Nigel Farage was torn apart by the SNP’s Stephen Flynn last night in a brutal fact-check on ITV.
The Reform UK leader was standing besides Flynn, the SNP’s leader in the House of Commons, during the election debate when he was demolished in just 17 seconds over migration and Brexit.
Flynn looked directly into the camera and said: “When Nigel Farage tells you all that migrants are making you poor and they are the problem, don’t believe him.
“Want to know the biggest problem facing the UK economy right now?
“His pet project of Brexit – £40 billion of tax losses.”
The audience broke out into enthusiastic applause at that.
Brexit has been largely absent from this year’s campaign, even though it dominated both the 2017 and 2019 elections.
However, just a quarter of British people now think the UK should be outside the EU, according to the latest British Social Attitudes survey, carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).
The SNP has said it wants to rejoin the EU when the time is right.
Meanwhile, Farage – known for his championing Brexit and pushing an anti-migrant rhetoric – has claimed he wants net migration to be zero.
Despite only returning to frontline politics after the snap election was called, Farage has given Reform a huge boost in the poll.
According to YouGov, the populist party is now one percentage point above the Tories.
Still, Flynn actually called out Farage throughout the debate.
When the far-right leader claimed other parties “have lied to us repeatedly”, Flynn cut in and said: “Says you, come on. You’ve made a career of doing that!”
The audience giggled in response.