Nigel Farage has been blasted by his former I’m A Celebrity campmate Fred Sirieix, after the politician confirmed he was running to be Prime Minister.
The Reform Party leader, who was met with a rather unfriendly start to his election campaign today, followed in Matt Hancock’s footsteps and appeared on the reality programme last year.
Ahead of entering the jungle, it was claimed Farage, 60, may already have a feud with First Dates star Fred, 52, after social media posts were exposed.
In 2017, one year after Farage’s stint as UKIP leader ended, Fred branded him a ‘coward’, writing on X: ‘Farage is a coward who likes money, attention & the sound of his own voice far too much.
‘Definitely not a selfless idealistic revolutionary.’
Fred didn’t hold back in the jungle either, over a heated conversation about Brexit, and now six months later, he has some more strong words for Farage.
Taking to X on Tuesday, Fred wrote: ‘I spoke at length and extensively with Nigel Farage for 3 weeks while in the jungle.
‘I wanted to make my own mind up about him and his views. Conclusion is simple.
‘He was very good at washing the dishes in the river but when it comes to politics he has no plan and no substance.’
He added: ‘No vision. No concrete policies. He is not interested in making the UK / the world a better place. He just rants.’
Fred is French and has lived in the UK for years, and during his stint on Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly’s ITV reality show last year, made his thoughts well and truly heard to Farage over the campaign to leave the EU.
He hit out at former Ukip leader Farage for the Brexit party’s controversial poster at the time, which claimed Britain was at ‘breaking point’ with immigration by showing a queue of migrants with the slogan ‘the EU has failed us all’.
‘Brexit was about immigration, I remember your poster. I thought it was shameful what you did Nigel. Shameful,’ Fred said.
Farage replied that his poster was ‘absolutely true’, adding: ‘It was a poster showing mass young men moving illegally across borders.’
The maitre d’ meanwhile insisted it was ‘demonising migrants,’ which Farage denied, saying that was just in Fred’s view – to which he said ‘it’s not just my view.’
Farage then declared that Brexit was only about being ‘in charge’ and ‘self-governing’.
‘We can get it right, we can make an absolute mess of it but we’re in charge and the people who make those decisions we can hire and fire at elections.’
Fred was having none of it, claiming the ‘average person in the UK has lost out because of what you’ve done.’
In another heated clash, Fred told Farage he ‘destroyed the economy’.
Farage hit back, saying: ‘Have a look at the German economy, the French economy.’
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Fred went on: ‘One thing they said, during the Brexit vote, is we’re going to get £350million a week that we can redirect to the NHS and build new hospitals and have free care and all that – it never happened.’
When Farage insisted spending has gone up, fellow campmate Tony Bellew jumped in: ‘So why are we struggling with hospitals then?’
‘Lots of reasons,’ Farage tried to excuse, while Fred blasted: ‘Because they don’t know what they’re talking about!’
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I’m A Celebrity is available to watch on ITVX.
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