UKIP’s Nigel Farage, was paraded onto the Andrew Marr show [BBC1] on Sunday morning. Yet surprisingly, there’s very little comment on the appearance from UKIP?
Why is that? For normally, Mr Farage, can’t wait to make some political capitol out of his BBC outings!
Indeed, the only reference to Mr Farage’s latest BBC performance to be found on UKIP’s web-site, can be found in a brief mention posted yesterday, and even that short paragraph has the feel of some sort of damage limitation exercise about it.

What could have gone wrong?

It was during his interview with Andrew Marr,that, Nigel Farage, made a statement that will not sit well with many within his Party.
Here’s the BBC’s own report on what Mr Farage actually said:
UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said he will not stand candidates against eurosceptic Tory and Labour MPs at the next general election.

Mr Farage told the BBC he did not wish to split the eurosceptic vote.

“We will always try and put what we see as the national interest above our own party interest,” he said.

He hopes to achieve UKIP’s best ever showing in the next European elections, on the back of the government’s refusal to hold a referendum on the EU Treaty.

Outlining his plans for the next general election, expected in 2009 or 2010, Mr Farage told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “We will not stand in that general election against MPs from the Conservative or Labour parties who are prepared to campaign on the same issues that we are.”

Now compare that with the comment from UKIP’s web-site:

Farage: Euroscepticism isn’t enough Monday - 04 February 2008

“UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has issued a statement in response to media reports suggesting that UKIP will not stand against Eurosceptic candidates at the next general election. “Our policy remains in place,” Mr Farage said. “The only circumstance in which we will not stand is against MPs who have signed up to the Better Off Out campaign. For us, saying that someone is eurosceptic is not sufficient.”

The only problem with that statement is that the ‘Better Off Out’ (BOO)campaign signatories is not binding and what an MP says, in order to win an election is not necessarily the same thing as he does after securing his seat. Besides, ‘BOO’ is but a pale imitation of the ‘British Declaration of Independence’ which really does pin down an MP.

Of course, there’s one sure way of knowing how sincere Mr Farage was when he said this, on national television:

“We will always try and put what we see as the national interest above our own party interest”.

Well, it’s common knowledge that the, BNP, is utterly opposed to our membership of the EU. Can we therefore take it that UKIP will not stand candidates against the BNP at the next General election. After all, he does say that he doesn’t want to split the ‘euroscptic’ vote.

Clearly Mr Farage is caught between a rock and a hard place. for without it being shown that his boast of ‘putting the national interest before all else’ was a lie, he can hardly do anything else other than reach an understanding with the BNP!

Maybe that’s why UKIP are being somewhat guarded over what their party leader meant, as opposed to what he said?

Once more it seems that the BNP will have to help UKIP members who missed Sunday’s programme hear what their own leader really said, given that they cannot obtain that information via their own web-site..........

UKIP pledges not to oppose eurosceptic MPs! | The British National Party