‘The opposition to Labour in
Wales’: Neil Hamilton

LOCAL ASSEMBLY member and UKIP’s leader in the Senedd Neil Hamilton appeared on BBC’s Question Time on Friday (Jun 2).

When asked by an audience member whether leaving the EU would increase her chances of getting on the property ladder or decrease them,

Mr Hamilton claimed that the principle driver for the increase in property values over recent years was ‘massive uncontrolled levels of immigration’.

“We’re adding to our population every single year, according to the Government’s official figures, a third of a million people. So we’re adding a city the size of Cardiff to the population of the UK every single year.

“If you increase the demand for property while supply remains largely constant, then prices are bound to increase.”

Mr Hamilton did acknowledge that there were other reasons for house prices being so high, including ‘restrictions on planning etc’ but said that it was ‘principally a population problem.’

However, Guardian columnist Owen Jones ‘strongly rejected’ the idea that immigration was a result of house price increases or the EU. “We let the Government off the hook when we blame foreigners for our government failing to build the houses we need,” he added.

Liz Truss recognised that there was ‘an issue’ with housing, and agreed that it was a UK Government policy issue.

Labour Out representative Frank Field MP said that he hoped no one would vote based on a George Osborne economic assertion.

In response to another question about housing and immigration, Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts managed a rather pointed dig at Mr Hamilton, AM for Mid and West Wales and Wiltshire resident.

“Speaking as the only person on the panel who lives in a house in Wales, I’d also like to note with some dismay that the only Welsh Assembly Member here kicked off on immigration, and that housing is actually a devolved matter and I would have expected some reference to that.”

She also suggested that immigration was not as much of a problem as migration, claiming that the factor of second homes was an issue, along with aging housing stock and a shortage of social housing.

In response to an audience member who asked whether it was true that no one knew what effect leaving the EU would have, given that no one had done it before, Ms Truss agreed. However, Mr Field, while agreeing that no one knew what the consequences would be, suggested that perhaps voters should take a more instinctive approach.

“I don’t believe that this reciting of facts, which no one knows whether they are true… on referendum day you are not going to make up your mind based on some politician giving you a whole series of facts,” he claimed.

“Our Very being has prepared us for this day, our history our backgrounds, our knowledge and we’ll be making a decision about the destiny of our country. And while of course we have to go through this poetry of politicians thinking they are important and boring you with programmes and facts… I don’t think sets of facts are going to help anyone do that.”

The questioner pointed out that no one was able to give any guarantees about the future, to which Owen Jones responded that workers’ rights were largely protected by the EU, and he further suggested that these rights ‘would burn on a bonfire lit by new Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnston.’

The panel was asked whether were they not in the EU, they would advocate joining, considering it was ‘corrupt and riddled with fraud. Ms Truss suggested that we had the best of both worlds at present, and a new country would struggle to negotiate such favourable terms.

One audience member said that we were not in a good position regarding Europe when ‘we have 28 unelected bureaucrats telling us how to run our country. It was also pointed out that any post-Brexit negotiations would involve the free movement of people.

Mr Hamilton said that unless we regained control of our borders we would not be able to control the flow of immigration.

However, Ms Saville Roberts said that the Labour Party had allowed immigration to become ‘a toxic subject’ and suggested that non-EU refugees from conflict zones made up a large proportion of inward migration.

Mr Field said that pressures had been put on wages and public services ‘since Labour opened the border in 2004.’ He also suggested that immigration had led to a million voters deserting the Labour Party for UKIP.

Mr Jones pointed out that many of the Vote Leave supporters who are referencing the NHS were ‘ideologically opposed’ to the existence of an NHS, quoting Mr Hamilton, who memorably described the NHS as ‘a more effective killing machine than The Taliban’.

The leadership of Jeremy Corbyn was, predictably, called into question, and it was asked whether he could be doing more to lead Labour in the Remain camp, given that 45% of Labour voters don’t know which side their party supports.

Mr Field suggested that a Leave vote would mean a change of Prime Minister, and suggested that the Labour Party had failed to show that it was ‘on the side of those who have the least in society.’

Neil Hamilton suggested that UKIP was currently the opposition to the Labour Party in Wales (ignoring the Welsh Conservatives) and, continuing his ‘unique’ approach to political metaphor, suggested that Plaid Cymru were ‘in bed with the Labour Party’.

In a debate which occasionally verged on the childish, Mr Hamilton also said that David Cameron was “a pretty pointless individual, he’s had about as much influence on events as a cork bobbing on the water, he just goes whichever way the tide goes.

“In a brief moment of candour after he became Tory leader, amazingly now 10 years ago, he let the cat out of the bag saying he was the ‘Heir to Blair’.

“I think the tragedy of David Cameron is that he doesn’t have many strong views on anything. I went into politics because I am motivated by strong beliefs.”

Mr Hamilton also gave a rather guarded argument when his troubled relationship with Nigel Farage was brought up: “I am as fond of him as he is of me,” he stated.