Nigel Farage and Piers Morgan came to blows on Question Time last night as the pair traded barbs over their respective political and broadcast careers.
The former Brexit Party leader, who has failed to win election to the UK parliament on seven separate occasions, was goaded by Morgan over his decision not to stand for election despite being honorary president of Reform UK.
But Farage, who was instrumental in galvanising support for Brexit in the run up to the 2016 referendum, returned fire accusing the controversial TV host of never having had “the bottle” to stand in the first place.
The fiery bust-up was ignited when an audience member asked Farage if he was not standing because he has repeatedly failed to get elected.
Before Farage had a chance to reply, Morgan said he has “bottled it”.
“You’ve never had the bottle to stand ever!” Farage replied, as Morgan noted that he is not a politician.
The debate got so heated that show host, Fiona Bruce, had to ask the men to stop arguing so that Farage could answer the question at hand.
“In the nineties and noughties, I stood for UKIP time and time again,” Farage said. “I’ve had one serious attempt at standing for parliament and do you know what happened?”
Morgan interjected again and said: “You lost.”
Farage continued: “I’ve stood once before and I know how difficult it is when you have the big parties who treat the law with contempt – I didn’t feel that six weeks from scratch I could do it.
“I will be part of this campaign [though] as I do think there are some very serious issues not being discussed.”
Morgan then said Farage has “had all year” to prepare for a potential campaign.
Farage pointed out the existence of his TV show and claimed it has kept him too busy to prepare and took aim at Morgan for the cancellation of his own show.
“Let’s not go there,” a visibly exacerbated Bruce said.
The host then asked the men to hold back when it came to their “TV rivalries” but not before Morgan could stress that he still has a show on YouTube.
Following the show, the pair continued their war of words spilled on social media.
Sharing a clip of the show online, Reform UK frontman Farage wrote on X: ‘It must be nice for Piers Morgan to be on TV for once.’
Morgan responded: ‘Hope you’re OK. Can’t have been an easy night for you given the audience silence every time you spoke.’
He later shared a photo of all of the show’s panellists except Mr Farage, writing: ‘All smiles after last night’s lively BBC Question Time - mainly because The Toad had already left.’
The heated incident comes after Farage claimed that the US’s upcoming election is more important for the world than the one taking place in the UK in July.
“The American election is more important. Strong American leadership, standing up to bullies and leading a strong Nato are absolutely vital,” he said.
“I believe the world was a much safer place with Donald Trump in the White House than Joe Biden. It would be nice to have a pro-British president back in the White House instead of one that absolutely loathes us.”
The revelation came just before Trump was convicted on all counts at his hush money trial yesterday.
Despite the criminal convictions, the former president can still stand again in November.
