Nigel Farage has branded those flouting the coronavirus lockdown ‘middle class hypocrites’ hours before he received a knock on the door from police for doing the same.
Appearing on his LBC programme, the Brexit Party leader reflected on polling that showed between 70% and 80% of the British public do not want the lockdown to end.
Branding it ‘middle class hypocrisy’, he told listeners that those same people were ignoring the government’s rules.
He said: ‘You think gosh, has the government really frightened us so much that the lockdown can’t end?
‘And yet when I went out at the weekend on Saturday I passed a local historical attraction. You couldn’t get in the car park.
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‘I’ve never seen so many cyclists on the road in all my life and these aren’t short distance cyclists, people popping out for an hour, people popping out for the day in absolutely huge numbers.
‘It almost seems to me there’s a bit of middle class hypocrisy here. It’s as if lockdown needs to stay but lockdown really is for everybody else and not me, that’s what I get out of this.’
His comments came just hours before the police visited the home of Farage to remind him of the rules, after the politician travelled more than 100 miles to record a video rant about migrants.
Branding it ‘lockdown lunacy’, he tweeted: ‘Two police officers just knocked on my door to advise me on essential travel.
‘They had received a complaint that I had been to Dover to report on the illegal migrant scandal taking place.’
He fumed: ‘What a total waste of time and money.’
Farage had previously insisted that he was a ‘key worker’ because he also has a job in broadcasting.