I recently met Alan Sked at a PPE symposium at KCL and he kindly agreed to an interview for The Young Politician.
Born in Scotland 1947, following a long career at LSE, he founded the Anti-Federalist League in 1991, which became UKIP in 1993. Four years later Sked resigned citing a rise in factionalism and far-right opinion among its ranks. He has since remained a knowledgeable and engaging voice on history and British politics and is currently Emeritus Professor of International History at LSE.
This interview explores his relationship with Nigel Farage and Reform UK, his views on the EU and contemporary British politics, and his own development within the political arena.
I began by asking Alan what got him interested in politics.
“Oh, I got interested […] very early… I was always interested in history. So politics always seemed to me sort of contemporary history… I was very impressed by […] Joe Grimmond, who was leading the Liberal Revival at that time… and so at the age of about 15, I joined the Scottish Liberal Party”
Sked later became chairman of the Glasgow Liberal Club at the University and President of the Association of Scottish Liberal Students, then later, Treasurer of the Scottish League of Young Liberals.
“In 1970, I ended up as a Liberal candidate in Paisley for the first general election in 1970” I went on to ask Alan about his political mentors and heroes
“My great intellectual mentor was a historian called A.J.P. Taylor, who was one of the most famous historians in the world. And later on, to my sheer delight, I got him as my doctoral supervisor at Oxford. And we became great friends and I edited a book of essays for his 70th birthday”
Alan also mentioned Grimmond again as one of his heroes.
Having explained his start in politics, we spoke about where he sees himself today – still active or more as an observer.
Before Brexit he recalls going “up to the Scottish Highlands in 2015 to 2018 to look after my mother”. However, after the referendum Sked claims LSE saw him “as persona non grata” because of his position on Europe.
Today, he says he “didn’t do party politics. But now, since we’re living in such a turbulent period politically, I’ve offered my services to Kemi Badenoch and the Tories because I see Badenoch as the only intelligent, pugnacious person around who can maybe move the country forward”.
Sked continued that he hopes for a Tory revival, that he’ll probably take “some kind of part in” though didn’t support the party during their 14 years in power.
I went on to ask him if he was happy with the version of Brexit we got
“Yes. Well, there are a number of things about Brexit you must remember. First, it wasn’t an economic agreement. It was a constitutional and diplomatic agreement, 100 percent. I mean, we came out of the institutions of the EU and we became a normal self governing democracy again.”
Sked pointed out that we’ve signed the AUKUS agreement with Australia and the United States as well as various free trade agreements, such as one with “the CPTPP, which is by far the strongest growing group of economies in the world”.
Sked claimed that “COVID cost us between one third and one half a trillion pounds […] all the Remainers and Rejoiners take the costs of COVID and blame it on BREXIT […] there was no economic mechanism in BREXIT”. He also noted the impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on our economic woes.
I followed this up by asking whether he thought Rachel Reeves can win over the country in her push for further integration with the EU?
“No, no, I think she’s playing with fire. I mean, the farmers are all up in arms because they don’t want to be subjected to a whole skew of EU farming regulations and food standard regulations”
Sked then detailed a history of the EU and our joining it, so I asked him if he thinks the organisation can continue in its current form?
“No, because economically, it’s a basket case. And in terms of the challenge from Russia, it doesn’t have the means to defend itself. So it’s pointless […] Europe just needs free trade between its members and the defence structure of NATO”
Moving on from the EU, I inquired his thoughts on lowering the voting age to 16, a topic pushed by the current Labour government.
“Ideally, I think people should be older, at least 18, […] but I mean, 16 year olds have voted in Scotland and I think Northern Ireland and a lot of them just don’t bother to vote […] don’t feel qualified and […] are very cynical. So I don’t think it will make much difference”
Moving on I asked if he thought the Conservative Party can survive in the context of Reform’s popularity? He responded with a detailed critique of the latter.
“Reform’s a fascist party. It’s the classical definition of a fascist party […] Mussolini used to say, il duce è sempre il giorni, which means the leader’s always right […] it’s a cult of Farage with a sort of mass base which is tightly controlled by him”
“But the basic reason why people vote for Reform is because of its anti-Islam and anti immigrant stance. People aren’t interested […] to hear how he’s going to reform the post office, or what his policy for devolution is, or what his agricultural policies are […] they’ve got this feeling that somehow or other, though Reform can’t explain how, it’s going to stop the boats, which it can’t. Only the French can do that”
Sked went on to reference the “racist” advert used in a recent Scottish by-election. He continued, “it’s a racist party. I don’t think young people will vote for it […] decent and educated people, I don’t think, will vote for Reform”
Having established his own parties in the past, I asked him what he thought about the future of the likes of Restore Britain.
“No, I was the first person to form a new party in about 100 years. And I was well known at the time because I’d been the leading member of the Bruges Group […] so when I said I was starting a new party, I was taken seriously and the BBC took it up. And it was an issue on which there was a lot of interest […] the major parties […] were all in support of the EU […] the people now trying to form parties, people don’t know them and they’re running on the same issues as Reform. So I don’t see they’ve got a future”
I then asked Sked whether he saw the Greens eating away at Labour
“Polanski is an economic illiterate… it’s a very extremist party and it’s split down the middle on some aspects of race, but also on trans rights”
I followed up with a comparison to Your Party which he called “dead in the water”
We then discussed Farage. I asked “Having known Farage in a professional sense, what do you think people misunderstand at all, or don’t quite know about him?”
“he’s not very bright… he’s always been an alcoholic… I used to have to admonish him for coming to meetings of the party drunk… he would collapse on the train home”
“In 1997, before the general election, he asked me if former members of the National Front which is a racist party, could run as UKIP candidates. And when I adamantly refused, he said, oh Alan, you needn’t worry about the ****** vote”
Finally, I asked his thoughts on the future of British politics
“It’s very unclear at the moment […] the Labour Party seems intent on committing suicide […] the only party which can be a decent anchor in all of this […] is a Tory one, reformed and revived under Badenoch”
“Do you think then Starmer will continue?”
“[Labour will] get rid of Starmer and then get somebody even worse”