Nick Robinson tonight gave Nigel Farage a merciless ribbing over Reform UK’s deeply flawed maths when the wannabe MP failed to reveal where his party would find £140billion worth of funding to fulfil their pledges.
The 60-year-old former MEP, who is standing in his eighth attempt to gain a parliamentary seat, was invited on a special edition of BBC Panorama with Nick Robinson, the latest in a series of Q&A sessions with the leaders of the major political parties.
But the usually cocksure Nigel was left floundering when Nick grilled him on Reform’s promise to spend £140billion on healthcare, tax cuts, upping numbers of soldiers and increasing the number of police officers.
“Everybody gets everything they want. It’s like Christmas when you open this [manifesto]. You told me the country was skint,” Nick pointed out.
“Yes, it is skint,” Nigel agreed.
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“That’s what you said. So, how come you can afford spending of £140billion a year, which is 50% more than Jeremy Corbyn[‘s 2019 Labour manifesto]?” asked the presenter.
Farage attempted to wriggle out of the line of fire, instead sidetracking to talk about Reform’s pledge to freeze immigration and leave the European Court of Human Rights so as to streamline the process of deporting immigrants.
But Nick held firm, saying: “I’m asking you where you get £140 billion a year. That is massive.”
Farage went on: “Let me explain. The biggest expenditure is raising the [income tax] threshold to £20,000. That means, if you’re on benefits now and you go to work and work more than 16 hours a week, you’re worse off.”
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“I still don’t know where the money is coming from,” said Nick.
“Well, number one, we will get people off the unemployment register into work,” Farage attempted.
But Nick shut him down brutally, saying: “That’s not going to raise you £140billion a year. You were on I’m A Celebrity, you should have been on Fantasy Island.”
The 60-year-old party leader also failed to make any mention of his intended seat – Clacton – despite a huge drive to send out Reform leaflets and drum up support in the seaside Essex town this week.
And he didn’t take back previous comments he made expressing admiration for Russian dictator Putin, saying only that he “disliked” him but “admired him as a political operator because he’s managed to take control of running Russia”.