Nigel Farage claims he sought Rupert Murdoch’s permission before appearing in documentary

The populist politician appeared on the BBC documentary to give his view on the influence of Murdoch on Tony Blair’s government.

He discussed a newspaper column in the now defunct New of the World where the then prime minister agreed to a demand to add a line that asserts that Britain would not join the Euro without a referendum.

The newspaper went on to headline the column: ‘My Love For £: Exclusive By Tony Blair.’

Speaking in the documentary, Farage says that ‘Rupert’ stopped Britain from joining the Euro.

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And he added if he had not intervened ‘I doubt Brexit would have happened’.

As the interview finishes, he admits that he asked for Murdoch’s consent before carrying out the interview.

‘To be honest, I did ask him if whether I should do this and he said, ‘Yes, do it,’ and if he’d have said ‘no’ I wouldn’t have done it and I think historically some of this stuff is really important…’

The comments were left in by the programme’s producers, but viewers split over whether it was deliberate or not that he said it while the cameras still rolled.

Some saw it as a sign of Murdoch’s influence that a contributor had admitted to checking with him before speaking to the programme.

Others thought it was an attempt by Farage to sound more influential than he actually was.

‘Best moment in the Murdoch documentary is Farage’s admission, thinking he’s off camera, that he asked Murdoch de facto permission to appear,’ said Guy Walters.

‘Farage loves the idea that he’s mates with Murdoch. The scene with the mic being taken off was just a bit of theatre – Garage [sic] knew he was on camera,’ tweeted Charles Lambert.

Ming Ho simply wrote: ‘Heartbreaking… Farage wheeled out to say approvingly that if it hadn’t been for ‘decisive intervention’ re Blair we’d have had Euro in 99 and no Brexit.

‘Just imagine how much better our lives would have been. Country destroyed by self-serving malevolence’.