Russia was provoked into Ukraine war, claims Nigel Farage The BBC has issued a transcript in advance of the interview. Here is Peter Walker’s story about Farage’s comments: Nigel Farage has said the EU and Nato “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by expanding eastwards, as the Reform UK leader was challenged over a series of policies and beliefs in a sometimes combative TV interview. Speaking to BBC’s Panorama on Friday evening, Farage also said Brexit would have benefited the UK economically if he had been running the country, and that many of the Reform candidates criticised for saying offensive things had been “stitched up in the most extraordinary way”. Challenged on his beliefs over the invasion of Ukraine, and his stated admiration for Vladimir Putin, Farage said he disliked the Russian president personally but “admired him as a political operator” because of the extent of his control over Russia. On why Putin invaded Ukraine, Farage said: “I stood up in the European Parliament in 2014 and I said, ‘There will be a war in Ukraine.’ Why did I say that? It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say, ‘They’re coming for us again,’ and to go to war. Farage has long been accused by the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties of being an apologist for the Russian president. Nigel Farage: key points from Panorama interview Nigel Farage has said the EU and Nato “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by expanding eastwards. Farage said he disliked Russian president Vladimir Putin personally but “admired him as a political operator” because of the extent of his control over Russia. He added: “We provoked this war. Of course it’s his fault, he’s used what we’ve done as an excuse”. The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have long accused Farage of being an apologist for the Russian president. Farage told Robinson “Do you know what I am? I’m a fighter, I’m a warrior, I’m a campaigner”. The Reform UK leader said “I stand up against big institutions when they behave badly, whether they’re banks or out of touch bureaucracies based in Brussels, and very often, I win.” Farage accepted that a claim he made saying the UK had moved from being the “world’s seventh-biggest exporter to the world’s fourth-biggest exporter” after Brexit referred only to services. Asked why exports in goods had not similarly benefited, Farage blamed net zero policies, saying they had “de-industrialised Britain”. Discussing migration, Farage repeatedly said that people arriving in the UK could bring their mothers with them, which is not the case. On net zero, asked if he still believed King Charles was “an eco-loony”, Farage replied: “He wasn’t the king then, and I can’t speak ill of the monarch obviously.” Asking about Reform’s own fiscal plans, set out this week in the party’s manifesto, Robinson seemed unconvinced by Farage’s explanations as to how the party would cut public spending enough to make mass tax cuts. Farage repeatedly pushed the idea that moving the income tax threshold to £20,000 would take the lowest paid out of the tax system and get more people off benefits and into work. Farage defended the Liz Truss mini-budget, which at the time he called “the best Conservative budget since the 1980s”. He told the BBC interveiwer “There were a lot of things here that were pro-growth and pro-business. Some of the thinking was right, the delivery was wrong, the timing was appalling.” The Reform leader said it was important to protect the NHS being free at the point of delivery, but failed to explain how a GP appointment is free in the French-style system he is proposing, when in France there is a €25 fee for an appointment. “It gets refunded” he said, while also saying it could be forfeit if the apporintment was missed. Asked if Reform attracted people with vile views because of his own views, Farage called this “cobblers, absolute cobblers”, quoting Martin Luther King and saying he believed in meritocracy. Asked why he once praised Enoch Powell and criticised Rishi Sunak by saying he “doesn’t understand our culture”, Farage said this simply referred to the prime minister being “too upper-class”. Reform has blamed a vetting company it employed for failing to check what candidates had said. But Farage appeared to play down the seriousness of many of the comments, saying: “We’ve also had an awful lot of candidates being stitched up in the most extraordinary way with quotes being taken out of context.” Oliver Lewis, the Reform UK candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr was the last to speak. He invoked the spirit of Millicent Fawcett and her phrase “Courage calls to courage everywhere”. He said “In the words of Millicent Fawcett, who fought so bravely for the right for women to vote in our country: ‘Courage calls to courage everywhere’ “Reform respects your intelligence, and respects you to use your vote wisely. This Fourth of July, our independence day from the dishonesty and incompetence of the old parties, vote Rerform UK.” The Green party of England and Wales were not invited to participate in the debate by the BBC, despite the fact they received more votes than Reform UK in the last Senedd election in 2021. David TC Davies, the Welsh secretary, rather curiously seemed to use his 30 seconds to make a personal appeal to get reelected than make a pitch for Rishi Sunak to form the next government of the UK and carry on as prime minister. This is what Davies says in his closing statement: I believe we should never ever as politicians be afraid to discuss difficult issues. That’s why it’s important that we can talk about illegal immigration and having a policy to deal with that. That is why I was the first person to raise the concerns about trans ideology in parliament in 2017. And why I believe passionately, I believe passionately that women have the right to safe, same-sex spaces and that people who are physically male shouldn’t be competing in sports with women or sharing spaces. I also believe … He was then cut off as his time was up. There was some rumbling of discontent and murmering in the audience as he began speaking about what he called “trans ideology”, although one, possibly two people in the 100 strong audience clapped. Rhun ap Iorwerth says he does not doubt that Keir Starmer will become prime minister, but that Wales can send him a message. He says: I think most people agree that in this election, the Conservatives are gone but also that there’s no real excitement about what Labour are offering. There’s a fundamental issue of trust here to me. You need to be able to trust that our interests in Wales are being served. Keir Starmer will become prime minister, regardless of how Wales votes, and we can send him a message. One, he shouldn’t take Wales for granted. And two that we’re determined to hold him to account. Plaid Cymru will do that with our clear and positive vision for our country. Jane Dodds, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Wales says the audience have been listening to people “from two political parties who’ve been in power for far too long.” She says “Political parties who’ve broken the rules. They’ve lost our trust. They’ve taken Wales for granted. Labour have mismanaged Wales. The conservatives have neglected Wales. You can change that.” Vaughan Gething, first minister, says Labour want to bring less division to politics. He says: “People shouldn’t go to bed angry at night about the lies they’ve been told. They shouldn’t wake up in the morning worried about their shopping bill. People have the right to expect us to be cooperative and to be straight about the tough road ahead. That is what Keir Starmer and I offer to you.” The five senior Welsh political figures in this debate are giving their closing statements. The order has been drawn by lots. They have 30 seconds each. Oliver Lewis of Reform UK says they have no hostility to migrants, but what they care about is “the failure of the UK government control our borders property.” He says “It’s a domestic failure of our institutions. I don’t think really the political classes has caught up with it.” David TC Davies of the Conservatives says Labour’s policy on immigration in Wales is “to try and get people more benefits, whether it’s universal basic income, and then try and get them legal aid.” “Shame on you” someone say. The Welsh secretary says he backs the Rwanda scheme, and also backs leaving the ECHR “if a foreign court stops us from doing something which we as a democratically elected sovereign parliament have voted to do then? Yes, of course I would. I would absolutely leave it.” It is questionable whether the ECHR is “a foreign court” as it has Tim Eicke KC on it, who was nominated by the British government. The format of this debate is a bit chaotic if I’m being honest. Chair Bethan Rhys Roberts is going to the audience a lot, who are asking scattergun questions on multiple questions, and then coming back to one or two of the people on the stage who get to cherrypick which bits of which questions they address. The next question in the Wales debate is whether the debate on immigration is too negative. The audience are asked to put up their hand if they think there is too much immigration into Wales. Nobody appeared to me to put their hands up, but I’m intrigued by what extent peer pressure plays into those kinds of televised situations. Rhun ap Iorwerth says “I don’t like the tone of the debate on immigration. We know that one party in particular wants to exploit people’s fears and anxieties.” He doesn’t mention a party by name. Reform UK’s Oliver Lewis interrupts him to say he is being insulting. For the Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds says: “I’ve worked with refugees over a number of years, both in this country and abroad. And really, they are people just like us. They are people desperately getting trying to get away from war-torn situations. We need safe and legal routes. That’s the first thing. We need a faster asylum process.”