Farage 'Not Standing Up For Britain' Says Clegg

Nigel Farage is “failing to stand up for Britain”, Nick Clegg will say as he escalates his offensive against the UKIP leader ahead of their televised head-to-head.

The Lib Dem leader will attack Mr Farage’s voting record as an MEP, accusing him of pocketing his taxpayer-funded salary but not bothering to turn up to vote on issues affecting Britain.

Mr Clegg has tried to seize the initiative on Europe by challenging the UKIP leader to a public debate on whether the UK should be in or out.

Speaking at the Centre for European Reform think-tank, Mr Clegg will say: “Nigel Farage and deputy leader Paul Nuttall rarely turn up to vote in the European Parliament, despite being happy to take their taxpayer-funded salaries.

“UKIP MEPs refuse to roll up their sleeves and get down to work. Nigel Farage hasn’t tabled a single amendment to EU legislation since July 2009.”

He said that UKIP had failed to act on issues that would help Britain, including voting against mobile phone roaming regulations that cut costs for holidaymakers.

Mr Clegg will say that while he supports being part of the EU, it did not mean he could not see faults.

He said: “Where the EU has become intrusive, it needs to be pushed back.

“We want to keep the UK opted out of rules we believe are damaging, like the 48-hour cap on the working week in the Working Time Directive.

“Working with our allies, the UK is already taking action to cut excessive EU red tape, saving thousands of pounds for thousands of small business across Britain.”

Mr Farage responded to Mr Clegg’s comments by saying that his voting record, which he said was 50%, was more than twice as good as Mr Clegg’s at Westminster, which he put at 22%.

“Our objective as MEPs is not to keep voting endlessly for more EU legislation and to take power away from Westminster,” he told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme.

“Our view in 15 years has been that we engage sufficiently here and we use that information to get a debate going back in the United Kingdom.

“It seems to me, given the debate we are now having on the European Union, that the UKIP policy has been pretty successful.”

The Liberal Democrats are at risk of losing seats in the European Parliament in the May 22 elections – polling has given UKIP a lead over the party.

The party’s president, Tim Farron, has warned the Lib Dems’ “very presence in the European Parliament could be at stake”, according to The Times.

“The next year will be the fight of our lives – to make sure the country knows everything that we have been doing as part of the coalition,” he said.

There will be two public debates, the first on LBC radio on March 26, the second on BBC2 on April 2.

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Farage 'Not Standing Up For Britain' Says Clegg