'Put that in your pipe and smoke it!' Nigel Farage issues direct message to Channel 4 during fiery Reform UK rally

He said: "Channel 4, listen to this, YouGov polling published this morning, Reform UK is now polling higher with British ethnic minorities than the Liberal Democrats."

Following a rapturous round of applause, the Reform UK leader added: "So, Channel 4, put that in your bloody pipe and smoke it."

The YouGov opinion poll found Reform UK is hoovering up seven per cent support from ethnic minority voters, one per cent more than the Liberal Democrats.

The only minority ethnic group Reform UK is trailing the Liberal Democrats with is amongst Pakistani and Bangladeshi voters.

During his rally at the NEC in Birmingham, Farage was welcomed by a wall of noise before audience members booed the BBC for its Question Time coverage on Friday.

The national broadcaster, which claimed it selected an audience with wide-ranging views, was accused of showing bias after Farage received a rough ride on issues ranging from race to immigration.

Farage is staging a boycott of the BBC until he receives an apology and reaffirmed Reform UK's commitment to scrapping the licence fee.

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Turning his attention to Channel 4, Farage said: "And then we have Channel 4, a so-called public service broadcaster, well let me tell you, what happened in Clacton, Saturday week back, was the biggest put-up job and smear campaign I have seen in my entire life. That man (Andrew Parker) is a professional actor who has worked for Channel 4 in the past. Funny that isn't it?"

The Reform UK leader, who doubled down on his assertion Andrew Parker was acting, added: "When I saw the video, initially I was horrified and then I realised he'd gone completely over the top with the idea that every mosque should be turned into a Wetherspoons.

"The next morning, when confronted, he denied he was an actor then he accepted it. But that of course has been used as the biggest smear against us. The racist campaigner for our party.

"Now look, Reform is a new organisation, it's a start-up. And requests were put out for candidates to stand and have we had a few bad apples? We have. Although, to my knowledge, nobody involved in an organised betting ring is standing for us which is something.

"The Channel 4 story was a put-up job, it really is frankly gross that that insult should be insulted at all of you and at all of our millions of voters. It is quite simply untrue. But I have to say, the bad apples are gone, we will never have them back."

Farage's comments were even echoed by several Reform UK's ethnic minority candidates.

The Reform UK racism row emerged late this week, with Channel 4 rejecting Farage's allegations.

Channel 4 instead stressed it did not pay anyone in its report and claimed Parker was filmed covertly during the undercover operation.

However, a number of candidates at least initially picked by Reform UK have been exposed for making racist and offensive comments.

Raymond Saint and Grant StClair-Armstrong lost Reform UK’s support after it emerged the pair previously voiced support for the British National Party.

Ben Aston also claimed Jews were "agitating" to import "third-world Muslims" into Britain.

Jack Aaron, Julian Malins and Samantha Goggin seemingly appeared to make questionable comments on foreign policy issues ranging from Russia to the Falklands War.

Earlier this week, Farage stressed he wanted "nothing to do" with Reform UK candidates who have expressed hateful views.

The populist party has since dropped a further three candidates for making offensive or racist comments, including Saint and StClair-Armstrong.