Farage on Trump & Polls: Pollsters Can't Find People Outside Of Politics Who Are Now Coming Into Politics

Nigel Farage, founder of the UK Independence Party and the man credited for Brexit, joins CNN's Fareed Zakaria for an interview on the Sunday broadcast of his show Fareed Zakaria GPS:





FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN: Do you think that there are sort of hidden Trump voters in quite the same way?



In Brexit, the polling suggested that the remain side, the people who wanted to stay in the EU, would win. In fact, on the eve of the -- of the counting, you seemed to con -- almost concede because you were reading all the same opinion polls we were. And yet it won…



NIGEL FARAGE, UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY: Yes.



ZAKARIA: Do you think you could imagine a similar Trump surprise?



FARAGE: I think there were two phenomenons here. I think the first is that on telephone polls, particularly, people are nervous to come across as being too conservative, too socially conservative. So, you know, we've seen in the last few years in Britain opinion polls getting it wrong because people aren't quite telling the truth on the telephone.



But there's another phenomenon here. And frankly, the polling industry in Europe -- I mean, frankly, it's almost bankrupt in terms of its reputation. And I wonder whether we're seeing the same phenomenon in America. What I'm talking about is the polling companies find it really hard to find people who are outside of politics and who are now coming into politics.



And that's why the opinion polls over Brexit were wrong, although I do admit I suffered myself from a bout of eleventh-hour nerves.