Nigel Farage, whose job is your German wife taking? | Daily Mail Online comments Nigel Farage was accused of hypocrisy yesterday over Ukip’s ‘racist’ EU immigration campaign posters because he employs his German wife as his secretary. But as senior figures from the three main parties attacked his party’s latest publicity drive, the Ukip leader insisted that no British person could do the taxpayer-funded job taken by his second wife, Kirsten. The anti-EU party is using a £1.5million donation from a multi-millionaire businessman to launch a poster campaign for next month’s European elections focused on immigration from the Continent. Scroll down for video 'So, whose job is Kirsten taking?' Ukip leader Nigel Farage is asked by the BBC's Nick Robinson whether his German wife is taking a British worker's job, in light of the eurosceptic party's latest ad campaign Secretary: Kirsten Farage, pictured last year, works for her husband in an EU-funded role The most controversial billboard carries a warning that 26million are unemployed across Europe, and asks: ‘Whose job are they after?’ with a large hand pointing at the observer. Ukip’s opponents have likened the posters to those used in the past by the far-Right British National Party.

RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Mr Farage yesterday dismissed the criticism as ‘nonsense’, but ran into trouble when he was confronted by the BBC’s Nick Robinson over his employment of his publicity-shy German wife as his secretary using EU allowances. ‘She came here as a highly skilled person earning a high salary paying a very large amount of tax,’ the Ukip leader insisted. ‘I don’t think anybody else would want to be in my house at midnight going through emails and getting me briefed for the next day. ‘It’s a very different situation to a mass of hundreds of thousands of people coming in and flooding the lower end of the labour market.’ Asked whether a British person could take the position as his secretary, Mr Farage said: ‘Nobody else could do that job, not unless they were married to me.’ Mr Farage said his wife earned a ‘very modest’ wage, of up to £30,000 a year, and worked ‘extremely unsociable hours’ for ‘up to’ seven days a week.

'Nobody else could do that job': Mr Farage gave a stout defence of his wife's EU taxpayer-funded role WOMAN POSING AS VOTER IN UKIP MANIFESTO WORKS FOR FARAGE Mr Farage faced embarrassment yesterday after it emerged that a woman posing as a voter in Ukip’s manifesto actually works for him. Lizzy Vaid (right) appears in a full-page photograph as a voter from Devon, with a large quote stating: ‘I’ll be voting Ukip because they’re the only party listening to what people want.’ But Miss Vaid, who is half Indian, works in London and on her Twitter account she describes herself as ‘Ukip Events Manager and Assistant to Nigel Farage, as well as a lover of social occasions’. He pointed out that one in four MPs at Westminster and more than 70 other British Euro MPs also employ a close family member. Tory former defence minister Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill, became the first senior member of his party to attack the poster campaign, funded by internet and property tycoon Paul Sykes. His intervention was seen as significant because he chairs a cross-party group on migration which is often critical of government policy.

‘At a time when our country really needs to come together, the Ukip advertising campaign is deeply divisive, offensive and ignorant,’ Mr Soames said. Labour MP Mike Gapes, former chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, had already said that he hoped the ‘racist posters encourage all decent British Commonwealth and EU citizens’ to vote for another party in the European elections on May 22. Speech: Ukip leader Nigel Farage launches his party's European election bilboard campaign in Sheffield POLISH WORKERS FEEL 'AT HOME' IN BRITAIN - WITH SOME JOINING UKIP Polish workers who arrived in Britain to pick fruit have graduated to better jobs and now feel fully ‘at home’ here – with some even joining Ukip, the country’s ambassador revealed yesterday. Witold Sobkow (right) said that, initially, his countrymen and women were doing low-skilled jobs when they moved to Britain after Poland joined the EU in 2004. But they have now learned English, obtained qualifications in UK schools and colleges and won ‘promotion’ to better jobs. Some had become involved in British politics.

In an interview with the Independent, Poland’s ambassador to London said: ‘There are some relatively young people from Poland who are members of Ukip and they have this group, Friends of Poland in Ukip.’ But he insisted he was not condemning those planning to vote for Ukip in the European elections but the party’s poster campaign. ‘I stand by my view that this is a racist, xenophobic campaign designed to win votes by whipping up animosity against foreigners living and working and contributing to this country,’ he said. Liberal Democrat president Tim Farron said the posters were ‘wrong not just factually but morally’. Former Labour activist Dan Hodges said Ukip was ‘worse’ than the BNP, which was now ‘finished’ as a political force. ‘The BNP were racist, but at least they had the courage to be open about their racism,’ he added. Ukip’s deputy leader, Paul Nuttall, said Labour MPs were trying to close down a debate over immigration ‘by shouting racist’. He said: ‘The fact of the matter is that we’ve got wage compression in this country, we’ve got uncontrolled borders.

And the only way we’re going to get control of our borders is by leaving this club [the EU].’ UKIP RACE ROW POSTERS: CLAIM VS REALITY UKIP yesterday unveiled four posters for next month’s European elections, which immediately sparked allegations of ‘racism’ from the party’s opponents. Here, Home Affairs Editor JAMES SLACK investigates the claims made by the controversial posters. CLAIM: 75 per cent of our laws are now made in Brussels. REALITY: No simple answer. Ukip’s estimate is based on figures produced by ex-European Parliament president Hans-Gert Pottering. Viviane Reding, an EU Commissioner, recently put the figure closer to 70 per cent. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg claimed in a TV debate with Nigel Farage that it is only 7 per cent. The independent House of Commons Library says ‘it is possible to justify any measure between 15 and 50 per cent’. It depends on whether the figures include only primary legislation passed by the UK Parliament, or all laws and regulations influenced by, or related to, Brussels. CLAIM: The United Kingdom pays £55million a day to the European Union and its Eurocrats. REALITY: Technically accurate.

The figure – the equivalent of £20billion a year – is roughly what the British Government paid to EU institutions in 2012. However, the UK does get around £8billion of this money back in the form of the rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher and other payments, such as subsidies to farmers. This still leaves the UK making a net contribution of around £12billion a year, or £33million a day. CLAIM: British workers are hit hard by EU policy that allows unlimited cheap labour. REALITY: Last month a Government report concluded that ‘there is evidence for some labour market displacement in recent years when the economy was in recession’, with the low-skilled most likely to lose out. The Migration Advisory Committee found that for every 100 extra foreign-born working-age migrants in the UK, there was a reduction of 23 in the number of Britons in employment. Labour and the Tories have made similar comments to the Ukip poster in recent weeks. The poster carries a warning that 26 million unemployed people across Europe are 'after' UK jobs CLAIM: 26million people in Europe are looking for work.

REALITY: There were 25.622million people unemployed across the EU in February, according to EU figures. This includes the 2.2million unemployed people in Britain, most of whom are British citizens. Of course, not every jobseeker in Europe plans to move to the UK. But, as the eurozone continues to struggle, the UK has become an increasingly popular destination for workers from southern Europe. Last year, National Insurance numbers were issued to 51,000 Spaniards, 44,000 Italians and 30,000 Portuguese. Ministers have blamed the upturn in EU immigration to Britain for the increase in net migration, which currently stands at 212,000 a year. Who is Mrs Farage? How Ukip leader once described his low-profile wife Kirsten as 'a stunning government bond broker' Married man: Nigel Farage has previously said that his wife Kirsten's 'brisk efficiency at first sight belied her ethereal appearance' Hamburg-born Kirsten Farage, née Mehr, keeps a very low profile and is rarely seen in public. At Ukip conferences, she sits anonymously in the audience.

The Ukip leader has previously said of the moment he met Kirsten: ‘She was a stunning government bond broker whose brisk efficiency at first sight belied her ethereal appearance. 'She could have stepped into a pre-Raphaelite painting no questions asked.’ Kirsten, 49, gave up her career in the City, where she worked as an interpreter for a German bank, to look after the children - she and Mr Farage have two - and do her husband’s correspondence. She writes all his emails because he dislikes using computers. She is paid a salary by the European Parliament of more than £27,000 and has amassed more than £200,000 since she began working for him. She works from home and rarely visits Ukip’s HQ in London’s Mayfair, which she has described as a ‘freak show’.

Nigel Farage says German wife is not taking Briton's job - BBC News BBC News Media playback is unsupported on your device Nigel Farage says German wife is not taking Briton's job 22 April 2014 Last updated at 15:03 BST The leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, was asked whether his wife, who is German, was taking a British person's job by being employed as his secretary. BBC political editor Nick Robinson put the question at the launch of UKIP's European elections poster campaign warning about Europeans taking British jobs. Mr Farage said "nobody else could do that job", working unsociable hours seven days a week. He said it was "very different" to the hundreds of thousands of people "flooding" the lower end of the labour market. Nigel Farage: five things we learned from his wife Kirsten | News | The Week UK Nigel Farage: five things we learned from his wife Kirsten May 27, 2014 email LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images Nigel Farage "drinks and smokes too much" but is not an adulterous racist, according to his wife Kirsten Farage.

As the Ukip leader was celebrating his party's victory in the European Parliament elections this weekend, his wife was lifting the lid on their home life in what is claimed to be her first newspaper interview. Mrs Farage was grilled by a Daily Telegraph journalist as she manned the door at a Ukip "victory party" in an upmarket Westminster hotel. After 15 years of marriage, here's what she had to say: See related Europe responds: what next for the EU? Farage 'drinks and smokes too much' Mrs Farage says she is worried about her husband's "very hectic" lifestyle. "He doesn't get a lot of sleep, he doesn't get a lot of rest," she says. "He lives on adrenaline a lot, he doesn't eat regular meals, now I am beginning to sound like his mother, and he smokes and he drinks too much." However, she adds that his type of lifestyle "keeps the adrenaline going". He is virtually computer illiterate The leader of the UK's most popular party in the European elections apparently has no idea how to use a computer.

Mrs Farage has defended her husband's decision to pay her £27,000 in taxpayer money to work as his secretary – an arrangement that has now been vetoed by the European Parliament – saying that he is virtually computer illiterate. He has a "steampowered telephone", she says, and can only send and receive texts. Mrs Farage adds that she works unsocial hours, telling the Telegraph: "I sit at my computer in my nightie and am very dutiful." He loves Dad's Army Away from the political frontline, it's more Dad's Army than the People’s Army for Farage. He is a big fan of the BBC comedy series, as well as other 1970s repeats, says his wife. He also loves fishing and walking. “When he is out and about, he is noisy and extrovert and all this. And [when] you come home you have to put your feet up, and cut the grass and put the bins out," she says. He is not an adulterous racist Mrs Farage has brushed off "outrageous" claims that her husband had an affair with a former press officer Annabelle Fuller.

She says that Nikki Sinclaire, the former Ukip MEP who made the claim, "wouldn't possibly know" even if it was true – "which it isn't". She has also revealed that her husband was privately hurt by suggestions that he is racist. "If he was a racist I wouldn’t be with him," says Mrs Farage, who was brought up in Germany. "I don’t think he has got a nasty bone in his body – he is not a bully, he likes things done properly." His children have 'suffered a lot' because of his job Mrs Farage says that their four children have "suffered a lot" because of her husband's job. They do not get a lot of time for family holidays and are often bothered by members of the public, she says. “We used to go on holiday to Cornwall, and we can’t do that anymore, we can’t even have a meal or a drink in public," she tells the Telegraph.

With money tight – in part because of their decision to put all four children through private school – Mrs Farage now takes the children caravanning in France or Italy, but she adds: "Nigel does not go camping." Sign up for our daily newsletter Newsletter Great-grandfather of Ukip leader Nigel Farage 'was born to German immigrants' | UK | News | Daily Express UK Great-grandfather of Ukip leader Nigel Farage 'was born to German immigrants' ANCESTRY experts have revealed the great-grandfather of Ukip leader Nigel Farage was allegedly born to German parents who migrated to London in the 19th century. 21:12, Fri, May 3, 2013 The great-grandfather of Ukip leader Nigel Farage was born to German immigrants Records show the Eurosceptic's great-grandfather Carl Schrod, who was born in 1864, was the child of German immigrant cabinet makers in London. The census details reveal Nicholas and Bena Schrod came to London from Germany shortly after 1861, and their son was born three years afterwards.

Debra Chatfield, a family historian at findmypast.co.uk, said: "I am sure Mr Farage will be delighted to learn some more about his family history – or maybe not." The census showing Nigel Farage's great grandfather was born in London to German immigrants I am sure Mr Farage will be delighted to learn some more about his family history – or maybe not Debra Chatfield The details unearthed by the ancestry website show that Mr Farage's great-grandfather was born in St Pancras in the capital. Earlier this year Mr Farage was told a distant relative was born on the borders of France and Belgium in 1681.

Ms Chatfield added: "No matter where you think you are from, family history has a habit of throwing up some surprises about your past, showing that you may be able to choose your party, but you can’t choose your family." Related articles Nigel Farage 'employs both his wife and mistress at public expense' - Telegraph UKIP Nigel Farage 'employs both his wife and mistress at public expense' Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, has been accused of employing his wife and "mistress" out of his European Parliament allowances By Bruno Waterfield , Gordon Rayner and Christopher Hope 4:35PM GMT 12 Mar 2014 Follow His Ukip colleagues have spoken of his weakness for “crumpet”, but Nigel Farage has described as “absolute nonsense” a claim made by a fellow MEP that his “former mistress” is on his taxpayer-funded payroll. Nikki Sinclaire, a former Ukip MEP who is now an independent, used a debate at the EU assembly, where members are protected from libel actions, to allege that Mr Farage had an affair with his press officer Annabelle Fuller.

She asked: “With unemployment still a problem across Europe and indeed the UK, does Mr Farage think it is a fair use of taxpayers’ money, namely his secretarial allowance, not only to employ his wife Kirsten but his former mistress Annabelle Fuller?” Mr Farage, 49, declined to respond during the session, but later told The Telegraph he had never had an affair with Miss Fuller and said the claims were “beneath contempt”. Related Articles 12 Mar 2014 Leader of Ukip Nigel Farage and Annabelle Fuller (PA/MirrorPix) He said: "This is a cowardly and malicious act, perpetrated by somebody who is on bail for fraud and who has used Parliamentary privilege to make accusations in public, they have made consistently since 2006 in private. "I have spoken to every national newspaper on this issue and the answer today remains the same as it was in 2006. The answer is no." MEPs are allowed under a European Parliament rule, uniquely used by British MEPs, to employ relations.

Mr Farage’s German-born second wife Kirsten Mehr is employed by him on a salary of up to £20,000 a year using EU parliamentary assistant allowances that are worth almost £220,000. Annabelle Fuller is also paid out of the allowance as "local assistant" working in the Ukip press office in London. Earlier this week Mr Farage’s former flatmate Godfrey Bloom MEP, who had the Ukip party whip withdrawn after he referred to women as “sluts”, said: “We all have our foibles and our weaknesses – mine is real ale, I’ve never been partial to crumpet – Nigel’s is women. It’s not something he ever denied.” Miss Fuller, 31, made headlines in 2011 when the Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen was arrested over an allegation that he sexually assaulted her on the balcony of his Westminster flat. The case against Mr Bridgen was quickly dropped and he threatened to take legal allegation over the “ludicrous” allegations. Miss Fuller waived her right to anonymity to defend herself, saying her life had been “destroyed” by the episode and that she never wanted the case to go ahead, claiming a security guard had dialled 999.

Miss Fuller, 31, quit her Ukip role in 2008, saying she had been the victim of a two-year smear campaign during which she received “threatening” phone calls calling her “a whore”. She returned to the party last year. She said she had been “hounded” by false allegations for eight years, adding: “It’s a shame that as a woman I am considered fair game for accusations of alleged affairs. "It’s hard enough being a woman in politics without having to justify why I am employed. It is safe to say that this would not have happened if I was a man. Surely this is something that Nikki Sinclaire should have considered.” Annabelle Fuller is pictured with Nigel Farage at a Ukip meeting in Windsor (Eyevine) Mrs Farage said at the family home in Westerham, Kent: “Nigel's just on his way back from Strasbourg and we will be discussing it tonight, I'm sure. I don't want to comment today.” Miss Sinclaire was arrested in Feb 2012 by West Midlands Police on suspicion of defrauding European parliamentary allowances and expenses. She denies the allegations.

She was expelled from Ukip in January 2010 after accusing Mr Farage of sitting with racist and extremist parties in his Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) grouping in the European Parliament. Profile: Nigel Farage, UKIP leader - BBC News BBC News Profile: Nigel Farage, UKIP leader By Rosie Goldsmith BBC Radio 4 4 December 2012 Read more about sharing. Close share panel Image caption UKIP leader Nigel Farage is a founding member of the party, defecting from the Conservatives in 1993 After decades on the fringes, UKIP recently found itself in the spotlight after giving the Tories and Lib Dems a rattling in three by-elections, and the party's ebullient leader Nigel Farage was cast centre stage - but who is the man in the Home Counties blazer? Nigel Farage was never really interested in toys, says his mother Barbara. My first impression of Nigel is unorthodox, a happy, cheerful guy, outspoken and humorous Steven Spencer, Friend of Nigel Farage He was a good scholar, and, she reveals, his final school report from Dulwich College said the school "would be a poorer place without this boy's personality".

Nigel's stockbroker father, Guy Oscar Justus Farage, was also something of a bon viveur - and, it transpired, an alcoholic. He left the family home when Nigel was 5-years-old. Born 48 years ago in Kent - where he still lives - the young Nigel bounced through school, joining everything from the cricket and rugby clubs to Army Cadets and the politics society. In 1982 he decided not go to university but instead chose to work in the City as a commodities trader - which is where he met friend Steven Spencer. "My first impression of Nigel is an unorthodox, happy, cheerful guy - outspoken and humorous," says Spencer, speaking to Radio 4's Profile . "When I worked as a customer of Nigel's I would wander into a smoke-filled room, with tobacco smoke about 4 feet from the floor, with a bunch of very happy traders [and] good chemistry around Nigel. "There'd always be a very politically incorrect atmosphere that just relaxed everybody." The birth of UKIP Alongside work, and plenty of play, Nigel Farage also flirted with politics - at that time, the Conservative Party, from which he defected after John Major signed the Maastricht Treaty.

The life of Nigel Farage Born 1964 in Farnborough, Kent. Educated at Dulwich College in South London. Decided against attending university, to become a commodities broker working for various companies in the City. Diagnosed with testicular cancer in his twenties, but made a full recovery. Twice married, and has four children. A founding member of UKIP in 1993, having defected from the Conservatives after John Major signed the Maastricht Treaty. Became an MEP in 1999 representing South East England. Elected leader of UKIP in 2010 following the resignation of Malcolm Pearson. In 2010 Farage compared the former Belgian prime minister and new President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy to a "low-grade bank clerk" and accused him of being a "quiet assassin of European democracy and of European nation states". Also referred to Belgium as a "non-country". Farage is reprimanded by the European Parliament for his "insulting" tirade and fined just under 3,000 euros (£2,432) after refusing to apologise.

November 2012: UKIP puts in its best performance at the polls in two by-elections held in Rotherham and Croydon North - UKIP finishes second in both, ahead of the Lib Dems and Tories. In 1993 he became a founding member of a new party - the United Kingdom Independence Party, UKIP, which had one principal goal: to get Britain out of the European Union. Farage was elected as an MEP in 1999 and the European Parliament has been his main stomping ground since. However, the fact that the EU - an institution Nigel Farage detests - has come to shape, even consume, his life, puzzles some of his friends. "We always joked with him about that - if you dislike it so much, what are you doing there?" says Steven Spencer. "But Nigel's view has always been, to me, that the place to change it is inside, not outside." But while Nigel Farage is against the EU, he is not necessarily against Europe. As he has pointed out himself, he is in fact married to a German - Kirsten Mehr became his second wife, in 1999.

And back in Brussels, he has allies - one of the closest being Timo Soini, leader of the eurosceptic True Finns party. "He's very outspoken - even the people who don't share his message think that he's a great speaker and fun to listen to," says Soini. "Nigel is so quick and so intelligent that it's very hard to beat him, but the real political elite in Europe, they would rather have parliament without Mr Farage." 'Low-grade bank clerk' Farage's outspoken speeches in Brussels against what he perceives as "euro-nonsense" are legendary, both for their wit and passion. They are also known for being epically rude - as the then new President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy found out two years ago, when Farage accused him of "having the appearance of a low grade bank clerk." According to fellow eurosceptic Dr Richard North, this colourful side of Farage's personality hides something steelier. "Although he comes over as a very friendly, bubbly open individual, behind the scenes he's very insecure," says Dr North.

Perhaps UKIP's tragedy is it has this tremendously effective figurehead, but it has no strategic brain Dr Richard North "He cannot work with people in a detailed long-term relationship. What he actually does is that he uses people and he uses them up - he consumes people. Richard North was sacked by Farage and there is certainly no love lost between them now. "When you actually look at his career and his progress, it's a succession of teams around him. People join him, they get enthused by him, and then see the inner Farage, become disillusioned and then peel off - rather like me, but there are hundreds of me, in that sense," North says. In the 2010 General Election Nigel Farage raised eyebrows yet again when he contested John Bercow's seat in Buckingham. It was a subversive thing to do as the Speaker of the House is neutral and not usually challenged. But on the morning of the election, Farage was involved in an air crash caused by the UKIP election banner the plane was towing getting caught in the plane's tail fin. Farage emerged from the accident remarkably quickly. He has previously survived a serious car accident at the age of 21 and soon after that, testicular cancer.

George Coles, the pub landlord in his local, saw Farage shortly after the plane crash. "I don't think he had quite got over it at the time, but he was obviously being as bouncy as he could... putting a brave face on it all. It's the sort of guy he is. "Nigel is a passionate fighter, he doesn't sling the towel in." Farage's old friend from the City, Steven Spencer, also saw him soon after the air accident. "Having crashed his plane in the election campaign, he turned up at the church, still injured, with a stick, to pay tribute to one of his colleagues who'd died at the London metal exchange. "He was walking in incredible pain... but he wasn't going to miss it. It's just absolutely Nigel." European history buff Farage's passions go beyond politics. He is a big fan of classic sitcoms like Dad's Army and he loves cricket. But he reserves his greatest enthusiasm for touring World War I battlefields, with a group of close friends who call themselves "Farage's Foragers". Profile: Nigel Farage Explore the best of Profile "We do sometimes refer to them as 'bottlefield tours'," says fellow forager and UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom.

"I remember we were in Ypres, it was about 3:00am in the morning, we must have drunk the restaurant completely dry - it was one hell of a session, and I called time. "I staggered up into bed, and Farage shouted at me, 'lightweight' and that really sums him up. But these trips are certainly not just an excuse to get drunk, says Steven Spencer. His lifestyle is appalling, he'd be the first to admit it. He drinks too much red wine and he smokes too much Godfrey Bloom, UKIP MEP for Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire "He's deeply interested in Europe, and the history of Europe and where it's gone wrong. "He likes people to understand what Britain went through in two world wars and what our position is in Europe - he's passionately interested," Spencer says. But does this patriotism cross over to something darker? Rumours of racism have dogged Nigel Farage and his party for years - David Cameron controversially described UKIP as being full of "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists" back in 2006. "I spent a lot of time with him - very, very close to him," says one-time ally, now critic, Richard North.

"If he is a racist, then he's also a consummate actor, because he hides it that well. Personally I don't think he is. I think he's an old-fashioned jingoistic patriot." But Dr North does have other reservations about Nigel Farage - including what he sees as his lack of political acumen. "It is part of his charm - hard-living, hard-drinking, and hard-smoking - that is who he is and why he is able to attract a following. "But if you're looking for a serious politician, with a strategic brain, who is able to lead a party and develop and expand a party, well, they're not the same people. "Perhaps UKIP's tragedy is it has this tremendously effective figurehead, but it has no strategic brain," says North. Despite the strong performances at the recent by-elections, it is true that Nigel Farage, in terms of electoral success, remains a political minnow. UKIP has never won a Westminster seat - and yet Nigel Farage is one of the most recognisable politicians in the country. That is his success - due in large part to his vivacity and flamboyance.

However, his friend MEP Godfrey Bloom just hopes that this high-wire lifestyle is not also Nigel Farage's undoing. "His lifestyle is appalling, he'd be the first to admit it. He drinks too much red wine and he smokes too much. "Unless I can persuade him to slow down - and nobody else has succeeded - he won't have a future. He'll fall off his perch." Radio 4's Profile of Nigel Farage was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday, 1 December. Listen again via the Radio 4 website or Profile podcast . So, Mr Farage, why does UKIP's leader have a German wife? ...and did she make you kip in the spare room over that 'seven-times-a night fling' with a Latvian? | Daily Mail Online So, Mr Farage, why does UKIP's leader have a German wife? ...and did she make you kip in the spare room over that 'seven-times-a night fling' with a Latvian?

Love him or loathe him, Nigel Farage is impossible to ignore He dresses like a City trader, smells of fags and speaks from the hip The UKIP leader has been at death's door three times in his 48 years 'Circumstances have changed, things could really happen now' comments A lot of people don't seem to like UKIP ­ leader Nigel Farage. They roll their eyes and dismiss him as brash and vulgar - part used-car dealer, part public-school fool, 'utterly unembarrassable' and 'a poor man's Boris Johnson'. They mutter about the BNP, a supposed tryst with a very passionate Latvian lady and the £2 million of EU expenses that he claimed over ten years 'to prove a point'. They do, however, all know who he is.

Because, love him or loathe him, he's impossible to ignore - blasting the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, as having 'the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk'; dismissing Robert Kilroy-Silk as a 'vain, orange buffoon and a monster'; camping it up on TV's Have I Got News For You; or dangling upside down from the wreckage of a light aircraft in the middle of an election campaign, UKIP rosette still flapping. Speaking his mind: UKIP leader Nigel Farage believes 'things could really happen' for his party Today, he's sipping a small glass of red - 'I only drink in moderation' (it's 3pm) - and discussing his political opponents with typical Faragian zest. 'They're a bunch of saddoes! They have no life outside politics - they're desperate. DESPERATE! And so TERRIBLY DULL!' he squawks. [For the record, his hobbies, or 'fanaticisms', as he calls them, include deep-sea angling, Test cricket and 1914-18 battlefields.] 'None of them pass the Farage test.

Number one, would I employ them? And number two, would I want to have a drink with them? No and NO!' He's delighted to get a bit more specific. David Cameron? 'Agghh, so shallow - the bland leading the bland. I have no respect for him.' Ed Miliband? 'Soooo boring and geeky - he's spent his whole life sitting around the kitchen table talking ­politics!' Nick Clegg? 'Nice enough, but what's the point? You have to admit, there's a bit of a gap in the ­market right now, isn't there?' RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share It's a gap Nigel and UKIP, with their anti-Europe, anti-immigration and anti-windfarms policies (they are, incidentally, pro grammar schools, smoking and defence spending) are doing their utmost to fill. Indeed, the 20,000-strong party once described by Cameron as 'fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists, mostly' is having a ­purple patch, with commentators ­talking of shifting 'tectonic plates' and describing their rise as 'this ­winter's biggest political story'.

In the last general election, UKIP secured nearly a million votes. For over a year they've been scoring at least six or seven per cent in the polls - and sometimes as much as 11 per cent and relegating the Lib Dems to fourth place. Last month, things really shifted. First, Tory vice-chairman Michael Fabricant (who reckons the battle between the Tories and UKIP cost his party 40 seats at the last election) published The Pact - a report advocating an electoral deal between the two parties, on the basis of a referendum on Britain's EU membership and a place in the Tory Cabinet for Nigel. Then, at the Corby by-election, UKIP won 14.3 per cent of the poll - its highest-ever share. And promptly topped that in Rotherham with 22 per cent. Brush with death: Mr Farage survived a plane crash while contesting the 2010 General Election 'When I saw the boxes open, I thought, God Blimey! Goody-good. This is going to be exciting - we were neck and neck, but the postal votes did for us on the day,' says Nigel.

UKIP's votes were hugely boosted by the story of a UKIP-voting Rotherham family whose three Slovakian foster children were removed because of the couple's political beliefs. 'That was appalling, but it's the tip of the iceberg - it's not the first time UKIP people have been ­discriminated against. 'And Mr Cameron is at the top of the discriminators! When the Rotherham foster row broke, Michael Gove was up in ­minutes saying: “This is outrageous!” Even Miliband said UKIP were a perfectly reasonable group of people. Only one person was rude about us. DAVID CAMERON! 'At first he retracted his earlier ­statement [the 2006 one about the fruitcakes and racists]. Fantastic! I was delighted. Then he retracted the retraction, saying: “Not everybody is UKIP is racist!” Can you believe it? I've taken that very, very personally.' Oh dear. Chatting to Nigel is a lively ­business. There are endless God ­Blimeys, goody-goods and ghastlys. He rolls his eyes, speaks in outraged capital letters and strongly ­resembles Zippy from Rainbow.

He's also refreshingly unlike a ­normal politician. He's not careful, smooth or strategic. He dresses like a City trader, smells of fags and wine and speaks from the hip. So when someone phones to tell him the Duchess of Cambridge is ­pregnant, his reaction is: 'She's pregnant, is she? Good Lord. Well, not guilty! Never even met her, ha ha ha!' Thirsty work: The UKIP leader enjoys a joke with friends at his local pub in Downe, Kent He famously adores pubs and drinking ('Now what a bloody laugh that can be - I've no idea how much, but nothing like William Hague used to, ha ha'), loves Dad's Army and 'Allo 'Allo! ('just genius') and smokes endless smelly ­Rothmans cigarettes. 'I smoke too many. Too, too, TOO MANY. I did stop, but then they announced the smoking ban and I thought, sod 'em. So I started again.' A former commodities trader (tin and cocoa) - 'I wanted to be a yuppie and make stacks of money' - he helped set up UKIP in 1993 in protest at the Maastricht Treaty.

'I've felt from day one that being part of the European Union was a very, very, VERY BAD thing for this ­country. I can't explain it, but I just KNOW I'm right. And I've dedicated myself to it in a way I don't suppose has been wholly rational.' He's not joking. In order to spread his message, he gets up at 5am, works seven days a week, travels on average eight hours a day to speak in town halls and rugby clubs ('I call it my Billy Graham tour') and barely sees his ­second wife, Kirsten, (from ­Germany, oddly enough) and two daughters - his two sons from his first marriage are grown up now. Household name: Robert Kilroy-Silk was once called a 'vain orange buffoon' by Mr Farage 'Nobody else in British politics works harder than me. No question. My work load is astronomical. It's mega and I don't see nearly enough of my family, but I've never doubted it's the right thing to do.' Blimey. Does his wife ever think: 'Oh God, just shut up about bloody UKIP won't you, just for a minute'?

'It's a bit late for that, to be honest. We met when I was on business in Germany - which goes to prove I want us to engage with Europe, trade with Europe, be friends with Europe but I don't want to be governed by, that bloody Herman Van Rompuy, aka Rumpy Pumpy. But I think being ­married to me is pretty difficult.' Is he teased about having a German wife? 'Funnily enough, people do tend to mention it. But most UKIP people see it as being as rather a triumphant position for us to be in, rather than a bad position.' What is her view on Europe? 'I don't like to speak for her, but like all sensible Germans she would have kept the Deutsche mark and a German model of parliamentary democracy that since 1945 has produced one of the richest, happiest countries in Europe.' He says she's been astonished by his patience over the years with UKIP. At least he's seen some progress. In 1995, UKIP's first national conference was attended by 500 people. In 1999, the party got its first three MEPs.

Five years later, 12 were elected and ­celebrity supporters got involved. 'Joan [Collins] supported us in the 2004 European elections - that was brilliant! Then the Kilroy-Silk thing buggered everything up.' The 'Kilroy-Silk thing' was Nigel ­recruiting the sacked BBC presenter to UKIP. 'He did make the party a household name. But after he got elected to leader he became impossible. He didn't listen to anyone. All that mattered was what he'd got to say. There isn't room for Kilroy and the rest of the world! He's impossible. IMPOSSIBLE!' The end came when Kilroy described UKIP as 'Right-wing nutters' and Farage responded with his brilliant 'vain orange buffoon' line. Much calmer: Spread betting tycoon Stuart Wheeler is UKIP treasurer Today, things are much calmer. ­Stuart Wheeler (the spread betting tycoon) is party treasurer and he, Nigel and his deputy Paul Nuttall are doing their best to move the party as far away as possible from the slightest whiff of closet racism and their old 'BNP in blazers' nickname.

So what about all that 'ban the burka' stuff a while back? 'That was from a different time,' he says quickly. 'I wasn't the leader then. It's all different now - things are really beginning to change.' Nigel has always been a 'cup-half-full' man - which is impressive given he's been at death's door three times in his 48 years. The first was in 1985, when he 21 and working in the City, blowing most of his money on nightclubs and booze ('but never cocaine, thank goodness') and was run over on a pelican crossing after the customary liquid lunch and after-work drinks. 'They just didn't see me. It was nasty, really nasty. I don't remember it or the hours afterwards, but my A&E notes said, lucid, but ­aggressive!' he says proudly. He was in hospital for over three months, in plaster for 11 and plagued by tinnitus for years. Then he got testicular cancer. 'I was 22 and thought is this ever going to end? After spending 11 months saving my life, the NHS nearly killed me. They kept misdiagnosing me.

'I kept going back every week. A lump? I won't be crude, but it wasn't good. I could barely bloody walk. It was awful. AWFUL!' His third brush with death came in 2010 during his (unsuccessful) battle to win Speaker John Bercow's Buckingham seat at the general election, when his UKIP banner became ­tangled around the tail fin of the light aircraft he was flying in. 'We knew we were going down four minutes before we hit the ground. But with four children, which one would you ring? So I sat there and kept schtum.' Protest vote: 'At the moment we're still being treated like the country cousins - and that's not justifiable' The plane disintegrated as they hit the ground. Amazingly, both he and the pilot survived. 'I was upside down, I could barely breathe. My whole chest was caved in. Every one of these bones was broken,' he says, thumping his chest dramatically. 'I was battling for breath and covered in petrol and I remember thinking, there is nothing in the world that can get any worse than this!' Needless to say, when he finally struggled out, he didn't embrace post-traumatic therapy.

Not even when his pilot was given a two-year community order after making bizarre death threats against him. (He believed UKIP was using the accident to generate PR.) 'When they offered ­therapy, I did rather scoff - it's just not my thing.' Up against it: 'If I believe something's right, I tend to pursue it' Unsurprisingly, his recipe for recovery was a bottle of red, a pack of fags and counting his blessings. 'I just took the view: 'God I'm lucky - this is just the most amazing piece of luck I've had in my life.' I'm an optimist - a RIDICULOUS optimist. 'I mean, to have joined a party like UKIP, you have to be. Just look at the history of British politics and there've been hundreds of parties like this - and they all fail, they all get nowhere. What a ridiculous thing to do! I mean BONKERS!' So, er, why continue? Why work 18-hour days seven days a week and neglect your wife and health and two young daughters? 'Because if I believe something's right, I tend to pursue it. And I genuinely think circumstances have changed over the past 18 months.

Things could really happen now.' Maybe he's right. UKIP has 12 MEPs, about 110 councillors, a good few ­skeletons in the cupboard and a lot of passion. What it needs now is a seat in the Commons. 'At the moment we're still being treated like the country cousins - and that's not really justifiable. Once people think voting UKIP isn't just a protest vote, then it can become a very different thing.' Which begs the question - if former Lib Dem minister Chris Huhne's Eastleigh seat comes up next year (his court case resumes on January 14) would Nigel throw his hat in the ring? 'Heh heh! I've no idea. I doubt it. I've no idea. Ha ha!' he rolls his eyes and stretches his face like a rubber band. 'I haven't made any decisions. But keeping the electoral momentum going after the past couple of weeks is very important to us!' So that's a yes, then? 'Oooh, I don't know, dear girl!' Given his passion for publicity, would he go on I'm A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here! like Nadine Dorries? 'No.

But I can see what Nadine was doing. She's not going to be promoted, is she? And it's 40 grand - which, when you come from a council estate in Liverpool, really matters. But I wouldn't do it - not that.' Leadership: Mr Farage with the party's deputy leader Paul Nuttall and South East MEP Marta Andreasen It must be strange being Nigel. He clearly adores the limelight, but thanks to his readiness to speak his mind ('Prince Charles - a deluded chap who wobbles around') alienates people in droves and attracts bile. So is he very thick-skinned? Does he ever get upset? 'Listen, I've survived cancer, car crashes, plane crashes - this stuff isn't going to worry me. Arguing with my wife - that can upset me. My whole family can upset me. They can make me hyperventilate!' I bet his wife was hyperventilating when the claims about his seven times-a-night tryst with a Latvian lady hit the news in 2005 and led to the joke 'Ukip if you want to'. 'Erm, well, that was all nonsense.' Really? 'Oh, come off it.

I did have a lot of phone calls from ex-girlfriends saying: 'Gosh, it wasn't like that with me.'' And presumably a frosty time at home? 'Yes, that wasn't so good. Of course I've done stupid things and made mistakes - everyone has. But is there any point in regrets? Life's too short.' With that, we call it a day and Nigel Farage (who is surprisingly likeable, in a camp, over-the-top way, though of course you're not supposed to say) hurtles off into the night to spark up a Rothmans, make a million phone calls and limber up for his hundredth UKIP meeting of the day.

Nigel Farage "drinks and smokes too much", says his wife Kirsten - Telegraph UKIP Nigel Farage "drinks and smokes too much", says his wife Kirsten Exclusive: Kirsten Farage on her husband Nigel's drinking, those claims about racisim, her job as his taxpayer-funded secretary - and why he loves Dads' Army By Christopher Hope , Senior Political Correspondent 10:00PM BST 26 May 2014 Follow Nigel Farage’s wife has revealed her fears about his pub-loving lifestyle, saying that UK Independence Party leader “drinks and smokes too much”. Kirsten Farage said she was worried that his “hectic” lifestyle, in which he skips meals and lives on adrenaline, will take its toll on him. In what is thought to be her first ever newspaper interview, Mrs Farage lifted the lid on life with Mr Farage who this week led Ukip to victory in the European Parliament elections. She defended her role as Mr Farage’s taxpayer-funded secretary, saying she often worked late and that Mr Farage was virtually computer illiterate. She also disclosed that the Ukip leader was privately hurt by suggestions during the campaign that he is racist.

Related Articles Ukip storms European elections 25 May 2014 She said she does not believe the claims – aired by an MEP in the European Parliament – that Mr Farage had an affair with a former party worker. Mrs Farage also said that her husband’s fame means that the family can no longer holiday in Britain without being bothered by members of the public. Mrs Farage was interviewed by The Daily Telegraph as she manned the door at a victory party held for Ukip’s 24 MEPs in a hotel in Westminster, central London. Asked if she was worried about Mr Farage’s lifestyle, she said: “I do – I think it is a very hectic lifestyle. “He doesn’t get a lot of sleep, he doesn’t get a lot of rest, he lives on adrenaline a lot, he doesn’t eat regular meals, now I am beginning to sound like his mother, and he smokes and he drinks too much. “But if you have that sort of lifestyle I think it is what keeps him going, it keeps the adrenaline going.” Mr Farage was “a good man – and keeps himself busy”, she said.

“There is not much time for a family life – but we watch him on the telly when we want to see him.” She said that – in contrast to his public image as an extrovert politician with a pint in his hand – Mr Farage was a dutiful family man he likes to put his feet up. She said: “When he is out and about, he is noisy and extrovert and all this. And [when] you come home you have to put your feet up, and cut the grass and put the bins out. “He loves fishing, he loves walking, we live in quite a rural area so he can literally walk out and you have got fields and you have got valleys. “Apart from that he used to play a lot of golf but that was before my day, and before Ukip. Now he hasn’t got time for it. “We honestly don’t watch a lot of telly but he loves Dads’ Army, he loves all the 70s stuff that they still repeat.” Mr Farage has justified paying his wife £27,000 a year from his Parliamentary allowances to work as his secretary because she has to work unsociable hours.

Mrs Farage described how “I sit at my computer in my nightie and am very dutiful”. She said: “It is not a nine to five, Monday to Friday [job] by any means. I have plenty of time not to miss sports days, nativity plays, and things like that. “But I do work unsociable hours when my kids are at home and at weekends. And that is essentially quite hard on the family if we are both at home we work and then the kids really don’t get a lot of attention.” Mr Farage needed her assistance because he was virtually computer illiterate. She said: “He has a steampowered telephone, he can send and receive texts and that’s it. If I sit him down, and there is something for him to read, he can scroll up and down, he has learned that - but that is pretty much it. “He honestly doesn’t know how to [use a computer] and he has missed the boat, I don’t think he ever will now.” Money has been tight for the Farages in part because of their decision to put all four children through private schools.

“He [Nigel] has been paying school fees for 22 years and the youngest is only eight so he will be paying for them for another 10 [years].” The European Parliament has now ruled that the practice must stop in the future – which means Mrs Farage will not be paid. Mrs Farage said: “We have not really had time to discuss it. I think the job carries on but I just won’t get paid for it. She said “the kids have suffered a lot” because Mr Farage’s job meant they do not “get a lot of time for family holidays – a couple of days here, a couple of days there.” Mrs Farage also brushed off the “outrageous” claims made by Nikki Sinclaire, a former Ukip MEP in the European Parliament, that Mr Farage had had an affair with a former press officer Annabelle Fuller. She said: “I have heard it before and it always comes from the same sort of people who wouldn’t – even if it would be true which it isn’t – she wouldn’t possibly know - because she has never been part of that inner circle or worked for Nigel.

I don’t think they have spoken a word to each other in 10 years.” Mrs Farage, a former City bond trader who was brought up in Germany, met Mr Farage in 1997 and married in 1999. She said she “thought it was quite nice that he had a hobby. I didn’t realise it was going to turn into this”. Mrs Farage scotched claims made during the campaign that Mr Farage was racist. She said: “If he was a racist I wouldn’t be with him. I don’t think he has got a nasty bone in his body – he is not a bully, he likes things done properly.” Mrs Farage added: “It hurts him being personally attacked but it doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable because I know he is not a racist.” Mr Farage was criticised for saying that felt uncomfortable having to listen to foreign voices on the train, when his children are brought up to speak German. Mrs Farage said the row was “ridiculous”, adding: “I mean why wouldn’t you bring up your children bi-lingual.

It is such a chance in life.” The controversies have meant that the Farages’ family home in Kent is now protected by a security fence, a security gate and CCTV cameras. The attention means that the family find it difficult to holiday in the UK. Instead Mrs Farage now takes the children caravanning in France or Italy. “Nigel does not go camping,” she said. She added: “We used to go on holiday to Cornwall, and we can’t do that any more, we can’t even have a meal or a drink in public.” Mrs Farage disclosed that the couple had not had a moment to celebrate their victory. She said: “Neither of us signed up for this – we were just perfectly normal people living a perfectly normal life in my house that is not worth anywhere near £1million – it is a bit of a shock to have all that.” But when the time comes, Mrs Farage disclosed that her favourite drink was a glass of Sauvignon Blanc "or Kir Royale when I am feeling flush”. Nigel Farage | Uncyclopedia | Fandom powered by Wikia edit Name Pronunciation Just add horns and a pitchfork...

It is a fairly common mistake to pronounce Nigel Farage's name like Ni-Gel Fer-age as if you were saying it in a French accent. But because this is unBritish and one of the worst insults imaginable in the World ever, he decided to have his name pronounced Nigg-ell Fa-rradj to sound more English. The -rradj is like the end of porridge Despite the similarity in sounds, it does not indicate that he is a gloopy, lukewarm, and unappetising. Those characteristics are purely co-incidental. He is the son of Fred Farage (also known as Freddie Frinton-on-Sea ) and Eva Braun. edit Leader of the UKIP party In 1966, the year he led West Germany to World Cup defeat, Farage became in charge of the United Kingdom Indian Pariah party. This party was created by a group of American-Indian outcasts who were deported from America to the UK because the Americans couldn't be arsed to take them to Australia. When Farage took the party over it was in utter turmoil but as he is the great leader he is and not a military style dictator he turned the party around in record time, just after the 2007 elections.

In this election UKIP gained 0% of the vote but this doesnt matter because Farage had planned a coup which would see him become Lord and Master of the United Kingdom. edit Becoming Lord and Master of the United Kingdom Nigel's Garage. Prospective UKIP parliamentary candidate for Fruit & Loon, Swiveleyeshire, In 2007 when UKIP had gained 0% of the vote in the United Kingdom, Farage decided to go out and become the supreme overlord in all of United Kingdom. Farage marched from the Winchester pub straight down to No' 9 Downing Street and demanded to meet the Prime Minister. The resident of Number 9 Downing Street told him to 'Sod off' and then to 'Go and become an MEP, that's more interesting'. So Farage did go and become an MEP where he not only insulted every single representative there but he also managed to cause a threat of Nuclear War against the island where Jurassic Park is located. Steven Spielberg was not impressed. On his return to the UK, after being deported from Brussels for being, in the words of neutral Switzerland, 'an arsehole', Farage decided to go straight to the Queen to ask permission to become Lord and Master of the United Kingdom.

The Queen, who is known in Britain for her glamorous 'Rock and Roll' lifestyle, to give Nigel Farage his request. Her exact words on the appointment of Farage were 'Huh, Parliament are a bunch of WNKR's, so YOLO' this caused great upset in Parliament because the Queen has no power at all plus they strongly disagreed that all of them were Wankers. The morning after he was appointed to this prestigious role, the Queen who had a massive hangover, removed her favorite Hitler mask, and addressed the nation from her over-sized yacht, 'Queen Mary', to tell the nation that she hadn't done anything to be ashamed of the previous evening (Including the Duke of Edinburgh,) and that everything she had said and done was to be undone and forgotton about. This decision was what caused Farage to be removed from office, even before he had set foot in his new office. As he was removed he was reported have shouted 'I'll be back arseholes!' this promise has still not been delivered. edit Recent events Freddie Farage. Former candidate for the Booze Party and Nigel's dad. In 2009 Nigel's party came in second behind the Conservatives in elections for the European Parliament.

Nigel's new friends there propelled him to greater glory, temporarily set back when he was crunched in a plane crash whilst campaigning for a seat in parliament in 2010. Since then Nigel has had a contract with all British television stations to appear at least once a week, smirking and looking very pleased for himself. In 2014 his party topped the poll and seat numbers in the European Parliament elections. Later that year two Conservative MPs jumped ship and were re-elected under the Colour Purple. Nigel says 2015 will see him become Prime Minister. You heard it here first. edit Marriage to Kotryna Abromaitis Nigel Farage's new car. Outraged after many members to the general public called him a "Racist" towards the Eastern Europeans who, according to Farage, "have come to take our jobs", the great man himself boarded a flight to Lithuania (Business class of course - it was 'EU' business, so he charged it to his expenses).

Upon arriving to Lithuania (which he regards as "very much a country", as opposed to Belgium) he walked around the airport for a little while, spitting upon those in the UK-bound departure gate and requesting that they "Stay in their own country, and do not take jobs in his beloved United Kingdom". It was at his hotel that he met Miss Abromaitis, who he spoke to at the bar. After hearing all about how Nigels's country was better than her own in every single aspect, she decided that she wanted to live with him in the UK. Nigel Farage did not like this idea at first, but he decided that he would take this opportunity to have company, as otherwise, he would be forever alone, as the only people who would ever consider marrying Nigel Farage back in the United Kingdom had all been sectioned. Their marriage collapsed after Kotryna Abromatis saw her husband returning from the garage with a new car. After Farage's first marriage crashed and burned, he became less adventurous, travel to Germany and marry Kirsten Mehr. Farage feels that he has done his very, very, very heavy German ancestry proud - even prouder than being a Hitler Youth in his school days.

Farage defects to US Nigel Farage stood for Parliament in the constituency of Thanet South in the May 2015 General Election. He lost, resigned the leadership and then un-resigned. Farage looked lost but in June 2016, Britain voted by a majority to leave the European Union. Overcome with emotion and the contents of his drinks cabinet, an emotional Nigel declared he had won and then re-resigned again as leader of the party. He would go on to resign from Parliament and then, a short time later, from Great Britain. The job of leading the party devolved to Diane James. She planned to sell the party to Theresa May to be redeveloped for housing but instead resigned. The UKIP remember the Farage era over Budweiser Light most weeknights at the Dog and Punch Up English-themed pub in Strasbourg.

Question: What nationality is the wife of UKIP leader Nigel Farage?
Answer: GERMAN