Warlord
06-01-2013, 02:38 AM
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files/2012/09/ukip.jpg
Nigel Farage has said he is prepared to take legal action to get into televised leaders’ debates after it emerged that David Cameron wants to freeze him out.
Senior Tories say the Prime Minister does not want to share a platform with the UKIP leader.
He reportedly wants to try to stop Mr Farage signing up, by arguing that he cannot take part in a leaders’ debate as he represents a party without any MPs.
Some Conservatives are concerned that handing Mr Farage a platform could give him the kind of boost that Nick Clegg enjoyed from the first debate in 2010, which catapulted the Lib Dems briefly into the lead in the polls.
However broadcasters are already drawing up plans for a leaders’ debate before the European elections next May.
And Mr Farage, whose party finished second to the Tories in the Euro elections four years ago, has already been approached by a major television channel – understood to be Sky News.
Scottish Nationalist leader Alex Salmond went to court in 2010 for the right to join the debates but was turned down because he was only running in Scotland.
Now Mr Farage has revealed that he is prepared to go to court to appear in the general election debates in 2015.
He said: ‘He [Salmond] only contested 60 seats, we’re intending to contest 630 or 640. It would be expensive to go to court. But I would not preclude it.
‘We’re having a national election next May. We couldn’t not be included in that.’
Senior Tories believe Mr Cameron blew his chance of a majority at the last election with his lacklustre performance in the first election debate.
And the Prime Minister has publicly expressed concern that the three debates 'sucked the life' out of the last campaign. He has called for future debates to take place in the months before the May 2015 vote, rather than in the final weeks - a plan that has been privately ridiculed by broadcasters.
Some Tories are concerned that handing Mr Farage the platform to ridicule Mr Cameron would give him the kind of boost that Nick Clegg enjoyed from the first debate in 2010, which catapulted the Lib Dems briefly into the lead in the polls.
Focus groups conducted by the Tories are understood to have re-enforced the arguments of those in Downing Street who say they could disproportionately favour Ed Miliband.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2334258/Nigel-Farage-threatens-to-court-win-place-TV-debates-Cameron-refuses-share-platform-UKIP-leader.html#ixzz2Ux512GvP
Nigel Farage has said he is prepared to take legal action to get into televised leaders’ debates after it emerged that David Cameron wants to freeze him out.
Senior Tories say the Prime Minister does not want to share a platform with the UKIP leader.
He reportedly wants to try to stop Mr Farage signing up, by arguing that he cannot take part in a leaders’ debate as he represents a party without any MPs.
Some Conservatives are concerned that handing Mr Farage a platform could give him the kind of boost that Nick Clegg enjoyed from the first debate in 2010, which catapulted the Lib Dems briefly into the lead in the polls.
However broadcasters are already drawing up plans for a leaders’ debate before the European elections next May.
And Mr Farage, whose party finished second to the Tories in the Euro elections four years ago, has already been approached by a major television channel – understood to be Sky News.
Scottish Nationalist leader Alex Salmond went to court in 2010 for the right to join the debates but was turned down because he was only running in Scotland.
Now Mr Farage has revealed that he is prepared to go to court to appear in the general election debates in 2015.
He said: ‘He [Salmond] only contested 60 seats, we’re intending to contest 630 or 640. It would be expensive to go to court. But I would not preclude it.
‘We’re having a national election next May. We couldn’t not be included in that.’
Senior Tories believe Mr Cameron blew his chance of a majority at the last election with his lacklustre performance in the first election debate.
And the Prime Minister has publicly expressed concern that the three debates 'sucked the life' out of the last campaign. He has called for future debates to take place in the months before the May 2015 vote, rather than in the final weeks - a plan that has been privately ridiculed by broadcasters.
Some Tories are concerned that handing Mr Farage the platform to ridicule Mr Cameron would give him the kind of boost that Nick Clegg enjoyed from the first debate in 2010, which catapulted the Lib Dems briefly into the lead in the polls.
Focus groups conducted by the Tories are understood to have re-enforced the arguments of those in Downing Street who say they could disproportionately favour Ed Miliband.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2334258/Nigel-Farage-threatens-to-court-win-place-TV-debates-Cameron-refuses-share-platform-UKIP-leader.html#ixzz2Ux512GvP