Nigel Farage’s ‘homophobic racist insult’ in a private video message has left I’m A Celebrity viewers fuming.
The former Ukip leader, 59, is on the reality show with Sam Thompson and Josie Gibson from This Morning, while Jamie Lynn Spears is the second celebrity to leave only days following Grace Dent.
Viewers have already vowed to boycott the ITV show, with comic Katherine Ryan joining them, and now the video message has enraged them even more.
In a personal video message on Cameo, Farage used a ‘racist, homophobic and ableist’ slur, as branded by its recipient, and told a gay NHS worker they would get n** d**k for Christmas’.
The personalised message was sent in by a customer in 2021, and the politician is said to have charged around £75 for the clip, reports Byline Times.
Farage used the video-sharing service to read out the scripted message, sent by a man who, it is reported, Farage had been warned about as someone who supported ‘the enforced deportation of Britons, incarceration and sterilisation based on skin colour’.
The politician, who has recorded thousands of videos on the streaming service, acknowledged in the short clip that he was getting paid ‘to insult’ the recipient, calling them ‘an old loser’ and saying they were diagnosed with ‘Intelligence Deficit [name] Disorder’.
The recipient, who has ADHD, was ‘shocked to see [Farage] revelling in it’, he told the publication, adding that he reported the matter to his local police station.
Cameo issued a private apologies and examined the item in question after the receiver felt ‘harassed,’ according to the site.
The male mental health worker also claims that Farage ‘queried the intended meaning’ of the slur with the customer before sending it, saying: ‘I don’t know what he was told but he is a smart enough person to know exactly how people would receive it.’
In response to the exposed clip, one person wrote: ‘@itv @antanddec Shame on all of you.’
‘Your move @ITV @antanddec,’ another said, with a third echoing: ‘@itv @imacelebrity @antanddec whenever you’re ready…’
Someone else wrote: ‘@antanddec @itv @imacelebrity remove him!! Double standards, if this was Big Brother they’d have been removed!!!!’
‘The man you chose to entertain us @ITV @antanddec,’ someone else said.
This comes after Farage, who is said to be the camp’s highest-paid competitor, upset viewers in scenes concerning cultural appropriation that aired on Tuesday.
In a conversation, comedian Katherine said that she would not watch the programme because it makes ‘dangerous people’ and politicians – such as Matt Hancock and Nigel Farage this year – who have ‘hurt lots of families’ light entertainment.
She told us: ‘I vehemently am against glorifying people like Matt Hancock and Nigel Farage and reducing them to light entertainment fodder when I think that they’re very dangerous people who have directly hurt lots of families.
‘I don’t think that’s a joke, for me, so I wouldn’t be watching. I didn’t watch last year. I take politics quite seriously.’
I’m A Celebrity continues tonight at 9pm on ITV.