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Nigel Farage's mask is slipping, revealing his nasty views, says Clegg Nigel Farage's mask is slipping, revealing his nasty views, says Clegg
(about 7 hours later)
Nick Clegg has said Nigel Farage's mask is beginning to slip, and "behind the beer-swilling bonhomie is a really nasty view of the world" and of modern Britain. Nick Clegg has said Ukip leader Nigel Farage's mask is beginning to slip, and that "behind the beer-swilling bonhomie is a really nasty view of the world" and of modern Britain.
The deputy prime minister appealed to those opposed to such divisive politics to come out and vote against Ukip next week. The deputy prime minister made the comment as he urged those opposed to divisive politics to vote against Ukip in European and local elections this week. At the same time a YouGov poll showed that the balance of those questioned who think Farage is doing a good job has fallen from +25 six weeks ago to +8, still good for a British party leader.
Clegg's remarks were prompted by Farage's claim last week that he would not want Romanians to be his neighbours in London, but that Germans would be different. Clegg's remarks were prompted by Farage's claim last week that he would not want Romanians to be his neighbours in London, but that Germans would be different – Farage is married to a German woman. Clegg said the Ukip leader was offering the politics of division, which should have no place in modern Britain.
Clegg said the Ukip leader was offering the politics of division, and it should not have any place in modern Britain.
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who has stepped up his campaigning on the issue of immigration, accused Farage of a "racial slur" against Romanians, but said he did not believe the Ukip leader was a racist.The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who has stepped up his campaigning on the issue of immigration, accused Farage of a "racial slur" against Romanians, but said he did not believe the Ukip leader was a racist.
On BBC1's Andrew Marr programme, Clegg was asked whether Farage was a racist and said: "I think the mask is starting to slip and what has been revealed behind that beer-swilling bonhomie is a really nasty view of the world. Anyone who singles out one community or nationality and says 'I don't want to live next to them' – I think that is the politics of division, and I don't think it has any place in modern Britain."On BBC1's Andrew Marr programme, Clegg was asked whether Farage was a racist and said: "I think the mask is starting to slip and what has been revealed behind that beer-swilling bonhomie is a really nasty view of the world. Anyone who singles out one community or nationality and says 'I don't want to live next to them' – I think that is the politics of division, and I don't think it has any place in modern Britain."
Clegg predicted that his own party would hold its nerve after the European elections, dismissing suggestions that there would be a challenge to his leadership or calls for the party to quit the coalition. Ukip moved to qualify its attitude to Romanians. Speaking on the BBC's Sunday Politics the party's Suzanne Evans said: "If 10 Romanian men moved in next door to me I think I'd certainly want to ask questions, and that's obviously very different from, say, a Romanian family moving in next door. If 10 Romanian men moved into me I'd think are they being ripped off by an unscrupulous landlord? In which case I'd be concerned. I'd think are they up to no good? In which case I'd be concerned."
He said it would be self-defeating for the party to lose its nerve just when its policies were being vindicated. With all political leaders stepping up their campaigning before Thursday's elections, the polls failed to show any consistent pattern, except that the Liberal Democrats are in danger of losing all their MEPs.
He said: "Of course it has been tough, going into a coalition with either the Conservatives or Labour in a system not used to coalition. It was always going to be difficult and added to that we had to take all those difficult decisions to fulfil what has been the central mission of this government, which was to repair and reform the deeply damaged British economy. Clegg predicted that his party would hold to its course after the European elections, dismissing suggestions that there would be a challenge to his leadership or calls to quit the coalition. He said it would be self-defeating for the party to lose its nerve just when its policies were being vindicated. "Most Liberal Democrats are immensely proud of our resilience and our unity, and that despite the endless breathless predictions that we are seeing again right now we have delivered." He said he had lost count of the number of predictions of the government falling apart.
"Most Liberal Democrats are immensely proud of our resilience and our unity, and that despite the endless breathless predictions that we are seeing again right now we have delivered." He said he had lost count of the number of predictions of the government falling apart.
Clegg added: "In those areas where we were able to get our message across, knocking on doors, explaining what we have done, we will do better than people predict." Elsewhere he said the results would be "very, very challenging", but he disputed that this would have implications for the general election.Clegg added: "In those areas where we were able to get our message across, knocking on doors, explaining what we have done, we will do better than people predict." Elsewhere he said the results would be "very, very challenging", but he disputed that this would have implications for the general election.
He said he was not a pollster or soothsayer, but claimed: "One of the things that the Westminster-based media has not picked up at all is the huge blow to traditional Labour support in the traditional Labour heartlands in the north at the hands of Ukip." He said he was not a pollster or soothsayer, but claimed: "One of the things that the Westminster-based media has not picked up at all is the huge blow to traditional Labour support in the traditional Labour heartlands in the north at the hands of Ukip." He also accused the Conservatives of running a "hokey-cokey" strategy over renegotiation on the European Union.
In an interview on Murnaghan on Sky News on Sunday, Miliband condemned Farage's comments, saying: "I think his remarks were deeply offensive … I think they were a racial slur but I don't think of Nigel Farage as a racist himself. They were inappropriate, and wrong, and he should not have made them." The Tory minister Michael Fallon indicated on Friday that the party would campaign to leave the EU in a potential referendum in 2017 if it was unable to secure its programme of reform.
However, Clegg accused the Tories of "hithering and dithering" in their attitude towards the EU. "I think it's a sort of elevated form of petulance to say 'we're going to stamp our little feet to get our little short shopping list of really rather minor changes' – by the way, which they're now advocating – and 'if we don't get them then we'll quit'."
In an interview on the Murnaghan programme on Sky News on Sunday, Miliband condemned Farage's comments on Romanians, saying: "I think his remarks were deeply offensive … I think they were a racial slur but I don't think of Nigel Farage as a racist himself. They were inappropriate, and wrong, and he should not have made them."
Miliband has stepped up his campaigning on immigration. Some senior Labour figures, both in the shadow cabinet and in the so-called Blue Labour movement, are frustrated that the party has not done more to confront the Ukip threat earlier in the campaign.Miliband has stepped up his campaigning on immigration. Some senior Labour figures, both in the shadow cabinet and in the so-called Blue Labour movement, are frustrated that the party has not done more to confront the Ukip threat earlier in the campaign.
The issue is likely to be at the centre of any inquest in the Labour party if it does not do well when polls close on Thursday. Some shadow cabinet figures privately would not object to Ukip polling 6% or 7% at the general election, since the bulk of the Ukip vote comes from the Conservatives, but others fear Ukip poses as much of a threat to Labour as to the Tories. The Conservatives' new culture secretary, Sajid Javid, said immigrants who came to live in Britain needed to learn English and to "respect our way of life". Javid, the son of Pakistani immigrants and the first Asian secretary of state, is likely to be a better conveyor of the Tories' tough line on immigration that some previous Tory spokesmen. He said people were entitled to expect immigrants to make a contribution to society.
Miliband's aides point out that he wrote a lengthy article attacking the Thatcherite Ukip in the Daily Mirror at the start of the campaign, and made a speech on the subject on Friday in which he admitted Labour had in the past told the British people to change their attitudes about immigration when in reality it was Labour that had needed to change its attitudes. "People want Britain to have more control over its borders, and I think they are right," he said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph. "People also say, when immigrants do come to Britain, that they should come to work, and make a contribution and that they should also respect our way of life, and I agree with all of that. It means things like trying to learn English."
He added that it was not prejudiced to be worried about the issue, but again said he would not back the "false promise" of a target of cutting net immigration to the tens of thousands. He said he could bear down on immigration by training more British people with the right skills.
His aides say the aim has been to address voters' concerns through addressing specific policy issues such as access to GPs within 48 hours, social care visits, the minimum wage and tighter regulation of private sector rents.
He was challenged on Sunday on whether he was becoming the political wing of Which?, the consumer affairs magazine, but rejected a suggestion that he would set a maximum price for petrol.