Nigel Farage was put on the back foot when he was laughed at for making an outrageous claim.
The Reform UK leader was the subject of mockery at Thursday night’s ITV Election Debate when he told the audience “I’ve actually always told the truth”.
During the seven-way debate – which featured Angela Rayner for Labour, Penny Mordaunt representing the Conservatives, Carla Denyer from the Green Party, Stephen Flynn for the Scottish National Party, Daisy Cooper from the Liberal Democrats and Rhun ap Iorwerth for Plaid Cymru – Farage repeatedly made reference to a “population explosion”.
When one audience member asked the panel what their political parties were planning to do about immigration propping up the British economy, Farage slammed Rayner and Mordaunt for sidestepping the topic.
“The answer to your question is, what are they going to do about it? Neither of them are going to do anything. These people have lied to us repeatedly,” he started.
“Ha, says you!” Stephen Flynn chipped in, to laughter from the audience.
Farage attempted to continue, “And Labour…Labour…” before Flynn spoke over him again, savagely saying: “You’ve made a career of doing that.”
Getting rattled, Farage cried: “I’ve actually always told the truth” – which got the biggest laugh of the night.
Of course, it was just this morning the twice-married politician was called out on LBC radio by a street cleaner over his dubious claims.
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PA)
Mike – a former street cleaner in the Greater Manchester town of Oldham -told Farage he’s been telling a “pack of lies” over claims there are streets in the town where “no-one speaks English”.
“Nigel, you made a statement a couple of weeks ago that there are streets in Oldham that can’t speak English. Name a street in Oldham where the entire street can’t speak English, please,” said Mike.
Mr Farage swerved the question and instead referred to an account in a Guardian article where a journalist was accompanied by a translator.
The caller, who said he spent the last 10 years of his life for Oldham street cleaning, replied: “I think he’s talking a pack of lies, Nigel. You name a street that can’t speak English.” Mr Farage again failed to name a specific street, and instead told LBC host Nick Ferrari: “I don’t know whether he [Mike] knocks on doors.”
Earlier this month the leader of Oldham council, Arooj Shah, hit out at Mr Farage’s “stupid and inaccurate” remarks after he told a BBC presenter: “I could take you to streets in Oldham where no-one speaks English.”
Ms Shah added at the time: “As Reform and the Conservative Party go to war with each other for a tiny slice of the British electorate, trying to antagonise and provoke hate and division to grab a handful of votes, residents in Oldham and across the UK want answers to the real issues facing people today.”