The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will take on UKIP Leader Nigel Farage in a live debate tonight. The debate has been organised by LBC, the national talk radio station, and will be televised live on Sky News.
Farage has brushed off concerns that he might be beaten by Clegg, who propelled his party to some of its best results ever by winning the Leaders’ debates in the run up to the 2010 General Election.
Mr Farage said: “I’ve battled on for 20 years, I’ve been laughed at, ridiculed, attacked. But at no point in the 15 years that I’ve now been an MEP have we ever had a full national debate about the merits or demerits of EU membership.
“Therefore, when the deputy PM says he wants to go public and have a debate with me on this issue, I have absolutely no choice.
“I’ve got to say yes, because we need to have a national debate on what I think is the most important issue this country has faced for hundreds of years.”
The debate is being held ahead of the European Elections in May, and comes at a time when UKIP are riding high in the opinion polls, whilst Clegg’s Liberal Democrats are foundering. And Farage may get the upper hand as the polls show just 7 percent of the British public trust Nick Clegg on Europe.
Conservative MP James Wharton explained to Breitbart London that Clegg’s unpopularity on the issue is because he refused to offer the public a referendum.
Wharton, who sponsored the bill to give the public a say after the 2015 election, said: “You cannot trust the Lib Dems on Europe because they refuse to trust us.
“At the last election many Lib Dem MPs campaigned to offer a ‘real referendum’ on our membership of the EU, yet when I brought forward a Bill to do just that they opposed it. Just as with tuition fees they say one thing when they want votes and another when they get into power.”
The debate is due to start at 7pm GMT tonight, with live coverage on Sky News and LBC. Viewers outside the UK can watch the debate on youtube.
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