Nigel Farage claimed the worst racism he has seen in British politics has come from anti-English supporters of the Scottish National Party (SNP) as he dismissed questions about racism among his supporters.
The Ukip leader was confronted with a YouGov poll which showed that 28% of his party’s supporters said they held racist views but claimed it was an attempt to “demonise” them.
Mr Farage then went on to claim the “biggest racism” he had seen in British politics was coming from supporters of the SNP with anti-English hatred reaching an “astonishing level”.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Well the biggest racism I’ve seen in British politics is happening north of the border with the SNP, where some of the anti-English hatred is reaching a truly astonishing level and I would think that if the BBC are worried about racism that’s where they ought to be looking.”
Asked about the YouGov poll and whether he wanted racist supporters, Mr Farage said: “I’m suggesting you can ask a question and prove whatever you like, but once again we see an attempt to try to demonise Ukip supporters.”
Mr Farage also claimed that Ukip would perform better in the General Election than the opinion polls are showing because people are frightened about revealing about their support for the party in the face of “Establishment” claims that it is racist and backward-looking.
He said: “Because the Establishment, starting with David Cameron and going on just to yesterday with Chuka Umunna, try to say that Ukip supporters are racist, bad, nasty, inward-looking, backward-looking people and that’s why people are actually frightened on telephone polls to tell people what they really think.”