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| Nigel Farage admits enjoying lap-dance club but denies being 'anti-women' | Nigel Farage admits enjoying lap-dance club but denies being 'anti-women' |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| The UK Independence party leader, Nigel Farage, has denied that his comments about enjoying a visit to a lap-dancing club make him anti-women. | The UK Independence party leader, Nigel Farage, has denied that his comments about enjoying a visit to a lap-dancing club make him anti-women. |
| Farage's views have come under the spotlight after it emerged that a Ukip candidate owns a lap-dancing club in the Midlands called Urban Tiger. In February, he was accused by the then Ukip MEP Marta Andreasen of being "anti-women". | Farage's views have come under the spotlight after it emerged that a Ukip candidate owns a lap-dancing club in the Midlands called Urban Tiger. In February, he was accused by the then Ukip MEP Marta Andreasen of being "anti-women". |
| In an interview on Wednesday with BBC Radio 5 Live's breakfast show, Farage, who has traded on his flamboyant and outspoken image, said it was nonsense that he had frequented and enjoyed lap-dancing clubs in the past but admitted going to one once unintentionally. | In an interview on Wednesday with BBC Radio 5 Live's breakfast show, Farage, who has traded on his flamboyant and outspoken image, said it was nonsense that he had frequented and enjoyed lap-dancing clubs in the past but admitted going to one once unintentionally. |
| "I was taken once unwittingly and I did say that I wasn't appalled by it," he said. "I did quite like it. What you want me to say? I hated it?" | "I was taken once unwittingly and I did say that I wasn't appalled by it," he said. "I did quite like it. What you want me to say? I hated it?" |
| Asked whether his comment confirmed Andreasen's unflattering portrayal of him before she quit the party and defected to the Tories, he attempted to laugh it off. "That's really rather silly," he said. "I have to tell you, if I'd been anti-women, then the whole of my adult life would have been just that much simpler." | Asked whether his comment confirmed Andreasen's unflattering portrayal of him before she quit the party and defected to the Tories, he attempted to laugh it off. "That's really rather silly," he said. "I have to tell you, if I'd been anti-women, then the whole of my adult life would have been just that much simpler." |
| In a 2009 interview, Farage told the Guardian he had been to "lap-dancing clubs" in the plural, boasting that other leaders would not admit to it because "they're living in this PC world and nobody must admit to being human". The issue reemerged when he told reporters during a parliamentary press gallery lunch that he went to a lap-dancing club in Strasbourg "and thought bloody hell, this is really good". He also said during the lunch that "back in the 1980s working in the City I might have been to one or two of these establishments". | In a 2009 interview, Farage told the Guardian he had been to "lap-dancing clubs" in the plural, boasting that other leaders would not admit to it because "they're living in this PC world and nobody must admit to being human". The issue reemerged when he told reporters during a parliamentary press gallery lunch that he went to a lap-dancing club in Strasbourg "and thought bloody hell, this is really good". He also said during the lunch that "back in the 1980s working in the City I might have been to one or two of these establishments". |
| Ukip is fielding about 2,000 candidates in next month's council elections and hoping that strong recent polling will translate into big gains. The latest Guardian/ICM poll put the Eurosceptic party on 9% and found Farage to be Britain's least unpopular political leader. The three main parties have been looking nervously over their shoulders at the increasing popularity of Ukip, which came second in the Eastleigh byelection in March. |