UKIP leader Nigel Farage has admitted that he would be willing to do a deal with Labour after the next election, adding “I’d be very comfortable supporting anybody that gave me an opportunity to get my country back”.
Farage spoke to British news magazine the New Statesman in an interview about his views on the electoral future of UKIP, the post ‘left-right’ political world, and his favourite members of parliament. When asked whether he’d consider going into a coalition with the Labour party if they were short of members of parliament following the next general election in May 2015, Farage said he wouldn’t rule it out, but preferred stopping short of coalition.
While he said a “Ukip-Labour-Lib Dem rainbow coalition” to keep the Conservatives out of power was “extremely unlikely”, UKIP could support Labour on “confidence motions and primary legislation” in return for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union. Indeed, UKIP would “do a deal with the Devil” and support “anybody that gave me an opportunity to get my country back”.
Moving on from the options for UKIP after the election, Farage said that Britain was beyond “left and right” politics, which had become meaningless as more and more powers were devolved to Europe and legacy political parties were left dancing around more peripheral matters. Keeping on political labels, he also denied that UKIP sat within the small-c conservative family, insisting he was a “radical” who wanted change.
Despite suggesting he’d be willing to cut a deal with Miliband in 2015, Farage was fairly scathing of their MPs when asked which politicians he most admired, calling the Labour group “bland”, although singling out vocal Labour Euro-sceptic Kate Hoey out for praise. With the Conservatives, he reserved his highest praise for chief whip Michael Gove, who he called “profoundly decent” and “open minded”.
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