Nigel Farage said a Reform UK campaigner who made homophobic remarks did so because he’d “watched England play football” and “was drunk.”

An undercover Channel 4 reporter’s recording in Clacton showed a canvasser describing the Pride flag as “degenerate” and suggesting members of the LGBT community are paedophiles.

“People when they’re drunk often turn quite nasty. It was unforgivably nasty,” the party leader told Loose Women panellists on Friday, 28 June.

The Channel 4 footage also captured campaigners using a racial slur and suggesting migrants should be used as “target practice”.

Mr Farage has sought to distance himself from the comments, saying he was “dismayed” by the “appalling sentiments” expressed.