Nigel Farage v James O'Brien - Interview In Full - LBC

Nigel Farage challenged James O'Brien to a debate over his criticism of UKIP, what followed was one of the most electrifying interviews LBC has seen.

Following James's critical comments about Ukip, then leader Nigel Farage challenged James to a debate.

And in a very tense interview with James O'Brien, Mr Farage defended the parties from other countries he chooses to sit with at the European Parliament, some of which have expressed extreme views.

"What I've done in the European Parliament is try and draw a line to say we will not sit with people who we believe to be on the extremes. We will sit with people who we believe have a reasonable balanced point of view" Mr Farage said.

"I'll be honest - we've had a problem, in this group, with one of two members of the Northern League. But equally - the Conservative Party had problems with the man who celebrated the SS invasion of the Baltic states.

"We have said we will not sit with parties like Front Nationale -we are not a party that wants a billing to the far right."

He added: "If you look at the associations everyone has to form in European Parliament -  a degree of compromise is needed."

Mr Farage also said that any Ukip members with racist, extreme views are expelled from the party.

"Wherever we have found people who have extreme, racist, unpleasant views - we have unceremoniously got rid of them" he told James live in the studio.

"I have tried to protect the party by making clear that anybody that had previously been a BNP member - cannot join. And to hold up the views of a handful of people as representative of Ukip -isn't true."

In an interview that has been described in the media as "car-crash radio", "brutal" and "forensic", Mr Farage looked rattled before his Director of Communications Patrick O'Flynn interrupted and called an end to the debate.

#NigelFarage #JamesOBrien #LBC

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