‘Tough gig’ for Clegg in public debate with Farage

But the Justice Minister insisted the Deputy Prime Minister was not afraid of difficult challenges and claimed he was “hugely qualified” to take on the charismatic Mr Farage.

Mr Farage on Friday accepted Mr Clegg’s challenge to a public debate on the EU saying he had no choice but to pick up the gauntlet thrown down by the Lib Dem leader.

Tory grandee Lord Heseltine described Mr Clegg’s decision to challenge Mr Farage to a public debate as a “misjudgement” but Mr Hughes insisted Mr Clegg was a “solid Brit” who understands the benefits of EU membership.

The former deputy leader of the Lib Dems told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “Of all the people that’s equipped to know the history and the workings of the EU and its benefits and has also had to argue this case lately I think Nick is hugely well qualified. He can speak as a solid Brit who understands the benefits. I think it will be great television.

“It will be a tough gig and
he knows that and Nigel is a
difficult opponent but Nick has never been afraid. He wouldn’t
be in government with the
Tories if he was afraid of tough gigs.”

Lord Heseltine described Ukip as an isolationist party that is actually more concerned with immigration than Europe.

He said Mr Clegg should not publicly take on Mr Farage and said Ukip should be treated the way Margaret Thatcher’s government treated the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the 80s.

The former Cabinet Minister told the Sky News Murnaghan programme: “I wouldn’t do it if I was him (Mr Clegg). I think that it’s a misjudgement frankly to equate the leadership of a party which is part of government with a protest group, particularly a protest group which frankly is more about immigration than it is about Europe.

“There were things that are worth doing about Ukip – the first of all is to tell people what Ukip is really about. The way to do that of course is to stop talking about the United Kingdom Independence Party and start talking about the United Kingdom isolationist party.

“It’s exactly what we did with the CND in about 1983 I think it was. We stopped talking about the campaign for nuclear disarmament and started talking about one-sided disarmament and everybody realised then what it meant.

He added: “There are lots of things that should be done about improving Europe but giving up and leaving Germany as the dominant European partner frankly spits in the wind of English foreign policy over centuries.”