Nigel Farage: David Cameron as PM is best option for UKIP
Nigel Farage has said David Cameron becoming prime minister is the best option for his party during an interview with Sky News, which will be aired in full at 5pm. As Sky News’ political editor Faisal Islam reports:
Farage also says the public is bored to death with the negativity of this campaign - “I’m upbeat about the positive message of the UKIP campaign” - and that he’s given up on Scotland.
ask farage: given up onScotland? scrapping Barnett £5bn in severe cuts: "yes they wanted devolution. why should people cafe in Margate pay?"
In-between interviews on British foreign policy, William Hague also found time to discuss the prime minister’s suggestion that he could be the next James Bond today.
Cameron had said in a radio interview that his judo-loving colleague would make a great successor to Daniel Craig and could probably “crack a man’s skull between his knee caps”.
Hague told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One that he did not think that he was up to taking on the role. “The Prime Minister told me about this himself this morning and I was a little horrified he’d made the suggestion. I don’t think I’d make a very good James Bond. My judo has taught me a lot of relevant skills but I don’t think I’d have all the relevant skills.” Does he bring this kind of modesty to the Cabinet?
Here’s a video of William Hague talking about Libya on the Daily Politics show earlier today, where he calls Ed Miliband opportunistic and says Labour have not put forward a better plan for Libya than what the Conservatives have been proposing. He says you need boots on the ground in Libya, but there would not be approval for that in Parliament.
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Business Secretary Vince Cable has commented on HSBC’s threat to leave the UK:
We have to take this threat of HSBC leaving the UK seriously even if it’s not in itself surprising as they are a predominantly Asian bank, making 80% of their profits there. They also routinely review the location of their headquarters every few years.
Cable said the bank had “responded to the ring-fence in a positive way”, but added that HSBC may be alarmed by “the possibility of a Conservative-dominated government distancing the UK from the European Union and therefore losing any influence over the key decisions affecting the financial services industry”.
“There is no denying it, a lot of people in the Labour movement are quite inspired by what he’s done in rejuvenating cities and regions,” Umunna says of Heseltine in an interview with the Guardian.
“Just because he is a Tory should not stand in the way of us working with him in the future and I very much hope to do that.”
Scottish Labour Leader Jim Murphy has responded to the Conservatives’ English Manifesto and their plans for English-only income tax, calling it a breach of the agreement made in the Smith Commission. He said:
The Tory party manifesto revealed their commitment to breaking up UK income tax. This is an absolute breach of the agreement they made in the Smith Commission. It is the Tory’s own plan for full fiscal autonomy for England.
Scotland is now in danger of being caught in a classic pincer movement between a Tory party that wants to cut Scotland out of the UK budget and the SNP that wants to cut Scotland out of UK taxes.
We now have a Tory party committed to an England only tax system and the SNP hell bent on Scotland only taxes. Both outcomes would be bad for Scotland.
Hello, I’m taking over from Andrew now for the rest of the day. I’m on Twitter @nadiakhomami and I’ll be reading your comments below the line as well, so share those wonderful thoughts and don’t be afraid to direct me towards anything you think I’ve missed out.
Ed Miliband’s analysis of the link between Libya and the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean has been backed by Paul Jackson, professor of politics at the University of Birmingham. In an article for The Conversation, he says that “the rapid escalation this year in the numbers of people drowned as they flee in leaky boats across the Mediterranean is a direct consequence of the conflict in Iraq, Syria and north Africa, specifically Libya – where the implications of the Western intervention are playing out in the deaths of thousands, whether from the violence itself or as they try desperately to escape to safety.”
That’s all from me, Andrew Sparrow, for today. My colleague Nadia Khomami is taking over now for the rest of the afternoon.
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