Has 'I'm A Celeb' changed your opinion of Nigel Farage? Here's what Yahoo readers think

Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After two days the poll closes and, each Friday, we publish and analyse the results, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.

With Nigel Farage approaching two weeks on “I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!”, we asked Yahoo UK readers if his presence on the popular ITV show has changed their opinion of the controversial politician.

As the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader said himself in his introduction to the show last month: “I’m a hero to some people and an absolute villain to millions.”

The first of our two polls certainly corresponded with that view.

It asked: “Regardless of your opinion, how strongly do you like or dislike Farage?” The poll was a measure of readers’ strength of feeling about the now-GB News presenter, with 10 signalling strong feelings - regardless of what they were - and 1 suggesting indifference.

And as the below chart shows, Farage evoked strong emotions for the vast majority of readers who took part in the poll…

Farage was the face of the Leave campaign in the 2016 EU referendum - which split the nation in a 52% to 48% vote - with Brexit proving a bitterly divisive topic in the following years.

To this day, meanwhile, he maintains a high profile in public life. In the summer, for example, Farage made himself front and centre of the Coutts/NatWest “de-banking” scandal.

What Farage also said in his introduction to the competition on 19 November was: “In the jungle you’re going to find the real me. You might like me more, you might dislike me more, but you will at least find out.”

And according to our second poll - "Has your opinion changed on Nigel Farage during 'I'm a Celebrity'?" - more than half, 52%, of 12,138 voters said they now thought better of him.

This compares to 36% who liked him less and 12% whose opinion was unchanged.

Camp debates

Farage has been at the centre of a number of heated political debates in the jungle.

First Dates host Fred Sirieix described an EU referendum poster used by UKIP - showing a long queue of migrants under the slogan "breaking point" - as “shameful”.

“The thing is the intolerance that came because Brexit was about immigration, I remember your poster. I thought it was shameful what you did, Nigel. Shameful.”

Sirieix added that he felt it was about “demonising migrants”, to which Farage replied: “In your view it was, but it wasn’t.”

In another debate, YouTuber Nella Rose accused Farage of wanting people like her “gone” from the UK as she spoke to him about remarks he has made about reducing immigration numbers.

Watch: I'm A Celebrity's Nigel Farage struggles in Bushtucker trial

Rose told Farage “apparently you’re anti-immigrants” which she said she had read off the internet, before asking “why don’t black people like you?”

Farage said “you’d be amazed, they do” to which Rose replied “so everyone hates you for no reason?” Farage said the accusations were “grossly unfair” before adding: “All I’ve said is we cannot go on with the numbers coming to Britain that are coming.”

Recommended reading:

• 'Nigel Farage has become I'm A Celebrity's £1.5m problem' (Yahoo TV UK)

• Cash for seats row as Farage’s party accused of offering Tory MP ‘a lot of money’ to defect (The Independent)

Farage argued the pressure of the number of people coming to the UK was affecting GP appointments to which Rose countered that it is due to the NHS “lacking funding”. She added: “You want us gone, that’s all I understood” to which Farage replied that Rose was not listening to him, before adding “we can agree to disagree”.

The exchange was subject to 856 Ofcom complaints related to “alleged racial offence” from Rose’s comments to Farage.