Nigel Farage Tested By BBC’s Mishal Husain On Specifics Of Party’s ‘Zero’ Net Migration Pledge

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage tried to dismiss BBC presenter Mishal Husain’s line of questioning as “rather silly” when she pressed him on the impact his party’s pledge to set out a zero net migration target would have on various sectors within the economy.

In the tense exchange on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Farage, who recently announced his return to frontline politics and is standing as a candidate in Clacton, faced a barrage of questions regarding the specifics of his call for a zero net migration policy.

Husain inquired whether various occupations, including midwives, architects, and butchers, would be permitted entry under Reform UK’s plans. Each time, Farage responded, “in limited numbers.”

As the host ran through a list of jobs, the interview took a sharper turn as Farage appeared to lose patience.

Farage retorted: “This is really getting rather silly, isn’t it?”

The host said: “That’s what I’m suggesting, that actually if you think about these occupations, there is a large number of different occupations that it appears this country needs.”

The politician replied: “Well I tell you what, we cannot go on as we are. We have to limit numbers. Our lives, our quality of life in this country is being diminished by the population explosion and if that means that in some sectors there’d be shortages, what that then means is that wages would go up and we’d start to encourage people to learn skills rather than heading off to university and doing social sciences.”

Husain asked: “What’s the overall number? Even the Labour Party are asking questions about this now. If the key thing is the numbers being limited, what’s the overall number of people you would be prepared to see come to the UK to work every year?”

Farage returned: “Net migration at zero would be the target.”

“Well, that depends on how many people are leaving the country,” the host suggested.

“It does, but we know roughly…” Farage began.

“Half a million people left the country last year, and net migration is about 600,000,” Husain continued.

Farage added: “Yeah, about 600,000. That’s right. So you’d still have room within the labour market for up to, think about it, for up to 600,000 people. Now, hopefully, we wouldn’t need that many, but it still leaves plenty of room.”

Watch above on BBC Radio 4.