Nigel Farage has been touring the country rallying support for Reform UK before the general election on July 4. His visit to Sunderland was only announced 48 hours before the event but Rainton Arena was still packed with hundreds of people. Tom Burgess attended the rally to see how serious Reform are in the North East.
I set off to the arena in Sunderland not quite knowing what to expect after the surprise announcement of a Nigel Farage rally.
It was glorious weather but I was aware that it was being held at 11am until 1pm, right in the middle of the working day. I wasn't sure how many people would actually be there.
As I pulled into the car park I was greeted by a queue of hundreds of people already waiting to see the Reform UK leader.
A huge cheer erupted not long after when Nigel Farage arrived and there was cheering and applause as he made his way towards the doors.
He was mobbed by different media outlets all vying for his attention and quickly swept past me.
There was extensive security from a full body pat down to an Alsatian sniffing everyone on their way into the venue.
Once I was in I walked straight to the front row to have a chat with some of Mr Farage's biggest supporters in the North East.
Brian Tait, 69, explained that he had been a lifelong Conservative voter but had decided that Reform was now the party for him.
The former policeman and prison worker described how Mr Farage always said things that "make sense".
He said: "I think this election is going to be massive. I think Reform are going to be bigger than the Conservatives.
"I have been a Conservative voter all my life until now. Neither of the two main parties are making any sense whatsoever.
"They can't put this country right. They both produced manifestos and Nigel Farage made a contract because he wants to be held to account.
"The Conservatives have made a right mess of everything, partygate and now the betting scandal.
"I don't think the following that Reform is building is being taken seriously.
"They will be the opposition for this next government."
I made my way up to the second floor of the arena where former Newcastle United chairman Sir John Hall was describing how he felt "disillusioned" with the Conservative Party and would be donating to Reform this election.
Nigel Farage entered the arena to a thrumming, almost menacing, blast of music before huge sparklers were let off on stage to his left and right.
He started the speech by tapping into a "sense of unease" that he believed has developed across the country in recent years.
"Something is going very, very wrong with the country that we’re part of, with the country that we believe in, with the country we want our kids and grandkids to grow up in.
"We have spent time indoctrinating a younger generation, that everything about our past is wrong. We’ve been poisoning the minds of our young people, that I think is absolutely appalling. I want them to learn that whilst not everything in our history is perfect, actually, there is no country in the world with a better past than us."
He briefly touched on knife crime before moving on to immigration which he described as "an invasion" to a lot of cheering and applause.
Mr Farage added: "As for the small boats, well, it was me going out into the English Channel repeatedly in the spring of 2020 filming, explaining that unless we got a grip on this, that it would be a huge problem.
"And I dared to use a word, a word so repulsive that it must never be repeated in polite society. A word so awful that I’m to be a pariah for the rest of my life.
"I dared to say that I feared there would be an invasion of small boats across the English Channel. Well now – 4,000 boats and 128,000 people later – if it’s not an invasion, what the hell is it?"
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The biggest applause of the event came when Mr Farage described how he had enjoyed his break from frontline politics working at GB News.
He said: "I have not had the abuse or the pressure. I have not had the 18 to 20 hour days.
"I have just given all that up to come back and lead you."
As I sat in my car queueing to get out of the car park I wondered how well Reform UK will do in this general election.
Will they be like UKIP and get millions of votes but not convert them into seats, or are we about to see the political earthquake of our time?
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