Nigel Farage argued that very large mosques are “not necessarily a great idea”, as he toured a West Midlands town where the English Defence League has demonstrated against plans to build a Muslim place of worship with an 18-metre high minaret.
Speaking in Dudley North, the Ukip leader was speaking in a constituency where tensions over the mosque appeared to be at the heart of a plot by former Tory candidate Afzal Amin who allegedly tried to get the EDL to organise an anti-mosque march that he would then take credit for stopping. The scandal led to Amin’s resignation last month.
Asked for his view on the Dudley mosque, Farage said: “People need places of religious worship. It’s just a question of whether that scale is the right one or not. I’m not going to for one moment advocate that we should ban people from being able to worship their religion. I think it’s very important they do. But whether super mosques are the way forward is a separate question.”
Pressed for his personal opinion on the building of larger mosques in general, the Ukip leader added: “I personally don’t necessarily think it’s a great idea. I would rather see more smaller and proportionate mosques would be my own personal feeling.”
Farage’s carefully-worded comments come at a sensitive time following the resignation of Amin who stepped down as a Conservative candidate after his EDL plot was exposed.
Ukip is slipping in the polls nationally but may have received a boost in Dudley North since the Tory candidate dropped out of the race, with its parliamentary hopeful Bill Etheridge, an MEP, snapping at the heels of the incumbent, Labour’s Ian Austin.
Asked about Amin’s approach in Dudley, Farage said: “I’m not sure fomenting race riots is a very good solution which I think he was trying to do … I think anybody trying to stir something up that could be very dangerous for personal advantage is right to be exposed.”
The Ukip leader visited Dudley for a public meeting and to launch of his party’s defence policy, with a poster showing a solider using his helmet as a begging bowl.
Speaking to an audience of veterans, Farage said he was committed to spending 2% of national income on defence, putting pressure on the Conservatives and Labour for their refusal to confirm they would meet this Nato target.
Farage also spoke about the fact Ukip has eased in the polls since the beginning of the year, saying the “euphoria” of the byelection victories of Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless has faded. However, he said the party is only back at where it was six months ago and its core issues are gaining in prominence.
The Ukip leader is campaigning intensively in his target seat of South Thanet and across the country in between last week’s leaders’ TV debate and the challengers’ debate next week.
Farage courted controversy at the debate by bringing up the issue of foreigners with HIV getting treatment on the NHS, which he said was too expensive.
Asked in Dudley what other life-threatening illnesses could stop immigrants being allowed into the country under Ukip, Farage said: “[HIV] is one of the big ones, cancer and certain resistant strains of tuberculosis, which you ask the doctors about, they have got some real problems.”
He also suggested he thought David Cameron had dyed his hair when he met him at the ITV debate, saying: “I was very polite and complimented him on his appearance. Any man who can reverse the greying process I’m jealous of.”
