Miliband and Cameron now want Farage excluded from Leaders Debate after Clegg mauling

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...s-debates.html

Tories and Labour are scared of taking us on, says Farage after Miliband calls for UKIP leader to be banned from leaders' debates

- Mr Farage says the two main parties are 'running scared' of Ukip
- Opinion polls show he trounced Nick Clegg in Wednesday's debate
- Ukip appears to be drawing support from Labour and Lib Dem voters

Ed Miliband last night demanded that Nigel Farage is barred from the leaders’ debates at next year’s General Election.

His call came the day after Ukip leader Mr Farage trounced Nick Clegg in a second debate on Europe.

A senior Tory source indicated that the Conservatives would also seek to block Mr Farage – even though the anti-EU party has been ahead of the Liberal Democrats in the opinion polls for almost two years

Mr Farage last night accused the two main parties of ‘running scared’.

Ed Miliband last night demanded that Nigel Farage is barred from the leaders' debates at next year's General Election. In response, Farage accused the main political parties of 'running scared'

‘I am not the least bit surprised they want to exclude me,’ he said. ‘The establishment parties are frightened of our arguments, which they know have deep resonance with their own voters.’

Opinion polls suggest Mr Farage demolished the Deputy Prime Minister in Wednesday night’s debate broadcast on the BBC.

A YouGov poll for the Sun found Mr Farage triumphed by a margin of 68 to 27, and boosted support for the idea of Britain leaving the EU, with a six-point pro-EU lead in the polls transforming into a three-point lead for quitting in the immediate aftermath of the debate.

The poll also revealed that Ukip was drawing significant support from Labour and even the Lib Dems.

Some 57 per cent of Labour voters thought Mr Farage won the debate, as did 33 per cent of Lib Dems. Mr Miliband said yesterday he was ‘not that interested in Nigel Farage’.

He said his main concern was to debate with David Cameron, but said he would be happy to repeat the format from the 2010 election, which also included Mr Clegg.

One Tory said there was ‘zero interest’ in debating with Mr Farage. The Tories are also thought to be open to the idea of a straight debate with Labour, if it could be agreed with the main broadcasters.

Yesterday Mr Cameron said the debate had revealed that both Mr Clegg and Mr Farage held ‘extreme’ views on Europe.

The Prime Minister said: ‘Nick thinks there’s nothing wrong with Europe and we shouldn’t have a referendum; Nigel thinks there’s nothing right with Europe and we should just get out and leave.

'They’re both wrong. The right answer is to be tough for Britain, renegotiate, get a better deal and then give people the choice in an In/Out referendum.’

One Lib Dem MP yesterday said the debate had been so painful he had been reduced to watching it ‘from behind the sofa – with my hands in front of my face’.

But Mr Clegg yesterday insisted he had ‘enjoyed’ the debate and denied he was feeling ‘bruised’.

He said he had expected to lose in the opinion polls but said it was vital to start making the pro-European case.

Lib Dem aides believe that participation in the debate will boost Mr Clegg’s profile and could prevent the party suffering a meltdown in next month’s European Parliament elections.

Considering Clegg is the best debater out of the main three, it's no wonder that Cameron and especially the hopeless Miliband don't want Farage included. Can you imagine Farage against Miliband for example? To be fair to Cameron, he's always been against Farage taking part - but for Miliband this is a sudden U-turn as he was only saying a few months that he'd be open to the Ukip leader taking part. Why is that? Well it's because Ukip are now hoovering up more of the working class vote since 2010 now than Labour is:

The broadcasters should be the ones issuing the invites - there should be four podiums and whether the leaders decide to turn up is their decision, but an empty stand will be left in their place.

Also worth saying that it's clear that the main three parties want the Leaders Debates to be only between their cosy cartel where no real debate on policy takes place, only soundbytes are issued: it could just have easily been Cameron or Miliband in place of Clegg the other night making exactly the same arguments: and you can apply that to education, foreign policy, immigration, foreign aid and so on. All exactly the same on fundemental policy issues.

Do you think Miliband and Cameron are running scared? Would you like to see Farage included?

[Kardan]

Not surprising at all. Farage should be allowed.

[Chippiewill]

Dailymail are being pretty terrible with how they've put this. They're suggesting he demanded it, what he actually said is he doesn't personally think Farage should be there (Since UKIP doesn't have any seats) but he also stated that it wouldn't be his choice anyway.

The broadcasters should be the ones issuing the invites - there should be four podiums

Can't help but think you constricted yourself there.

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That graph in no way supports your point, you wouldn't expect labour's percentage to change much anyway since they already have most of the working class vote - whereas UKIP traditionally has had very low working class vote so any increase is going to put that percentage WAY up.

[GommeInc]

Milliband is a dreadful politician if he thinks it's about bums on seats. UKIP is popular, and should be included in the debates for this very reason. What a stupid thing to say from a stupid politician.

[Chippiewill]

Milliband is a dreadful politician if he thinks it's about bums on seats. UKIP is popular, and should be included in the debates for this very reason.

I actually think it's a pretty clever response to give to UKIP participation. A lot of UKIP's policy is based on principle and theoretical situations (e.g. we should leave the EU because 465 million people have the right to move to the UK - despite the fact that the figure has little bearing on people moving to the UK) without taking into account the realities of the situation we are in.

Similarly this reason Milliband has given is fully located in principle of people in seats rather than recognising the context of UKIP inevitable wiping the floor with a lot of Tory, Labour and Libdem seats in the next general election.

Of course we all know the real reason Milliband is against it is because he's worried he won't do very well, but let's not pretend for one second that Farage would not do the same if the tables were turned.

[GommeInc]

I actually think it's a pretty clever response to give to UKIP participation. A lot of UKIP's policy is based on principle and theoretical situations (e.g. we should leave the EU because 465 million people have the right to move to the UK - despite the fact that the figure has little bearing on people moving to the UK) without taking into account the realities of the situation we are in.

Similarly this reason Milliband has given is fully located in principle of people in seats rather than recognising the context of UKIP inevitable wiping the floor with a lot of Tory, Labour and Libdem seats in the next general election.

Of course we all know the real reason Milliband is against it is because he's worried he won't do very well, but let's not pretend for one second that Farage would not do the same if the tables were turned.

I doubt Farage would block people or suggest that people be left out of a debate - his ego loves a good boost every now and again His personality is completely different to that of the Labour Leader.

[Chippiewill]

I doubt Farage would block people or suggest that people be left out of a debate - his ego loves a good boost every now and again His personality is completely different to that of the Labour Leader.

Farage is the underdog in this instance, any exposure is good exposure. As a major political party any other presence will cut into your votes.

[GommeInc]

Farage is the underdog in this instance, any exposure is good exposure. As a major political party any other presence will cut into your votes.

But surely by not allowing underdogs in you're also opening up yourself to stagnating voters and not necessarily gaining any either? It seems quite important in this day and age, seeing as all the parties have a lot to prove as they're all either considered useless by a large swathe of voters or trying to gain some lost support from others, and as UKIP is popular blocking them from any debate will only really make the debates a bit stagnant and useless.

[Chippiewill]

But surely by not allowing underdogs in you're also opening up yourself to stagnating voters and not necessarily gaining any either?

I think Labour and the Conservatives are quite content with swapping the swing vote each election, they're in power far more often than they would be if they let others onto the big stage.

[GommeInc]

I think Labour and the Conservatives are quite content with swapping the swing vote each election, they're in power far more often than they would be if they let others onto the big stage.

Suppose that's a point. It's not really their shout as it's down to the BBC but then again politics can be very persuasive There was a discussion about how much air time Farage seems to be getting and how annoyed some people are - but these are people who do not know how to change channel.