Nigel Farage is a “hate peddling soothsayer” Labour MP Jess Phillips said today, after the Ukip leader questioned the timing of sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump.
Speaking on ITV’s Peston on Sunday this morning, the Ukip leader said it was “strange” the women had only gone public with the claims when the November 8 presidential election was so close.
Phillips, who worked for a domestic sexual abuse charity before becoming an MP in 2015, told Robert Peston she wanted to “shout at Nigel Farage’s face for almost the entire time he was speaking”.
“I will find Nigel Farage after this programme and tell him the millions of reasons women don’t come forward when powerful men control them,” she added.
Jessica Drake on Saturday became the 12th woman in recent weeks to allege that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sexually mistreated her. Trump denies all the allegations.
Farage, who said he has not endorsed Trump for president despite appearing alongside him on a stage in the US, said the Republican was “right on several big issues”.
Asked about the assault claims, the Farage said:
I mean we’ve had all these sex cases going on for years and some people are guilty as hell as others have their lives ruined when they’re completely innocent. All I would say about these allegations is, why didn’t they come out earlier? Why did we hear none of this during the primaries over the course of the last couple of years. I don’t know any more than you do what the truth of it is but I find the timing of it really quite strange.
The Labour MP followed up her appearance on the ITV programme with a couple of tweets to ram her point home.
Farage had also used his appearence to criticise Suzanne Evans, who earlier in the day announced she was running to be Ukip leader.
Speaking to the BBC’s Marr programme, Evans said Ukip was seen as “toxic” by too many voters and criticised leadership rival Raheem Kassam for being “far right”.
Farage told Peston that Evans was wrong to criticise Kassam, who had once served as his chief of staff. “I won’t be voting for her, not after that. No,” he said.