Apparently Nigel Farage ‘misspoke’ when he accidentally denounced UKIP’s sex education policy
UKIP has quickly spoken out to correct its leader Nigel Farage, after he denounced his own party’s policy to scrap sex education in primary schools.
Farage spoke on the Leaders Live event, organised by Bite the Ballot, and when asked about a proposal to scrap sex education for under 11s, which was unveiled at Party Conference by Deputy Leader Paul Nuttall, Farage denied knowing about it.
He said: “I’ve never advocated that policy. If somebody in UKIP in the past did, well so be it. But I think people need to have a rounded education and sex education is part of that.”
When one of the young people in the audience pointed out that the UKIP website includes details of the policy, Farage responded: “I know there was a debate about sex education for four-year-olds, whether that is appropriate. But I don’t think the age 11 was ever mentioned, okay?”
A UKIP spokesman told ITV that Farage “just misspoke” when he denied that the policy applied to all under 11s.
Tweeting today in admission of the confusion, Farage said: “Sorry, I missed the beginning of Nuttall’s conference speech. He did indeed lay out policy on sex education.”
There are currently several campaigns aiming to have more LGBT-inclusive sex education in all schools, and for Sex and Relationships Eduation (SRE) to be made compulsory in all British schools.
During the debate, when asked whether homosexuality should be “addressed in schools”, Farage said yes.
The Lib Dems have signalled support for the bill.
Labour has already promised to make SRE statutory if it wins the 2015 general election.
In October, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan hinted that she could be moving towards supporting statutory PSHE – however she is yet to confirm her intentions.
