Ukip leader Nigel Farage claims Labour party is 'anti-English'
Remarks come hours after Emily Thornberry resigned following her controversial tweet
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Your support makes all the difference.Ukip leader Nigel Farage has claimed the Labour party is “anti-English” just hours after shadow minister Emily Thornberry offered her resignation to leader Ed Miliband following her controversial tweet depicting a Rochester home.
Mr Farage’s remarks, in which he also claimed that Labour were “happy to pander” to Scotland, come as Rochester by-election results showed his party had achieved its second MP after Conservative-defector Mark Reckless was elected with a majority of nearly 3,000 votes.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Mr Farage rounded on the Labour party and Mr Miliband, claiming: “Well, I doubt they can make these inroads under this leader.”
"I mean Labour has increasingly become anti-English over time, happy to pander in every way to Scotland, but somehow this Labour Party or new Labour believes that any sense of English identity is disreputable and wrong," he added.
The Labour candidate, Naushabah Khan, came third in Rochester with 6,713 votes, compared to Mark Reckess who gained 16, 887 votes. 50.67 per cent turnout saw some 40,113 votes cast.
Mr Farage denied the Ukip victory was the result of a “protest vote”, claiming on the Today programme that if “you vote Ukip, you get Ukip” – rhetoric that will no doubt appeal to his seemingly burgeoning fan base.
However, responding to remarks by Conservative MP Stward Jackson that MPs would be “insane” to defect to Ukip following the results, Mr Farage bit back: "I expect Mr Jackson will lose his Peterborough seat next year.”
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