Furious Nigel Farage fears foul play as viral congratulatory tweet DELETED by Tric Awards

Farage took to Twitter to alert his followers to the organisations' trickery, saying in a video: "Well today, Tric, the organisation that put together the awards yesterday, deleted their tweet announcing that I’d won news presenter of the year.

"It would seem that all of these people hate the British public. It’s not me they hate, it’s the people that voted for me they hate.

"And that’s why the whole thing needs a massive shake up. GB News will be complaining in the strongest terms."

Farage added: “It would seem that I have committed the ultimate cardinal sin in broadcasting by questioning the Barb figures, by questioning the fact that the industry actually owns the very organisation that rates its programmes."

When contacted by GB News, Tric downplayed the tweet deletion as unintentional or a precursor to a plan to republish the tweet.

Indeed, the tweet was republished but without mention of the event's sponsors and with the function that allows the public to comment turned off.

It is not the first time Farage and the Tric awards sponsors have clashed, for Farage claims the evening's sponsors unceremoniously booted him from the drinks reception area at Grosvenor House.

Farage said he was treated "like a war criminal" but claimed to have received a full apology before collecting his award on stage.

Farage had stunned the television industry as he scooped the award in a public vote ahead of category finalists Piers Morgan, Susanna Reid and his fellow GB News colleagues, Eamonn Holmes and Stephen Dixon.

Donald Trump, former US president who Farage has interviewed twice for GB News, said: “Congratulations to Nigel. He truly is incredible with what he does and says.

"Everybody listens—the respect is long and deep.”

A jubilant Farage had initially tweeted: “Delighted to win Tric News Presenter of the Year.

"Huge thanks to the public that voted, the small and dedicated team that work with me, and those that founded and lead GB News. This great broadcaster is going from strength to strength!"

The Tric awards were more intensely contested than ever this year with more than 130,000 voters, compared to 66,000 last year and in total, more than 1.3million votes were cast.

Addressing an occasionally baying audience of TV executives and talent as he collected his award, Farage said: “Those of you shouting, think about this. There is a large gap in the broadcast market.

“You’ve all become too much the same. And that is where GB News comes in.

What we’re doing is creating a new, fresh brand in British broadcasting. When we overcome the awareness problem, we’re going to be a major force.”

It came as GB News claimed a spectacular double at the awards, with the GB News Breakfast show claiming the Multichannel News Programme gong.

Farage’s critique of the Barb system for measuring TV audiences was a moment of particular frustration for the furious crowd, with some heard shouting “rubbish”.

“You should be frightened, and you will lose your viewers”, he said.

For the first time, this year the winners in 17 categories were chosen entirely by the public.

Farage said: “The approval of your audience is the ultimate accolade. GB News set out to be the People’s Channel and I’m incredibly proud of that. The establishment media doesn’t always like it – we’re not for them – but this award shows that the people do.”

He added: “In politics, the art of constructive debate is being lost, but it matters. To me, good news and current affairs presenting is about bringing together people with very different opinions, and then having a warm, grown-up conversation with them.”

The TRIC awards website previously crashed under the weight of the amount of people trying to vote for Farage in the news presenter category.