Nella Rose challenged former UKIP leader Nigel Farage and accused him of being “anti-immigrants” on Wednesday’s episode of I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
The heated argument began as Rose, 26, asked the politician about his stance on immigration after saying she had read online that Farage was "anti-immigrants".
“Apparently you’re anti-immigrants”, the YouTuber said. As they both stood in the bath area of the camp, Rose asked: “Why don’t black people like you?”
Farage claimed: “You’d be amazed, they do. If you came with me through south London, you’d be astonished.”
She then asked: “So everyone hates you for no reason? Not that everyone hates you, that was so bad. Sorry,” to which Farage responded: “You can disagree with somebody, but to chuck around accusations the way they’ve been chucked around is grossly unfair. ‘Anti-immigrant, right? No, no, all I’ve said is we cannot go on with the numbers coming to Britain that are coming.”
Rose pressed Farage on the “problem” of immigration and said she was also “one of those numbers” – to which he said the pressure of the number of people was affecting GP appointments.
She told the former politician: “I’m stopping you getting a GP appointment? You’re not getting an appointment because the NHS is lacking funding.
“I bet you anything if every single immigrant or from immigrant descent was to leave the UK, all your doctors gone, most of your doctors are Asian right? Most of your nurses are African women, right?
“You want us gone, that’s all I understood.”
Farage said Rose was not listening to him, before adding: “We can agree to disagree.”
Watching the argument was former EastEnders star Danielle Harold, who told the Bush Telegraph that all she had wanted to do was have a “bath” when the confrontation began.
Farage had previously been criticised by fellow jungle campmate Fred Sirieix about a poster, used by Farage when he was campaigning for the UK to leave the European Union during the 2016 referendum, as “shameful”.
On Monday’s episode, First Dates star Sirieix added that he felt it was about “demonising migrants”, to which Farage replied: “In your view it was, but it wasn’t.”
The reality series is an annual ratings winner for ITV, pulling in an average of nine to 11 million viewers throughout each series. But the latest premiere had an audience peak of 7.8 million, and an average of just seven million.
While this makes it the biggest entertainment launch across any channel, it was still down from the peak of 10 million, an average of 9.1 million, who watched the launch episode in November 2022. And viewers seem to think this may be due to the inclusion of controversial ex-politician Nigel Farage.
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! continues on ITV1 and ITVX.
