Nigel Farage has said Adolf Hitler was “hypnotic in a very dangerous way” as a public speaker and spoke again of his admiration for Vladimir Putin as a “political operator”.
The Reform UK leader was asked about the Nazi Germany dictator, his views on the Russian president and offered his opinion about the ongoing war in Ukraine.
In 2014, Mr Farage said Mr Putin was the world leader he most admires and praised his his “brilliant” handling of the civil war in Syria.
The Reform leader, challenged about his previous remarks admiring the Russian president as a “operator”, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Yeah, but not as a human being.”
Asked why, Mr Farage replied: “How many years has he been in power? He’s gone from prime minister, to president, he’s a clever political operator. He kills journalists, I don’t like him as a human being in any way at all.
“You can recognise the fact that some people are good at what they do even if they have evil intent.”
Asked if Hitler was good at what he did, Mr Farage replied: “What, as a public speaker? What do you think? Clearly, hypnotic in a very dangerous way.”
His comments about Hitler come after a Reform contender said that Britain should have “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality” instead of fighting the Nazis in the Second World War.
Ian Gribbin, the party’s candidate in Bexhill and Battle, also said praised Mr Putin, as reported by the BBC.
The Reform leader tried to dismiss the concerns on Monday, saying that “every party will suffer” controversy triggered by its candidates in a snap election.
At the BBC phone-in Mr Farage was also asked about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In 2022, he said the Russian invasion occurred because of Western provocation of Mr Putin.
He said the attack was a consequence of Nato and the EU trying to “poke the Russian bear with a stick”.
On Friday he suggested Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky should enter negotiations with Russia, although he acknowledged Kyiv’s Western allies will continue support to support them.
Mr Farage said: “This war has been going on for years, it is likely to go on for many, many more years.
“We’re looking at something like a million casualties between the two sides.”
Mr Farage added: “I’m not saying we shouldn’t support Ukraine at all, not for one minute, but at the end of the day most wars end in negotiation and I fear, if we don’t find some way of at least sitting down and talking, that we’re going to finish up with a war that goes on for year after year after year.”
He said he believed the “big difficulty would be Crimea”, adding: “Is it a bad idea to get people to sit around a table and talk?”
Mr Farage was asked what he would say if he was in a position of influence and had a meeting with Mr Zelensky.
He said: “I’d say to Zelensky, look, the West have been supporting you, they will go on supporting you but the percentage of your young manhood that you’re losing is so bad, isn’t it time we at least tried to have a negotiation – he couldn’t say no.”
Additional reporting by PA
