Nigel Farage makes a fool of himself on Sky News

Taken from Sky News:

ADAM BOULTON: It’s the European Parliamentary elections this week and if you are in the UK and you are not too keen on Europe and you don’t like the Conservatives then two parties are actually focusing on the whole question of Europe from a sceptical angle. There is Libertas and I’m joined now from Mullingar in County Westmeath in Ireland by their founder, Declan Ganley, who is actually standing in Ireland although he has candidates in many countries in these 27 nation European elections and also I am also joined here in the studio by the UK Independence Party’s leader, Nigel Farage, MEP. Why you rather than Libertas, Nigel?

NIGEL FARAGE: Libertas, I mean look, well done Declan Ganley for fighting the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland and the referendum, that’s good and I wish him well in his seat but the big difference is Declan Ganley believes in the EU and believes in membership of the EU, thinks it can be reformed and changed but that this treaty doesn’t take it in quite the right direction. That position is pretty much identical to that of David Cameron’s. Our position in UKIP is look, we want to trade with Europe, be friendly in Europe, co-operate with our next door neighbours but not be part of a political union and we are the only party offering that option.

ADAM BOULTON: Declan Ganley, you are pretty much the same as David Cameron only obviously less well known.

DECLAN GANLEY: Well we are very different to David Cameron and the Labour party. What Nigel is saying insofar as we are not against the European Union is correct, we’re not. The European Union needs dramatic reform, it needs it now. The fact is that the expense scandal that is going on in Brussels dwarfs that that is going on in the UK. In fact Nigel’s own party has had around a quarter of its members either investigated or indeed having been convicted of fraud and various other misdemeanours that are expense related. The fact is …

ADAM BOULTON: Whereas you … carry on.

DECLAN GANLEY: The fact is, is that Europe needs to be reformed, it needs to be reformed now. We have successfully defeated the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland, UKIP, the Tories, Labour, none of them have executed successful reform in the European Parliament. They talk about it, they talk a good game but they cannot deliver. We are running candidates across most of the member states of the European Union precisely because this is a numbers game, you need a significant number of seats in the European Parliament to be able to put the pressure on the Commission, which is ridiculously the only place that laws and regulations can be initiated. The fact is that the majority of the laws and regulations in the UK now come from Brussels, that now has to stop.

NIGEL FARAGE: Declan is right about the Commission … Declan is right about the Commission, it is the un-elected bureaucrats that make the laws.

ADAM BOULTON: The problem is you have been there with your colleagues in the European Parliament for five years, what have you achieved?

NIGEL FARAGE: Public opinion when I was first elected showed 25-30% of Britons thought we should be outside of the Union and have a simple trade deal. It is now 55-60% and what UKIP has done is to lead that argument, lead that debate and move the …

ADAM BOULTON: What have you actually done in Europe with a job and the money and the expenses that you’ve had?

NIGEL FARAGE: Oh goodness me, I exposed Commissioner Barrot as being a convicted embezzler, I am the only person in that parliament in the last ten years who has been able to get the entire commission on a motion of censure before the Parliament.

ADAM BOULTON: We heard David Cameron earlier saying you had voted to let Spanish fishermen into our waters.

NIGEL FARAGE: Amazing. Mr Cameron should check his facts. What the Tory party voted for was for 60% of the fish of the Shetland box to be caught by the French and Spanish fleets.

ADAM BOULTON: And how did you vote?

NIGEL FARAGE: We voted against it, we believe that 100% of the fish of the Shetland box should be caught by British fisherman and it is a bit rich for Mr Cameron, who turned his back on a CFP policy, to criticise us on fishing.

ADAM BOULTON: You did take part in a vote which allowed them in didn’t you?

NIGEL FARAGE: No, no, they were already in, it was a question of what allocation the British got and we thought that 40% in our territorial waters was not good enough.

ADAM BOULTON: Mr Ganley was also making the point there about politics as usual or possibly even worse as far as your MEPs are concerned. Two suspended, one …

NIGEL FARAGE: On expenses, on expenses, one. On expenses, one, who when it …

ADAM BOULTON: Mr Wise and Mr Mote.

NIGEL FARAGE: No, Mr Mote was an entirely separate issue. On expenses one and that person, even though when he was found to have done wrong he paid all the money back, we got rid of him immediately.

ADAM BOULTON: And you’ve got another one, Godfrey Bloom, who says he is Mr Clean, doesn’t employ his family, it turns out he employs his niece.

NIGEL FARAGE: Extraordinary, here is Godfrey Bloom who was given £20,000 of his daily allowances to charities, I don't think anyone is going to put a finger on him.

ADAM BOULTON: So why did he say he didn’t employ anyone from his family?

NIGEL FARAGE: He doesn’t employ his wife, he doesn’t employ his children, he employs a niece.

ADAM BOULTON: He employs a niece, okay. He also says anyone who employs a woman of child bearing age needs their head examined and he actually employs two women in their 20s.

NIGEL FARAGE: Well under, under the rules – and Alan Sugar agrees with that now too.

ADAM BOULTON: Let’s go back to Mr Ganley. Mr Ganley, how would you, if you do get into the European Parliament, would you take your expenses?

DECLAN GANLEY: We are going to publish our expenses on a quarterly basis online with full detailed receipted expenses. The fact is, is that it seems that many MEPs from the Labour party, from the Tory party, from UKIP, from the Liberals, seem to be in politics for money and not to serve the people. The fact is that right across Europe and very much in the UK, we want to ensure that the people of Britain get the opportunity to go in and vote for change and effective change delivered for the British people.

NIGEL FARAGE: They are all talking about change, they are all talking reform, we’ve had thirty years of talking about reform, it’s time we cut our links and got back to governing our own country.

DECLAN GANLEY: But the fact is that …

ADAM BOULTON: We are going to have to leave it there, thank you both very much indeed.

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