Farage suggests Conservative pact at secret dinner with Murdoch

Farage suggests Conservative pact at secret dinner with Murdoch


Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, held a private dinner
with Rupert Murdoch earlier this week in which he suggested he would form an
electoral pact with the Conservatives if the Prime Minister stepped down.








Mr Farage is understood to have
told Mr Murdoch he hopes to win half of the seats in next year’s European
election Photo: Getty
Images






By Robert Winnett, Political
Editor

10:00PM GMT 07 Mar 2013

2626 Comments




The media tycoon invited Mr Farage to a dinner at his central London flat on
Tuesday evening in the wake of Ukip’s strong performance at the Eastleigh
by-election.


It was the pair’s first meeting and underlines the growing political
influence of the fringe party. The Ukip leader is understood to have told Mr
Murdoch that he hopes to win half of the seats in next year’s European election.



He said he will then set out plans to join forces with the Conservatives to
fight Labour in the 2015 general election, but only if David Cameron agrees to
step down as the party leader, well-placed sources said.


Mr Murdoch is said to be supportive of Mr Farage’s views towards Europe and
his backing for new grammar schools, but more sceptical about Ukip’s stance on
immigration. The emergence of the secret meeting is likely to add to the growing
pressure on the Prime Minister amid speculation that Cabinet ministers are
positioning themselves for future leadership bids.


Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has recently emerged as a potential Tory
leader after defying Cabinet calls for her to relax Britain’s immigration rules.




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Mr Cameron has sought to dismiss Ukip as a party of “fruitcakes” and “closet
racists” but several Conservative MPs believe it should be taken seriously and a
deal should be done with Mr Farage. The Ukip leader is thought to be prepared to
do a deal with virtually any other leader of the Conservatives except Mr
Cameron, whom he does not trust.

Last week, Ukip beat the Conservatives into third place in the Eastleigh
by-election which appears to have led to a series of announcements from the
Government on immigration as it seeks to address the growing electoral threat.


Mr Murdoch is thought to share Mr Farage’s disdain for the Prime Minister and
is not thought to have met Mr Cameron since the phone hacking scandal at the
News of the World erupted in 2011. However, the chairman of News Corporation has
maintained cordial relationships with several senior Conservative figures,
including Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, and Michael Gove, the Education
Secretary.

Mr Murdoch is also understood to have hosted a private dinner attended by
Owen Paterson, a Right-wing Eurosceptic member of the Cabinet, earlier this
week.

Before the last election, Mr Cameron and other senior Conservatives made
intensive efforts to secure the support of Mr Murdoch’s British newspapers,
particularly The Sun.

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Murdoch interfering in British politics yet againn!!!! disapopointed that Farrage did not see that he will be manipulated like Cameron was.

DOESN'T UKIP SUPPORT THE DISMANTLING OF THE NHS AD POSSIBLY WELFARE.

Badboy wrote:DOESN'T UKIP SUPPORT THE DISMANTLING OF THE NHS AD POSSIBLY WELFARE.

I doubt it Badboy, his main aim is to dismantle the EU and bring it back to a free market and Defense policy where all Countries are involved.

I'm disappointed that he dined with Murdoch, and hope he does not get too involved with him.

Nigel Farage: beware Ukip's smiling assassin


The Ukip leader Nigel Farage his party of 'cranks and gadflies’ have become
a clear and present danger to David Cameron and the Conservative Party








Flying the flag in Strasbourg:
'I can’t stand Cameron. He’s shallow and nobody trusts a word he says. I respect
people with different opinions that are sincerely held’ Photo: LUCAS
SCHIFRES






By Judith Woods

8:15PM GMT 15 Mar 2013

738 Comments




Oh dear. Without wishing to add to David Cameron’s woes, it is my unhappy
duty to inform him that I have arrived at the Strasbourg parliamentary offices
of the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage – and the number on the door is 007.
Coincidence? Given that our man in Europe, or at least the only one of our MEPs
anyone has ever heard of, represents a clear and present danger to the
Conservatives, perhaps not. Moreover, Farage, dapper in Savile Row suit and
silky socks nattily embroidered with purple £ signs, has the deceptively urbane
air of, if not a trained killer, then a smiling assassin.


“I can’t stand Cameron,” says Farage, witheringly, through a miasma of
cigarette smoke. “He’s shallow, nobody trusts a word he says. I respect people
with different opinions that are sincerely held. The Lib Dems make no secret
they are pro-Europe; I might disagree but at least they are upfront. I reserve
my hatred for the class of political weasels who say one thing in Britain and
then vote an entirely different way in the European Parliament.”


Said Conservative MEP weasels currently number 26. Ukip, branded “cranks and
gadflies” by Michael Howard in 2004, boasts a dozen MEPs, who pointedly wear
ties featuring gadflies and cranks. “Cameron makes promises he has no intention
of keeping because he can’t,” continues Farage. “Britain is so tied into the
European Union that he can’t leave the European Convention of Human Rights,
there is no room for manoeuvre.”


Later, when voting gets under way inside the plenary chamber, it’s clear that
the Farage fraternity spend their days voting a big fat (splenetic) no to
everything. It’s a “no” to new regulations on the disposal of timber, “no” to
resolutions about venture capital funds and a noisy barracking “no” to measures
giving EU institutions the authority to monitor and control member states’
budgets.


Not that it makes any difference; the votes are overwhelmingly in favour. On
the subject of voting, Cameron’s in-out referendum on Europe, announced in
January, ought to have rendered Ukip obsolete. That it didn’t, is a pressing
concern for Tory strategists. “Look, the problems of the Conservative Party are
not all down to me,” insists Farage. “They are suffering from major disconnect;
Tory voters are historically used to a party of free enterprise and wealth
creation, but all it wants to talk about is gay marriage, wind turbines and
metropolitan Notting Hill claptrap.”



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The wind was certainly taken out of the Tory turbines at last month’s
Eastleigh by-election, when Ukip took 28 per cent of the vote and beat the
Tories into third place. The result has transformed the political perceptions of
the party and the man. National polling puts Ukip at 17 per cent. Farage, the
clown figure on the fringes, best known for reliably delivering scabrous sound
bites, gleefully taking potshots at Europhiles and grinning more than is seemly
for any elected representative, has morphed into an homme sérieux.

He may have caused uproar and hilarity when he addressed the newly chosen
President of the EU and former prime minister of Belgium with the words: “I
don’t want to be rude, but, you know, really, you have the charisma of a damp
rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk.” He may have later raised the
roof by making an apology – to bank clerks everywhere. But when the former
commodities trader was summoned to a dinner a week ago with media mogul Rupert
Murdoch and emerged, bumptiously announcing that he might consider a deal with
the Tories, but only if they ditch Cameron, nobody laughed. Quite the opposite.


“Our effect on the Tories is more psychological than arithmetical,” says
Farage, with (slightly suspect) generosity, who, incidentally, would be minded
to do business with Michael Gove on the grounds “he doesn’t just talk, he
listens. If you drill down into the polls at Eastleigh and Corby and Rotherham
and Middlesbrough, you’ll see a third of our voters were Tories. The rest were
Lib Dems and fascinatingly, a significant number of people who haven’t voted for
years but were engaged enough to come out and support us – that’s hardly a
protest vote, is it?”

Political adversaries might snipe that Ukip’s crowd-pleasing policies on
Europe (get us out!) and immigration (get Johnny Foreigner out!), education
(more grammars!) and law and order (more slammers!) read like they were
scribbled on a beer mat. But its pint and a ploughman’s simplicity plays very
well with disillusioned voters across the spectrum. “Why is it deemed Right-wing
to want to govern your own country and make your own laws and have trade
agreements with Europe, but not be ruled by it?” cries Farage, rhetorically,
lighting up again and leaning back in his chair.

Farage’s public profile appears to be following a similar trajectory to that
of his fellow Eurosceptic Boris Johnson, former bumbling savant turned
statesman-in-waiting. Like Johnson, Farage has built a reputation on maverick
straight-talking. Like Johnson he possesses a love him or loathe him
recognisability. And he too is inexorably moving from the status of a loose
cannon to a sharp-shooting contender with the heart of the establishment in his
crosshairs.

“A lot of the rubbish written about us, Judith, is based on the fundamental
misjudgment that we are anti-Europe,” he says, jerking forward again. Sorry,
Nigel, what was that? You look pretty “anti” from where I’m sitting. In your
Brussels office you keep a coffin that you once used to bury the euro, complete
with last rites and holy water. “We’re not anti-Europe! That would be moronic!
Nor do we believe that Sodom and Gomorrah begins at Calais. Europe is vibrant
and exciting, which is why I stand against its harmonisation, homogenisation and
pasteurisation. When I first came here in 1999 I thought Britain was a square
peg in a round hole. Then in 2005, when the European constitution was rejected
by the French and Dutch, the EU response was just to ignore them. That’s when I
realised I wanted to get the whole of Europe out of the European Union. Here
they are building a superpower which, of course, is doomed to failure, but is
also, I honestly think, a very dangerous project. These people are fanatics.”


In the pot-calling-the-kettle pause that follows, let us take a quick
overview of Farage. Born and raised in Kent, he attended Dulwich College and
then became a metals trader where he gained a taste for expensive booze,
lapdancing clubs and a reputation for preposterous optimism. He has two adult
sons from his first marriage; one a high flier in international accountancy, the
other “black sheep” followed his father into the City. His second wife, Kirsten,
is German and their daughters, aged seven and 12, are being brought up
bilingual, which nicely spikes the guns of those who would charge him with
blanket xenophobia. Having cheated death on three occasions – a car accident,
testicular cancer and an aeroplane crash during the 2010 election, his carpe
diem ebullience is as irrepressible as his wilful insistence on chain-smoking is
incomprehensible.

“The people that run us now have had a gilded existence,” he opines,
mournfully. “I know what it’s like to run my own business and employ people and
work hard. I know what it is to be broke; I like to believe I’ve got a
reasonable idea of how real folk think and what their priorities are,” he says.
This 007 drives a Volvo estate, partly because he needs a capacious boot for his
fishing tackle but mostly because he’s brassic. Or at least relatively so.

“If I’d stayed in commodities I’d have been there for the boom – some of my
friends are worth millions. But the day Britain signed the Maastricht Treaty I
knew I had to do something. So here I am, earning half the salary of my local GP
and, having put four kids through private education, completely skint.”

The European media loves Farage because he has a fire in his belly
conspicuously absent from Euro-politicos. Not only is he charismatic, in a
faintly camp way, but he gives the impression that unlike career politicians he
is motivated by principle rather than power.

This makes him admirable to Joe Public – who watch him in their tens of
thousands on YouTube – and a pain to mainstream politicians. Proper policies to
tackle the deficit demand detail – something that Farage admits is not his
strong suit. How much easier to turn voters’ heads with stirring talk of
sovereignty and the sunny uplands of self-determination, free from red tape and
Bulgarians.

At the peripatetic European Parliament, which meets in Brussels and
Strasbourg, Farage leads the European Freedom and Democracy group, a loose
affiliation of variously rabid Eurosceptic parties who, individually, would have
little clout, but together can command speech time and the services of a central
secretariat. It also earns him a plum position in the front row, which, with
exquisite, excruciating irony turns out to be the seat next to Jose Manuel
Barroso, the European Commission President.

Although Ukip hasn’t progressed much beyond a one-man band – both female MEPs
defected amid accusations of Stalinism, sexism and general nefariousness –
Farage is keen to increase the profile of the deputy leader, Paul Nuttall, a
working-class Liverpudlian. By all accounts with a little extra push – and
Farage as the jaunty poster boy – Ukip could have taken Eastleigh. So, Nigel,
why didn’t you stand? Were you running scared?

“Winning a seat would have been very good in the short term, but a very bad
mistake in the medium and long term. I want to lead Ukip into the European
elections next year and I can’t do that sitting on the back benches. I believe
we’ve got the opportunity to come first across the UK. It’s about momentum.”


His sights aren’t just set on Europe, as the Tories know; but his strategy is
one shrewdly borrowed from the Left, entryism. “The way we will break into
Westminster is as a consequence of having council seats,” says Farage. “We are
going to be fielding a lot of candidates in the forthcoming county council
elections. I’m about to spent a fortnight touring Britain on a bus, spreading
the message – and I’m going to love every minute of it.”

We should believe him. Farage’s key weapon lies in his immense personability.
On Question Time he comes across as a contrarian, ergo a beacon of common sense.
Across a lunch table he is fabulously indiscreet, gossipy and great company. So
for this 007, glad-handing the locals in pedestrian precincts the length of the
land will be a steal. Other parties may insist they are concerned about Europe
too, but Nigel will be neither shaken nor stirred because we all know he flagged
it up first.

That’s what makes him such a headache to Tory strategists. Is he a zealot? Is
he a prophet? And does it matter? After all, come the local, the European, the
national elections, a protest vote has the same weight as any other vote.

. But when the former
commodities trader was summoned to a dinner a week ago with media mogul Rupert
Murdoch and emerged, bumptiously announcing that he might consider a deal with
the Tories, but only if they ditch Cameron, nobody laughed. Quite the opposite.


“Our effect on the Tories is more psychological than arithmetical,” says
Farage, with (slightly suspect) generosity, who, incidentally, would be minded
to do business with Michael Gove on the grounds “he doesn’t just talk, he
listens.

When I first read that Farrage was having dinner with Murdoch, I smelled a political rat, Murdoch was responsible for getting Cameron elected , a bad decision for the Country but good for him because he could rely on Cameron to do what he was told. I hope Farrage hasn't been taken in by Murdoch offering help to get the UKIP Party several more seats , they don't need him. I agree with Farrage about Michael Gove, he is doing much to improve our Education System.

At least voters have been forewarned......snake in the grass comes to mind.
He must have a self district button wanting to hold hands with Murdoch

Lillyofthevalley wrote:At least voters have been forewarned......snake in the grass comes to mind.
He must have a self district button wanting to hold hands with Murdoch

Either Farrage is wise to Murdoch or he gets taken in .....but common sense should tell him that Murdoch has no sense of Loyalty , if he was trying to get UKIP to take over from the LibDems who are climbing into bed with Labour, I don't think UKIP is that strong at the moment and Farrage has not resigned as an MEP yet.

Last Updated: 2:02PM 23/03/2013



UKIP leader Nigel Farage has insisted the party is more than just a vehicle for protest after it came second in the Eastleigh by-election, kicking the Conservatives into third place.

He told the party's spring conference in Exeter the public is angry with the failure of the three main parties on key issues.
But he argued UKIP's shock result in Eastleigh was not merely a rejection of their opponents.
Mr Farage listed a range of areas - from Europe Union membership to cost of living and an obsession with renewable energy - where the public feels "incredibly let down".
However, he insisted he was "pretty sure" UKIP's appeal goes wider than disaffection, stressing that the party has a coherent policy platform.
He also said UKIP should not only target disaffected Conservative voters but also traditional Labour supporters, some of whom may be won over by its stance on immigration.
Mr Farage focused in his speech on what he sees as the impact of immigration on working-class communities, where some believe extra pressure has been put on public services.
He told the conference: "The truth is, that on immigration, those three parties, the LibLabCon, are all the same, because they all support a total open door to the whole of Eastern Europe.
"They all support that door being flung even wider open to the 29m people from Bulgaria and Romania ... but worse than that, they even all support Turkey joining the European Union.
"Our message is simple, we are not against anybody, we wish people from all those former communist countries the very best, but it cannot make sense for us to open our doors to massive oversupply in the unskilled labour market in this country, at a time when we have a million people out of work."
A sign of UKIP's growing credibility came recently when Mr Farage was invited to dinner with Rupert Murdoch.
The Eastleigh by-election was forced after the resignation of Lib Dem cabinet minister Chris Huhne, who pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice by getting his wife Vicky Pryce to take three speeding points.
The UKIP candidate Diane James was only 2,000 votes behind the Lib Dem winner Mike Thornton and more than 1,000 ahead of the third-placed Conservative candidate Maria Hutchings.
UKIP won a 27.8% share of the vote, which had a 52% turnout.
The result was widely regarded as a win in all but name for UKIP, and a devastating defeat for the Tories. Labour, meanwhile, despite doing well in national polls, failed to increase their share and were a long way behind.
It was the fourth time that UKIP had come second in a by-election.

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In an article for The Times Mr Farage, the
Ukip leader, said that the need for eurosceptic party would have “never arisen”
if Baroness Thatcher had remained in power.


Mr Farage said that Lady Thatcher would never have signed Britain up to the
Maastricht treaty without a referendum in 1992, two years after she left office
following pressure from Cabinet colleagues and backbenchers.


David Cameron has promised an in/out referendum on Britain’s position in the
European Union in a bid to stem the tide of criticism accusing him of not being
tough enough on Europe.


“I was asked last week if Ukip would have been necessary if Mrs Thatcher had
not been overthrown before the Maastricht treaty,” Mr Farage said. “Had she
still been in power in 1992 there would have been a referendum on that treaty,
and the need for Ukip would probably never have arisen