David Cameron today branded Nigel Farage as “poncey” for the way he pronounces his surname.
During Prime Minister’s Questions this afternoon, Cameron mocked the Ukip leader for pronouncing his last name in a way that rhymes with massage, instead of in a way that rhymes with message.
Farage hit back on Twitter, asking how the “Home Counties raised, Eton-educated’ Cameron would pronounce the place he parks “his car in” – i.e. a garage.
The Tory leader made the jibe after Labour MP Ben Bradshaw asked: “Does the Prime Minister think it makes more sense to listen to all of our closest friends and allies around the world, or to a combination of French fascists, Nigel Farage [rhyming with message], and Vladimir Putin?”
Cameron replied: “I’m glad he takes the English pronunciation of Farage than the rather poncey, foreign sounding one that he seems to prefer. I think that’s a thoroughly good thing.”
The name Farage comes from the Huguenots – members of the French Protestant Church who fled their homeland in the 18 century to escape persecution.