Ukip may be sailing towards first place in the European elections, but Nigel Farage unwittingly revealed today how the party is still a long way from becoming a mature political movement. During his interview on the Sunday Politics, Farage didn’t seem to know what was in Ukip’s local election manifesto — in particular whether the party was promising to make any spending cuts. This is a transcript of what he said:
Andrew Neil: You have promised these tax cuts, how much will they cost?
Nigel Farage: No idea. I’m not here to talk about, I’ve read the local election manifesto and it doesn’t make those promises.
AN: It does
NF: We do talk about local services, we do talk about the need to keep council tax down but we don’t talk about income tax. Absolutely not.
AN: In local election campaigning you say you would restore cuts to policing, double prison places, restore cuts to front line NHS, spend more on roads, how much would that cost?
NF: You are obviously reading different documents to me.
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