GB News is a broadcasting phenomenon - and we’ve only just begun, says Nigel Farage

We’ve got a huge audience here in Maidstone, and we're going to begin with some reflections on the year for me, 2023 was a big year. I was de-banked by Coutts, part of the NatWest group, and they thought I'd be too embarrassed to go public about it. Well, they picked on the wrong bloke, didn't they?

I then started this year having come fresh out of the jungle, and that was really quite an experience, I'm A Celebrity, quite an experience. Pleased I did it. So I started off this year incredibly thin, detoxed in every way, an awful lot has gone wrong since then, I have to tell you.

But perhaps for me, the most important part of the year wasn't to do with GB News or politics, believe it or not, it was the birth of my two grandsons, Harrison and Sebastian. And wow, that was a really special moment

Rishi went for this early election, and I thought, ‘what do I do? Is it really time for me to get back involved in politics?’ Well, I took the plunge on the third of June, and I did it, and I did it to the soundtrack of Eminem. I really shouldn't be so understated, should I?

I was also really thrilled for the second year in a row to get TV News Presenter of the Year from the TRIC awards, something that is voted for by the great British public, not chosen by the industry, because I wouldn't have had a chance with them.

And I think the growth of GB News, the fact we're way ahead of the woke Sky News, which has become virtually unwatchable, the patronising BBC - on this channel, I think what you get if you watch us live, on catch up, listen to us on the radio, I think what you genuinely get with this channel, you get both sides of the debate, and often it's very passionate but we don't bar anybody.

We don't believe in censorship. We believe we need to hear all these arguments, and we also believe that the audience at home are big enough and ugly enough to make up their own minds. And I think the success of GB News really is a revolution in broadcasting in this country.

We've got nearly 500 people here, and all I did was mention it twice on my show I was coming to Maidstone. This is a broadcasting phenomenon, and I honestly believe that GB News has only just begun, I really do.

Something else happened in politics this year that was quite a big deal. A great deal, the greatest, the best, and it was amazing. I mean, there, a day before a US presidential election, quite what I've got to do with it, I have absolutely no idea, but I get a shout out from the Donald…

What an honour it was to be in Mar-a-Lago in the ballroom on November the fifth, the next day after that, as the results came in, no press, no cameras, just Trump his family, his friends, his backers, the members of Mar-a-Lago, for what, whether you like him or not, was a truly historic victory that I think will change the world.

And he had someone beside him, a chap who's incredibly good at business, who I happened to pop over and see in Mar-a-Lago earlier this week. Yes, from Mar-a-Lago to Maidstone, that has been my week.

I've got to tell you, those reindeer were a lot more frightening than Donald Trump or Elon Musk. There is absolutely no doubt at all.

It's been a pretty remarkable year. They're my reflections. As I say, I've been very much in the public eye, but there's no doubt you think about life and what really matters that the birth of two grandsons actually is more important than being in Parliament and many other things.

And I think perhaps sometimes in the modern world, we're also rushed in what we're doing. We lose sense of our priorities.