dropping, energy prices are lower.”
Peace, in his telling, comes from strength.
“To help bring peace abroad, we must build strength at home. You cannot simply declare yourself a world power; you have to create one,” he wrote. That means staring down “those who would weaken us.”
He named one: “Vladimir Putin sees our weaknesses and exploits them.” Britain’s airports, hospitals, energy, food security, and wider infrastructure would be “off limits,” and Reform would “invest heavily in them to ensure that any and all attempts to attack us fail.” On China, he warned that “its lust for Taiwan could crash the entire global economy,” and said Britain “has to be at the forefront of ensuring that never happens.”
The strength starts at the border. “A nation that cannot police its own backyard, namely its borders, will hardly be taken seriously on the global stage,” he wrote. He also restated Reform’s plan to spend 3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030 and 3.5 per cent by 2035, “paying for it partly by putting a hard £1 billion cap on our foreign aid budget.” Final UK aid spending in 2025 was £13.1 billion. Andy Burnham has refused to commit to the 2030 target.
The column builds on Reform’s National Security Review, which The National Pulse has previously reported. The party published its terms of reference on Friday, led by Angus MacIntyre, Reform’s Armed Forces spokesman and a 40-year military veteran. Farage wrote that money alone would not fix the problem, warning against “hurling money at the same flawed MoD procurement processes that have left our forces threadbare.” Those forces were run down under 14 years of Conservative government.
MacIntyre’s consultation on the review is now under way. “These terms will inform the consultation process that I am beginning today,” he wrote.
