Frankie Boyle has accused the Government of being responsible for bigoted views in Britain, saying "there is racism at the heart of British policy".
Speaking at the High Court, where he is suing the Daily Mirror for libel after they described him as 'Racist comedian Frankie Boyle', he denied that British people are racist.
He said: ''I think it is a top down thing. I think you have a lot of rich and Conservative people who control our country who are racist and their views trickle down through things like tabloid papers.''
Boyle has had to defend some of his most notorious and provocative jokes during the trial, such as those about burkha-wearing women and the use of the word n****r on his Channel 4 show, Tramadol Nights.
Lawyers for Daily Mirror publishers, Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), have accused Boyle of being a "racist comedian" who is too willing to use negative stereotypes in his comedic routines.
Boyle insisted that Tramadol Nights was intended to be "ridiculous, over the top nihilism" and that "when you see it (the N-word) in the context of the show it can be more easily explained".
After the court saw footage from BBC2 quiz, Mock The Week, where Boyle discussed immigration, he claimed that he was pretending to be someone with racist views and in real life he "despises" such people and was quite clearly mocking them.
Boyle was also asked whether his comments on Olympian Rebecca Adlington on Mock The Week got him fired from the show.
He said: "Absolutely not. The idea you would be forced to quit the show for saying someone looks like they are looking in the back of a spoon, it just seems ridiculous because they just don't sack people on those panel shows."
The trial before Mr Justice Eady continues.
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