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Farage 'Insults' Audience At Leaders' Debate

Nigel Farage has been accused of "insulting" the audience of the final election debate by saying they had failed to understand the issues and were too left wing.

During heated debate over the shortage of affordable housing in the UK, the UKIP leader said that "even by the standards of the BBC", the audience was too far left.

He said: "There is a total lack of comprehension amongst this panel and the audience, which is a remarkable audience even by the left-wing standards of the BBC."

The UKIP leader was jeered as he was told by Ed Miliband that it was not a good idea to "insult the audience", who had been selected by an independent polling firm.

Mr Farage responded: "The real audience is sitting at home."

He went on to blame the housing problem on immigration and said: "I just wonder, I'm curious can I get any recognition from any of you that the demand side of this equation is that a rapidly rising population due to open-door immigration, started by Ed Miliband's Labour parties in the 1990s, has directly contributed towards the housing crisis?"

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Immigration dominated much of the 90-minute Challengers' Debate on the BBC with Green Party leader Natalie Bennett, the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon and Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood all rounding on Mr Farage for "scapegoating" immigrants.

In a veiled warning about a UKIP/Conservative coalition, Ms Sturgeon said Mr Farage was increasingly driving the decisions made in Westminster on immigration.

Ms Sturgeon said: "We need strong controls on immigration, of course we do, and we need to make sure people do not get away with abusing the system the rest of us pay for.

"There are parts of the UK where housing and public services are under strain. I think the answer is to build more houses and invest in public services, not to scapegoat immigrants.

"I fear that the debate at Westminster on immigration is driven far too much by Nigel Farage and UKIP."

Mr Farage said Britain needed to "take back control of its borders" by leaving the EU and having an Australian-style points system.

He said UKIP was being unfairly abused on the subject of immigration.

He said: "When you lose an argument in politics you resort to abusing your opponent and we have seen quite a bit of this towards UKIP recently."

Ms Wood, who had admonished him over his views on immigrants with HIV in the previous televised debate, said: "So you abuse immigrants and those with HIV and then complain that UKIP is being abused."

The most heated exchanges of the night came over the NHS when Mr Miliband demanded Mr Farage came clean over his wish to privatise the NHS.

Mr Farage replied: "Ed is trying to defend a record that was all that good, was it?

"You bought the big five equity boys into the National Health Service and privatised a chunk of it, you saw the growth in MRSA, you presided over the Mid Staffordshire hospital.

"If you become prime minister, will you run a National Health Service, or continue it to be an international health service? That is what voters want to know."

He repeatedly accused the Labour leader of "lying" over his track record.

Mr Farage said the General Election had turned into a "farce". He said: "Every morning billions of pounds being offered, showered around like confetti. They are trying to bribe you with borrowed money."

The UKIP leader tussled with Mr Miliband over cuts and policies unveiled in the party manifesto on Monday. Mr Farage challenged the Labour leader: "I haven't heard from you, Ed a single cut you would make."

Mr Miliband replied: "That is wrong. We said for pensioners we will take the winter fuel allowance over an income, we have shown how we will save money in local government and elsewhere."

At the end of the debate, the cameras showed the three women shaking hands with each other and Mr Miliband while Mr Farage stood alone at his lectern.