Neil Kinnock: ‘Nigel Farage is offering voters utter fiction’
Lord Neil Kinnock, marking 40 years of his celebrated “impossible promises” conference speech of 1985, warns against the “illusions” sold by Nigel Farage in 2025, and explains the simple solution for Keir Starmer to tackle the rising popularity of Reform UK.
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In brief…
- Lord Neil Kinnoch tells The News Agents how Nigel Farage has made himself a “celebrity” in an age obsessed with fame, helping his – and Reform UK’s – rise to the top of voting opinion polls.
- He accuses Farage of offering people “illusions” and “utter fiction” in his promises to make sweeping changes to the UK.
- Keir Starmer’s government needs to focus on making tangible changes to the lives of British people, he adds, in order to counter the threat to power Farage and Reform presents.
What’s the story?
In 1985, former Labour leader Lord Neil Kinnock delivered his “impossible promises” speech during a party conference in Bournemouth.
“You can’t play politics with people’s jobs, and people’s services,” he told Labour members 40 years ago, many rising to their feet to give the opposition leader a standing ovation.
Addressing politicians who offered these impossible promises to the people of Britain during Margaret Thatcher’s rule as Conservative Prime Minister, Kinnock’s speech is heralded by some as one of the greatest in British political history.
As Derek Hatton returns to the Labour Party, here is Neil Kinnock taking on the Militant Tendency in Bournemouth, 1985
— Tides of History (@labour_history) February 18, 2019
"I’ll tell you what happens with impossible promises..." pic.twitter.com/trW9ebG1o7
This month, Keir Starmer addressed similar concerns in modern politics during the 2025 Labour Party Conference, and while his words haven’t gone down in history yet, Kinnock has praise for the PM, and his speech.
Starmer condemned Nigel Farage’s “politics of grievance”, and accused Reform UK of attempting to “"stir the pot of division because that's what works for their interests".
Kinnock tells The News Agents that, in this instance, it was important for Starmer to land a heavy blow on his right-wing opposition.
"It was necessary for the Prime Minister to punch down on this occasion – but it shouldn't be overdone," Kinnock says in an interview with Lewis Goodall.
"He had to make it because of the false reputation that Reform is building, and the leader of the Labour Party needed to offer his view of their shallowness, their illusions and their dishonesty, which he did in very fine form."
‘Farage has managed to make himself a celebrity’
Starmer recently labelled Farage's immigration policies "racist" – taken by some to suggest Farage is racist himself, which the Reform UK leader has denied.
"I don't know if Farage is racist, only he could answer that, and you're unlikely to get anything, other than some kind of slithering response," says Kinnock, when asked for his views.
"We live in the age of celebrity, and he's managed – I guess it's to his credit – to make himself a celebrity."
He adds that the "bottom comes out" of Farage’s politics when subjected to any scrutiny – such as his June 2025 pledge to reopen coal mines in Wales.
"Anybody who knows anything about coal and steel, and this includes most of the people living in South Wales, knows you can't reopen a coal mine and you can't restart a blast furnace," Kinnock says.
"You can build new ones. You can dig new mines, but you can't reopen them.
"In the sweep of his oratory, he was really offering an utter fiction to the people of South Wales."
When quizzed further during his Wales visit on the reality of his suggestion, Farage later described it as “aspirations”, and achievable with the right mindset – which Kinnock says highlights the speed and ease with which his promises come to pieces.
But this doesn't appear to matter to voters.
Why the right wing so often succeeds
Polling across the UK, throughout 2025, places Reform UK far ahead of Labour and the Tories, suggesting a huge majority if there was an upcoming general election.
Kinnock says the rise of the right in the UK is partly due to those involved sharing vested interests in its ideology.
"Generally speaking, the right is more disciplined – I won't say cohesive – but disciplined," he says.
"Under pressure, they tend to stand shoulder to shoulder, which is one of the reasons why the Tory party has ruled for most of the last century."
He blames the Tories failing to satisfy public demand for real change for the rise of Reform, who have arguably taken their place as the UK’s leading right-wing party.
The easy solution to tackling Reform UK
Farage, Kinnock warns, offers voters "illusions", reminiscent of the "impossible promises" he warned of four decades ago. This, he says, makes him "dangerous".
Trying to meet Farage, and Reform, halfway on promises to take a hard line on migration is not, he adds, a solution for Starmer's Labour government.
"Farage and Reform will only be defeated by achievement in government – practical things that people can see to be beneficial," he says.
"Cut waiting lists and develop the health services, invest in skills and new training, build houses, restore infrastructure and support communities, give people back pride in where they're from and where they live.
"People need to see that demonstrated in very practical, tangible terms that they are not left behind. That's the main way it has to be done – and is very gradually starting."