ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now then, the race to discover who will be the next leader of UKIP is underway and with the backing of the party’s key donor, Aaron Banks, it looks like Raheem Kassam is the front runner.  One of the candidates, Suzanne Evans, who today confirmed her own candidacy, said that she feared he would take the party in what she called a far right direction. Well Mr Kassam joins me now, a very good morning to you, Mr Kassam.  Well let’s respond directly, let’s hear it from you, from Suzanne Evans, she talked about that far right direction and she also talked about not wanting that kind of toxicity in the party.

RAHEEM KASSAM: I don’t want this to be about personal attacks and I was disappointed that sixty seconds into her campaign launch she makes it a personal attack on me.  I think this is about the future of the party, I certainly do not consider myself far right and I think she never considered me far right when she asked for my help writing UKIPs manifesto in 2015 so this is just politics and I want to get away from that and I want to talk about what the future of the party should be and what the future of the country should be.  So I am going to say to her, let’s stop all of that, let’s come together as people who believe in Britain and actually knock our heads together and come up with the right solution.  She can meet me whenever she wants.  

DM: But do you think she is an asset to the party?

RAHEEM KASSAM: I think she can be, I think there is …

DM: But not at the moment then?

RAHEEM KASSAM: I think there is no doubt when she goes in front of television cameras and takes the party line on things and she can present them in a very reasonable and good way but when she does things like this it really undermines here, it undermines her campaign and it is an attack on a lot of the party members.  There was a YouGov study that came out today which shows that the party likes the direction that Nigel Farage has taken it in, they don’t want to compromise on that and she is talking about compromising on it and being this centrist party and I am here to say that I would continue Nigel Farage’s legacy inside UKIP.

DM: You are not a unifier are you, you are pretty forthright about many of the personalities and members of the party, are you serious about trying to unify the party or do you just want to get rid of them?

RAHEEM KASSAM: I am deadly serious.  If these people, like me by the way, can be penitent sinners and say we’ve said some things in the past that we don’t wish to stand by …

DM: So they are sinners at the moment, Douglas Carswell is a sinner?

RAHEEM KASSAM: I think a lot of us are and I am putting myself in that but I think now, especially after that incident with Steven Woolfe at the European Parliament, we have to say this has gone too far.  We are all in the same party and if we wish to remain in the same party let’s sit round a table together.  

DM: You said in 2015 after the general election, ‘Looking at much of UKIP and thinking you are just a bunch of ragtag unprofessional embarrassing people who let Nigel down at every juncture.’  Are you saying things have changed or have you got to sort that out?

RAHEEM KASSAM: It needs sorting out, it really does need sorting out.

DM: Somebody is going to have to go then aren’t they?

RAHEEM KASSAM: Well some structures need changing, the party needs a professional management board.  It is ludicrous that you have elected members of the National Executive Committee who fight their own seats across the country in charge of the finances and in charge of campaign strategy because they are going to favour their own seats and their own campaigns.  It needs a professional management board and yes, that means some of the NEC powers will have to go and the NEC should be turned into a regional representation for the party.  So yes, I am the only candidate, I truly believe I am the only candidate who is willing to go in there and say this needs real change.  

DM: Okay so if some of them can’t deal with that, they go and then you bring in the likes of Tommy Robinson.  I saw an interesting video of you on YouTube talking quite recently about Tommy Robinson, who of course is the former leader of the English Defence League, now involved in Pergida in the UK.  Are you saying you would consider having him in UKIP?

RAHEEM KASSAM: No, I’ve never said that.  What I’ve said is …

DM: You’ve said he’s a friend of yours.

RAHEEM KASSAM: Actually what I’ve said is he is a great source because I am a journalist, I am still a journalist, I have to get in there, I have to get into these rallies and I report on them and we video them and we interview people and I’ve interviewed him twice now.  I actually will say this myself, I actually stood up at the Pergida rally and gave a speech about Brexit, about Brexit, because it was ahead of the EU referendum.  Tommy Robinson wouldn’t have a place in the UK Independence Party, I believe he has even said that himself.  

DM: Unless he changes?

RAHEEM KASSAM: No, no, no, you see my policy on the blanket ban inside UKIP has been very clear from day one and you get all of the other candidates trying to spin it to journalists,  this is how politics works.  My policy has been very, very clear, that if you want to pay for your own CRB check, your own disbarment service check, then the party can sit you in front of a panel and you can make your case to them.  But let me ask you this question if you don’t mind, how many members of the far right do you think are going to join a party led by a chap called Raheem Kassam?

DM: Well you said you were friends with Tommy Robinson, he looks like a member of the far right to me.

RAHEEM KASSAM:  Well I think what Tommy did when he left the EDL was try and sever that tie.  That’s not me defending him, I am interpreting that as a journalist.

DM: Do you think you’ve got the temperament to do this job?  I’ve been reading your twitter feed as well and it may have been late at night, the one I read, when you were having an exchange with the trolls perhaps who were having a go at you, I think you were watching Newsnight together.  You were using the C word, the F word, the S word, you were barring people, do you think you could restrain yourself if you became leader?

RAHEEM KASSAM:  You know, my job has been to be a very combative journalist, my job has been to be a little out there, a little bit getting some attention, things like that but nowadays, in the 21st century we live our lives in short bursts.  I’ve been a journalist, I’ve been a think tanker, I’ve been a comms director, I’ve worked for Nigel Farage.  You move on and you can be different people in my life.  I haven’t sat here my whole life going I want to aspire to be a politician and therefore I’m going to carry myself like a PC robot.  I’ve been a normal human being and your question was …

DM: Would you use Anglo-Saxon swear words if you become leader?

RAHEEM KASSAM:   No, of course not but people use that kind of language, walk down any high street with me and you can hear it, none of us are beyond making mistakes like that but it’s about being able to own up to them and say look, I’ve done that, I’m not going to do that now.  Listen to this interview, go away and look at my other interviews on television, it’s not that is it?

DM: Now talking about policies, we’ve got to talk about Calais and your view on the child refugees coming in.  You obviously don’t believe some of them are children for a start.  

RAHEEM KASSAM:   I would like the evidence is all I’m saying.  

DM: Would you want testing, dental testing?

RAHEEM KASSAM:   Yes, I think so, I think it has to be and I would actually like this to be a transparent process, I would like these records to go up on the government website, obviously redacted.  We don’t want their faces, we don’t want their names attached to these things but we can show that these tests have been done.  If the government can prove to the British public and calm all of this stuff down, then why doesn’t it just do it?

DM: And what about Gary Lineker, he’s been very voluble in supporting people whatever age they are, he said it’s basic humanity to be concerned about our fellow individuals in the world, people are saying he has strayed across a line here and he should be sacked by the BBC, what’s your view?

RAHEEM KASSAM:   Well I have never been a big fan of people who are in different industries and sports industry and things like that chiming in on politics, they are more than welcome to but I just don’t think they have got all the facts to hand.  I am not a big Walkers fan, I prefer the real McCoy.  

DM: You obviously pre-prepared that but do you think he should still be employed by the BBC?

RAHEEM KASSAM:   I did not know you were going to ask me that.  That’s an issue for the BBC to take out, they have their own structures inside determining whether or not their people should do this sort of thing.  I don’t care personally, it’s not a big issue for me.  Gary Lineker …

DM: Raheem Kassam, thank you very much indeed, standing for the leadership of UKIP.