Nigel Farage batted away arguments from Fred Siriex in the I’m A Celebrity camp during Sunday’s episode when the First Dates star confronted him about Brexit for the second time.
Siriex and Farage already locked horns about leaving the EU earlier this series and the former decided to relive the debate once again.
The clash from Sunday’s episode occurred af Frankie Dettori said to Farage: “Farage, tell us a story.”
While his campmates were preparing the crab dinner for everyone, Farage began: “When I first put myself up (for election), I thought I don’t even care if no one votes for me, I feel better about myself for doing it. I believe I’m doing the right thing.”
“The thing is, Nigel, you destroyed the economy,” Siriex interrupted from the other side of the camp.
“That’s absolute b******s!” Farage hit back. “Have a look at the German economy, the French economy…”
Farage and Siriex debated Brexit again on Sunday evening
ITV/SHUTTERSTOCK
But Siriex was unconvinced and replied: “One thing they said under this Brexit vote is we’re gonna get £350 million a week that we can redirect to the NHS and build new hospitals and have free care and all that – it never happened.”
“Spending’s gone up, Fred, by £500 million,” Farage corrected him, to which Tony Bellew chipped to ask why hospitals were “struggling”.
When Farage tried to explain there were “lots of reasons”, Siriex interjected again to bark: “Because they don’t know what they’re talking about!”
Recalling the clash in the Bush Telegraph, Farage said to ITV viewers: “Fred is a rejoiner… he loves the European Union, he loves the European Court of Human Rights, he believes in all of this stuff and that’s fine!
“But Fred can’t help himself occasionally, that bubbling resentment and anger comes up to the surface.”
“You’ve really created a big mess, Nigel,” Siriex accused as the cameras returned to camp as Farage defended his stance: “If you believe in democracy, Fred, it’s a liberation.”
Not letting the conversation lie, Siriex tried to put Farage on the spot as he grilled: “What are the three benefits of Brexit?”
Quick as a flash, Farage reeled off the fact we’re self-governing, only for Siriex to claim we were anyway which prompted Farage to hit back: “We did not. If you believe that, you do not understand what the European Union is.”
Farage’s list continued as he used the taking “back of our territorial waters” as a second example but Siriex wasn’t impressed as he claimed: “I’m not talking about benefits, I’m talking about something tangible.”
“Alright, the nuclear submarine deal with Australia could not have been done as a European Union member because France already had a contract, simple as,” Farage defiantly answered back.
And when Siriex suggested Britain could’ve done a similar deal with France, Farage quipped: “Ha! Don’t make me laugh.”
In the end, Farage told his campmates: “But the point of it is, we can make a mess of it ourselves if choose to and I’ve always argued that!”
And reflecting in the Bush Telegraph, he added: “A lot of people in life are persuadable… Fred Siriex is not one of them.”
