Donald Trump has been invited to address the UK parliament next year, Nigel Farage has claimed, saying Britain must “roll out the red carpet” for the US president-elect.
The Reform UK leader said Lindsay Hoyle was an improvement on the previous Commons speaker, John Bercow, because he had already invited Trump to parliament next year. Farage told his Reform party’s Welsh rally: “I do think having Sir Lindsay Hoyle there as the speaker compared to that ghastly little pipsqueak Bercow that went before is an improvement.
“And indeed, he’s already invited Donald Trump to come and speak to both Houses of Parliament next year.”
Hoyle’s spokesperson and the Commons both declined to comment on the claim. Trump did not address parliament the first time he was president between 2016 and 2020 after Bercow made clear he was strongly opposed to the prospect.
Trump was invited to the UK for a state visit in 2017, but in an extraordinary intervention Bercow said he was against Trump addressing parliament as part of the visit.
The former speaker told MPs that addressing the Lords and the Commons was “an earned honour”, not an “automatic right”.
Asked about how the UK could build bridges with the incoming administration, Farage tod the PA news agency that Labour must “roll out the red carpet, that’s what they’ve got to do”.
During the rally in Newport, south Wales, Farage said he intended to make Reform UK the “leading party of opposition in Wales”, claiming the party was “already well ahead” of the Conservative party in the country and could become the second-largest group there in 2026.
Farage attacked Labour’s record in Wales over the past 100 years, singling out the economy, the NHS and immigration. “Our job in Wales as we approach those Senedd elections in 2026, our job is to be the leading party of opposition here that challenges the Labour party,” he said.
Farage had a triumphant tone as he spoke at the Reform party’s first rally since Trump won the US presidential election.
The MP for Clacton, whom Trump has described as a friend, recounted attending the president-elect’s victory party in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, after campaigning for him in the election and joining one of his final rallies in Pennsylvania. He said Trump was “pro-British” and that his victory was “a great opportunity” for the UK.
He said he felt “deeply honoured” to have been at Mar-a-Lago and said: “What has happened in America in the last few days is what happens when you get a political movement with a strong political leader that actually talks to the electorate about the things that they care about.
“It really has been a truly stunning victory. He focused, of course, mostly on the cost of living, on the southern border, illegal immigration. And I think we can also quite safely say that on the day of the inauguration in America, ‘woke has died’, and thank God for that.”
Farage renewed his offer to act as an intermediary between the UK government and the incoming Trump administration, a prospect Labour ministers have rejected. “If I can in any way help to mend fences between this Labour administration and the incoming Trump administration then I would do so,” he said.
“But not because I support a single thing this Labour government is doing - in fact fewer and fewer people in the country support anything this Labour administration is doing – but I will do so because it is in the national interest.”
Critics have questioned why Farage travelled to the US while parliament was sitting. Farage previously criticised Labour activists for campaigning for the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris.
Farage has made several trips to the US since being elected MP for Clacton in July. He travelled to the country shortly after Trump survived an assassination attempt, stating in his register of interests that the trip was “to support a friend who was almost killed and to represent Clacton on the world stage”.
During his July visit, Farage attended the Republican national convention in Milwaukee. The £33,000 cost of the trip was paid by Thai-based British businessman Christopher Harborne.
Reform is targeting the 2026 Senedd elections, which will use a more proportional voting system. Current polling suggests the party could win between 14 and 17 out of the expanded Senedd’s 96 seats.
The party is trying to present itself as the main rightwing challenger to Labour, and is seeking to build support in former industrial parts of Wales and the north of England, where it finished second in the general election.
