My stance on key issues, in the Lancashire Post

All Preston’s candidates were recently interviewed by the Evening Post’s Fiona Finch, for a feature in today’s paper.

I suppose it’s hard for Fiona to cut down what we all had to say to fit the space she had available, but I’m glad to say that she has reported my policies mostly accurately, although incompletely. I think she’s done a pretty good job.

There is one mistake, however, perhaps due to the poor telephone line over which we spoke: she wrote that UKIP “would increase medical training places by about 10,000 every year over a few years”, which of course is incorrect. (It would be a mistake of almost Abbottian proportions: it would increase the number of training places from 7,500 to 57,500 over five years, an increase of 767%!)

What we would actually do is raise the cap of medical training places by a third, from 7,500 a year to 10,000 a year. See this video for more on our policy on health and social care.

Here’s what I had to say, corrected as described above.

What are your plans for the NHS?

UKIP is the only party that has a plan for the combined health care and social care system. We’d have a joined up management. We would increase medical training places by about to 10,000 every year over a few years (from 7,500). We would introduce a licensing system for hospital managers. We will have a medical insurance recovery for migrants

How will you combat terrorism?

We would employ more policemen and prison officers. We’ve lost about 20,000 policemen over the last generation or so. We would reinstate that number and the resources they need. Our prisons are overcrowded – we would build more prisons but not knock down the other prisons. We would reintroduce Stop and Search (powers).

What kind of Brexit do you want to negotiate?

I want a full British Brexit. We’ll have a Brexit bonus of just under £10bn a year – our net contribution to the EU. We’ll be a self governing nation once again. We will be able to restore sovereignty over borders and fishing grounds.

How will you fund social care?

It’s a serious problem and we haven’t got a simple solution. We are proposing a Royal Commission to find a way forward. UKIP is very strong on inter-generational fairness. We are not keen on proposals that will require people to effectively give up their homes when they die rather than pass them on to their family.

Will you control immigration?

We have a policy over the next Parliament there will be zero net migration. We can’t achieve that while we are in the European Union.

What are your policies on the environment?

UKIP would repeal the Climate Change Act of 2008. It is no good for the environment and it damages our economy.