On Sunday 6 September Andrew Marr interviewed Nigel Farage MEP. Please note 'The Andrew Marr Show' must be credited if any part of this transcript is used. UKIP's Nigel Farage explains why he wants a seat in the Commons. ANDREW MARR: Come the next General Election, a lot of us will be keeping a special eye out for Buckingham where UKIP's Nigel Farage is going to fight the seat which is currently held by John Bercow, defying that long convention that other parties don't put up candidates against the Commons Speaker. Well Mr Farage is with me now. Good morning. NIGEL FARAGE: Good morning. ANDREW MARR: So what is the problem with Mr Bercow? NIGEL FARAGE: Well I think he represents all that's worst in British politics today - a careerist; somebody who was elected on a Conservative ticket and yet appeared to behave rather more like a New Labour MP; somebody who's just been elected Speaker of the House of Commons following an expenses scandal that has shocked millions of people in this country, and yet he was embroiled in it himself. The Speaker of the House of Commons is the symbol of the Commons globally. I don't think we picked the right man. ANDREW MARR: So you are really standing … No doubt you're standing on a UKIP ticket … NIGEL FARAGE: Yes. ANDREW MARR: … as a UKIP prospective candidate, but also on a reform the Commons clean out the rascals sort of ticket? NIGEL FARAGE: Partly that. But also I mean this House of Commons now doesn't even have the power to decide what lightbulbs we put in our living room, how we regulate our hedge funds. I mean 75% of our laws are made somewhere else. I would like to see a Speaker who was fighting like a lion to get British democracy back into the House of Commons. So for all of those reasons, I'm going to fight that seat. And I know that there are many Conservatives in Buckingham very unhappy with their MP. ANDREW MARR: Now Mr Bercow, whatever you say about him, was hardly one of the major offenders when it came to the expenses row. He was chosen as Speaker, you know albeit with lots of controversy, but he was chosen by the whole House of Commons … NIGEL FARAGE: Yeah. ANDREW MARR: … and this is a long, old tradition that you don't stand against him. Are you sure that the offences merit this? NIGEL FARAGE: Well it's not a long, old tradition in fact. I mean speakers were contested as recently as 1987, so that argument I'm afraid doesn't hold any water. And even if there is a convention there, why should I respect a convention in a political club where these people have given away our ability to govern our own country? I want to have a debate about British democracy, about parliament and about who governs Britain, and I'm going to try and do it in Buckingham. ANDREW MARR: To do this, you're giving up leadership of UKIP. Now you've had a fairly wild ride as Leader of UKIP. You've done a lot of … you've been very prominent, and I'm sure you'd argue you've kind of taken the party a long way ahead. Is there an alternative leader out there that you're going to be backing and that you think will take over? NIGEL FARAGE: Well the best time to get out of anything in life is when it's going well and try and sell at the top, so I think the party is more unified than it's ever been. We've just come second in a major national election and there's lots of fresh, new talent within UKIP and I'm confident we'll choose somebody very good. But I'm not going to back anybody. That would be the worst thing I could do. ANDREW MARR: Now let's just say for the sake of argument that you were actually elected to the House of Commons. You would be the first UKIP MP elected into the House of Commons. How big an issue do you think Europe's going to be if we get a Conservative government early next year? NIGEL FARAGE: Well the Conservative party would rather not discuss Europe, of course, because they know that their own grassroots, the vast majority of them, really think like UKIP. But I think the Irish referendum that's coming up in a few weeks time could change that. I'm off to Dublin tomorrow, I'm campaigning hard for the no side - they need all the help they can get - but at the moment, the odds suggest that it will be a yes vote. Now if we have a yes vote, where are the Conservatives on this issue? We know that Labour and the Lib-Dems broke their promise on giving us a referendum on Lisbon, but if Lisbon goes through what will the Tory government do? "We will not let matters rest there" is what we've been told. I suspect that that statement isn't worth a row of beans. ANDREW MARR: So do you see yourself as a potential sort of semi-leader of Conservative eurosceptics in the House of Commons? NIGEL FARAGE: It's not just the Conservative party. There are many eurosceptics in the Labour party as well, and we need to remember that. Let's see what happens. I mean I feel there were some very high profile people that came out and supported UKIP in the Euro Elections. If David Cameron is not able to offer them anything on Europe with a fresh Conservative government, I think those people will stay with us. ANDREW MARR: Nigel Farage, we will wait and see. NIGEL FARAGE: Thank you. ANDREW MARR: We will be watching Buckingham with great interest, no doubt, on election night. Thank you very much indeed. INTERVIEW ENDS
Please note "The Andrew Marr Show" must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.
NB: This transcript was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script. Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the BBC cannot vouch for its accuracy
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