Nigel Farage hit out at the Labour Government as he insisted Britain needs a “change of attitude”.

He told the conference: “We need some very big cultural changes. We’ve got to get that spirit, that sense of optimism back in the country.

“We had it in the late 1980s, we actually had it through much of the 1990s. That’s what we have to recapture.

“I mean God doesn’t Rachel Reeves just make you want to reach for the cry tissues? It’s all so miserable, it’s all so declinist.

“Frankly the Conservatives have been no better, we need a change of attitude in Brita in.”

Nigel Farage admitted he “may not necessarily be the best advocate for monogamous or stable marriage having been divorced twice”.

But he added that he returned to politics last year for “family, community, country”.

The Reform UK leader said: “They’re the things that matter to me above absolutely everything.”

He went on: “We’ve kind of forgotten that what underpins everything is our Judeo-Christian culture.”

The Reform UK leader told the conference: “It’s a truth that no one dares tell. Net zero is a complete and utter disaster.

“If you want to have energy production that is very low in carbon output there is only one way ahead, that is small modular nuclear reactors, dozens of them all over the country. That’s the only way forward.”

Nigel Farage said: “We take the view that if we’re going to be using gas, if we’re going to be using oil in this country until 2050, and even the most zealous net zero types accept we’ll be using these commodities for years to come, our view is we may as well produce them ourselves in our own country and genuinely become energy independent and our platform is to re-industrialise Britain.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told the conference: “The right is not split in this country. The Conservative Party is not on the right in any measurable way.”

He addss that Tory governments increased taxes, allowed legal and illegal immigration to rise and saw “net zero enshrined into law by a Conservative government… as evangelical about net zero as the current Ed Miliband”.

Nigel Farage has taken to the main stage at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference to be interviewed by Canadian author Jordan Peterson.

Healey says his outlined reforms to British defence are the “biggest shake-up in 50 years”.

He pledges the government will match sustained investment with reform, and make Britain more muscular on the world stage.

Healey says 2012 reforms by the Coalition government are responsible for much of the waste seen in the Defence department.

He will end the Levene process created by the then-government.

Healey says he’s introducing “clear points of accountability” at every level.

The Chief of the Defence Staff now commands the service chiefs for the first time, which will be in charge of a new design and war planning team.

The department will become “leaner and more agile”, with a revamp of senior roles creating people with broad policy roles and mandates.

The Chief of Defence Nuclear will continue to lead and deliver the national nuclear enterprise.

He says the new quad will lead a defence more concentrated on warfighting readiness and deterrence.

It will shift the focus from process to outcomes.

It will be up and running by March 31.

John Healey says Defence spending isn’t just a question of how much, but how well money is being spent.

Mr Healey argues the government is not securing a good value for money from spending.

“We duplicate even the most central tasks. For example we have 11 separate finance functions – 2,500 people doing the same activity in different places in different ways.”

He also criticises “process and procedure”, with too much complexity “where simplicity is needed”.

He reveals there are 11 checkers for each procurement decision.

“No wonder it takes on average six years for a large programme simply to get onto contract.”

John Healey quips he wasn’t expecting such interest in Defence policy when he agreed to the IfG speech and interview some weeks ago.

The Defence Secretary says the current headlines and decisions “will define the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine and the security of our world for a generation to come.”

Mr Healey discussed defence reform with his new US counterpart recently.

Healey says the path to 2.5% of GDP on defence will be set out in the spring.

Rachel Reeves will have to find a whopping £12 billion if she wants to boost defence spending up to the target of 2.5% of GDP.

Defence chiefs have warned Sir Keir that 2.5% is now the minimum amount we need to spend just to stand still, while it would cost even more to expand British military capacity.

Ben Zranko, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says new tax rises are the “most likely path” for Ms Reeves to pursue, given Labour MPs and union backers will passionately resist any cuts in departmental spending to fund the defence increase.

It means Ms Reeves now faces the prospect of having to break her promise not to repeat her first tax hiking budget just six months later.

With Labour, the LibDems and many Tories suggesting they would support British troops going to Ukraine, it leaves Reform UK the only main party out on a limb.

Yesterday the party’s chairman Zia Yusuf tweeted: “Has anyone else noticed that political leaders start to get really keen to send other people’s children to war zones after their domestic poll ratings collapse?”

MP Rupert Lowe said: “MPs posting childish insults from their cosy offices need to consider the gravity of the situation. I don’t suppose they’ll be on the ground – in the mud, in the cold, in the potential firing line.”

“We need to think very carefully about this, because we haven’t in recent past and look what that got us.

“Hundreds of dead British men and women.”

According to polling, Reform UK has the highest number of supporters who would back a cut in the level of British support for the Eastern European country.

However, this still amounts to just one in three Reform UK voters.

The Conservative shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge has said he “certainly wouldn’t rule out supporting” the PM’s offer of sending British troops to Ukraine.

It comes after former PM Rishi Sunak warmly welcomed Sir Keir’s bold plan, alongside the leader of the LibDems Sir Ed Davey.

Speaking on Sky News this morning Mr Cartlidge said that while it remains a “hypothetical” situation, “there’s a very strong parliamentary consensus about the need to support Ukraine. So clearly we intend to keep doing that.”

However he warned: “It’s a pretty big step to go from supplying weapons to actually having our people there.”