Nigel farage

Nigel Farage has just been rumbled on immigration

The Leave campaign has been talking a lot about immigration, but just what kind of effect would Brexit have? How many fewer would come? “Up to us, that’s the point of this referendum” said Nigel Farage, in is interview with Andrew Neil. Let MPs debate the ideal figure in the Commons, he said. His implication: that post-Brexit Britain could pick a number for net migration, any number. Given that Britain’s net migration is about 330,000 a year, Andrew Neil asked Farage how far he sees it falling after Brexit. He didn’t have an answer. From the 1050s to the 1990s, it used to be 30,000 to 40,000 a year, he (wrongly)

James Forsyth

The Andrew Neil Interviews: Nigel Farage tones it down

Sometimes you sense that Nigel Farage is keen to create controversy, to stir things up. But tonight in his interview with Andrew Neil, Farage seemed keen to do the opposite; turning in a restrained performance. When Andrew Neil asked what net migration would be post-Brexit, Farage replied that ‘it would be up to us’. He said that the two sides in this campaign shouldn’t be putting forward manifesto-style promises, as the question is really about who governs not what they do. The subtext of this seemed to be that it wouldn’t be him deciding the policy. Under further questioning from Andrew Neil, Farage said he would like to get net

Ukip’s David Coburn cries BBC bias… over ITV debate

Nowadays it’s difficult for the BBC to air anything without facing some accusation of bias. As well as the well documented strand of right-wing bias and EU bias, there’s now anti-Corbyn bias — with the BBC’s Nick Robinson even accusing his employer of the latter. Last night things got so bad in the EU debate with David Cameron and Nigel Farage that the Beeb were accused of pro-EU bias once more. Ukip’s David Coburn took to Twitter to vent that the ‘BBC Knew the questions in advance’ and ‘chose which audience members speak’ so Remain had an easier ride. Alas, the Scottish MEP concludes that ‘Cameron still lost despite Aunties

Tom Goodenough

How the papers reacted: Farage ‘destroyed’ as Cameron is ‘taken to task’ during live EU showdown

David Cameron and Nigel Farage both avoided making any disastrous blunders during last night’s TV showdown and for that reason alone they’ll be pleased with their performances. Those in the ‘Leave’ camp especially were concerned about what Farage might do or say when he took to the stage. On the basis of last night’s showing, however, they need not have worried too much (albeit for the moment he told a woman watching to calm down). But as with last week’s EU events involving the Prime Minister and Michael Gove, much of the press coverage doesn’t focus on the two politicians who took the stage. Instead, it’s those in the audience

EU referendum TV debate – David Cameron vs Nigel Farage

Welcome to Coffee House’s coverage of ITV’s EU referendum debate. David Cameron and Nigel Farage faced public questions on the EU referendum. Here’s our commentary, as well as audio and video highlights, from the discussion.  PODCAST: Listen to Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman give their verdict on Cameron vs Farage: DAVID CAMERON:   James Forsyth David Cameron looked pretty happy at the end of that. He got his choice of opponent in this debate and did everything he could to take advantage of that, mentioning Farage at every opportunity. Cameron also benefited from going second, another thing which he got his way on, as he could rebut Farage’s points without any

Today in audio: ‘Remain’ fights back as PM warns of Brexit ‘bomb’

Momentum in the ‘Leave’ campaign seems to be growing after Brexit took the lead in two polls out today. There are, however, still several weeks until the actual day of the EU referendum and the gap between the two sides remains marginal (four per cent). But ‘Remain’ still seem shaken by these polls. Here’s how they spent the day fighting back: David Cameron said Brexit would put a bomb under Britain’s economy, going on to say that ‘the worst thing is, we would have lit the fuse ourselves’: The PM was backed up Lib Dem leader Tim Farron. In a joint event, Farron said the argument for ‘Leave’ was built

Brexit: the-stab-in-the-back myth is coming

I don’t know if ‘Leave’ supporters will win. With the young abstaining and the old voting in a low-turnout referendum, it is just about possible that they could. But it is already dismally clear how they will react if they lose: they won’t accept the result. Nigel Farage was proud to admit that he would be a bad loser. ‘In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way,’ he told the Mirror. ‘If the Remain campaign win two-thirds to one-third that ends it.’ The old-fashioned among you might have thought that in any electoral contest the side with the most votes wins. How out of touch

Ukip candidate who blamed litter on eastern European migrants is elected to the Welsh Assembly

As Nigel Farage come to terms with his old foe Neil Hamilton’s success in the Welsh elections, there is another new Welsh Ukip Assembly Member who could also prove problematic for party harmony. Earlier this year, Ukip candidate Gareth Bennett made the news after he blamed increased litter in Cardiff on eastern European migrants. He then appeared on Daily Politics where he admitted that he had no evidence to back up the claim: ‘where would I have gleaned the evidence for? Where is this data kept?’. While Mr S understands that Ukip’s high command were less than pleased with the interview, Bennett threatened to sue his own party for loss of earnings if

Queue

The language that President Barack Obama used was evidence of skulduggery, Nigel Farage declared. ‘The UK is gonna be in the back of the queue’ if it leaves the European Union, Mr Obama said, standing next to David Cameron in front of a gilt and stencilled Victorian wall in the Foreign Office. There! Americans say stand in line, Mr Farage suggested, so Mr Obama must be delivering words fed to him by the snake Cameron. Some reports had Mr Obama saying at the back of the queue, unconsciously adjusting his words to the British English idiom, rather than in the back of it, as though it were an estate car

Tom Goodenough

Watch: The Spectator’s Brexit debate

In the largest event in The Spectator’s 188-year history, 2,200 people packed into the Palladium this week to watch our debate chaired by Andrew Neil on whether Britain should leave the EU. Dan Hannan, Nigel Farage and Kate Hoey backed Brexit. Whilst Nick Clegg, Liz Kendall and Chuka Umunna argued that Britain was better off remaining a part of the European Union. Leave won the debate, which was sponsored by Rathbones, with a resounding number of the audience siding with Hannan, Farage and Hoey. But if you weren’t lucky enough to make it to the Spectator’s Brexit debate yourself, then you can make up your own mind by watching the

Freddy Gray

A right mess | 28 April 2016

[audioplayer src=”http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/261189280-the-spectator-podcast-the-wrong-right.mp3″ title=”Freddy Gray and Tom Slater discuss the state of the right” startat=22] Listen [/audioplayer] Is Boris Johnson turning into the thinking man’s Donald Trump? Just like the Donald, he’s got funny hair, charisma, and an appetite for women. He may not be as rich as Trump — although we were all impressed by his latest contribution to the Exchequer — but he makes up for that by having a much bigger vocabulary. He’s also able to get away with saying outrageous things because people think he’s entertaining. And in his efforts to persuade Britain to leave the European Union, Boris seems to be appealing to the same anti-politics

Watch: Andrew Tyrie grills Arron Banks over his Vote Leave feud – ‘it does seem to be an extraordinary fratricidal war’

Last week Vote Leave’s Dom Cummings was hauled before the Treasury Select Committee to be grilled on the Brexit campaign by a po-faced Andrew Tyrie. What followed was a lively exchange between Cummings and the committee chair as Tyrie tried to pin Cummings down on figures used in Vote Leave’s campaign literature. Today Cummings’s comrade Matthew Elliott was supposed to sit before the committee but the Vote Leave chief exec was once again unable to make it. Instead Arron Banks — of the rival group Leave.EU — is answering questions from the committee on the Brexit campaign. With little love lost between Banks’s Leave.EU and Vote Leave — which won the official

Steerpike

Watch: Cameron takes a swipe at Farage over his ‘poncey foreign-sounding’ name pronunciation

With little love lost between the Prime Minister and Nigel Farage, today the Ukip leader found himself on the receiving end of David Cameron’s ire during PMQs. When asking Cameron whether the public should listen to Brexit figures like Nigel Farage, Ben Bradshaw pronounced Farage’s name as ‘Farridge’. This delighted Cameron, who proceeded to blast Farage for using the ‘poncey foreign-sounding’ pronunciation. BB: With the United Kingdom facing our most momentous decision in a generation in eight weeks time, does the Prime Minister think it makes more sense for all of us to listen to all of our closest friends and allies around the world, or to a combination of French fascists,

Leave wins the Spectator Brexit debate at the London Palladium

It was the largest debate in The Spectator’s history: we sold out the 2,200-seat London Palladium for our debate on whether Britain should leave the EU, sponsored by Rathbones. The lineup: Dan Hannan, Nigel Farage and Kate Hoey vs Nick Clegg, Liz Kendall and Chuka Umunna. Andrew Neil chaired. Here are summaries of all the speeches, as well as the full audio: Daniel Hannan for Out. https://soundcloud.com/spectator1828/daniel-hannans-speech-in-spectator-brexit-debate Tonight, I’m inviting you to make me redundant – and, into the bargain, make Nigel redundant. And I wouldn’t be doing if I were not confident that there will be plenty of openings for newly-unemployed MEPs in the boom that would follow our exit from the European Union. Why do

Has Obama been watching too much Netflix?

There was something odd about Obama’s ‘back of the queue’ Brexit comment yesterday — and it wasn’t just that he felt he could dictate US trade policy for a time when he wouldn’t even be in power. The thing that struck Mr S was the phrasing of his message: ‘I think it’s fair to say that maybe some point down the line there might be a UK-US trade agreement, but it’s not going to happen any time soon because our focus is in negotiating with a big bloc—the European Union—to get a trade agreement done. And the UK is going to be at the back of the queue.’ As Nigel Farage

James Forsyth

Number 10 might be more confident than ever of EU referendum victory, but they’re still trying to load the debate dice

Downing Street is more confident than it has ever been that the EU referendum will be won. It is not just Barack Obama’s full-throated warning against Brexit that is responsible for this, but—as I say in my Sun column this morning—the sense that they have got the argument back onto their home turf of the economy. Indeed, it was striking how much Obama talked yesterday about the economic benefits to Britain of EU membership and the single market. The fact that this was his main message, rather than Western unity against Putin and Islamic State, shows which argument Number 10 thinks is working. The truth is that however spurious George

Will the EU referendum be a fair fight?

It is the most important decision that the Electoral Commission has ever taken: who to select as the lead campaign for Leave in the EU referendum. Three groups have applied for this designation. If the Electoral Commission gets it wrong, the referendum could effectively be over before it has even begun and the nation could be denied a proper debate and the chance to make an informed choice. The Electoral Commission’s decision is due this week. It is hugely important because whoever misses out on the designation will be limited to spending £700,000. The Trade Union and Socialist Coalition is unlikely, to put it mildly, to get the Electoral nod. So, the choice comes down

No, Simon Schama, people worried about gang rape and FGM aren’t ‘obsessed with sex’

Hardly anything is less likely to keep people reading than to mention an exciting evening in Toronto.  But stick with me. Because last Friday night in Toronto there was a debate (organised by the Munk debates, which can be watched in full here) on the great migration crisis which pitted Louise Arbour and Simon Schama against Nigel Farage and Mark Steyn.  Regular readers will know my views of Simon Schama on this matter, so I was looking forward to watching this exchange in the hope of seeing him get what in technical debate-speak is known as his ‘arse handed to him on a plate’. And sure enough it came, courtesy of

Nigel Farage: Boris had me worried after his ‘shambolic’ press conference

To the Conrad hotel in St James where Nigel Farage went head to head with former Labour spinner John McTernan in a Ladbrokes’ Brexit debate. Although the EU was the number one topic on the agenda, the panel chair Isabel Oakeshott — who is the co-author of Call Me Dave — managed to get pig on the menu as she recalled an email McTernan had sent about a journalist — during his time advising Julia Gillard in Australia: ‘This was an order as to how this journalist was to be treated: dead — not ever, no transcripts, no returned calls, dead, forever — that’s an order.’ She said that the email summed

Breaking: David Icke backs Brexit

Although the Out campaign has gained momentum since Michael Gove and Boris Johnson backed Brexit, there are still concerns that the campaign is yet to find a leader. However, could their prayers be about to be answered? Step forward David Icke. Yes, the Corbyn-loving purple-tracksuit-wearing-lizard-conspiracist has plumped for Out, with a series of eye-catching pieces of clip art: June 23 – NO to EU dark suits running your life (and they have hardly begun if we stay in): https://t.co/1KQCrXfyzj pic.twitter.com/aLOf6GUb11 — David Icke (@davidicke) February 21, 2016 Key figures choose sides as Cameron sets EU referendum date: https://t.co/bLNdP1bdn9 pic.twitter.com/F3CLVvAEVS — David Icke (@davidicke) February 21, 2016 The So-called German-Turkish Secret Pact