Nigel Farage goes to war with ITV over I’m a Celeb ‘stitch-up’ and says network bosses ‘made things unpleasant’
NIGEL Farage has lambasted television bosses in an interview after being voted out of the Australian bush.
The former politician has accused ITV bosses of making his stay in the jungle "quite unpleasant" after he came third on I'm a Celebrity.
“It seems whilst I was in the Jungle, one or two people at the top of ITV were doing their best to make things unpleasant for me”, he said.
Farage did not specify what the "stitch-ups" were, but The Sun previously reported team Farage were unhappy with how much screen time he was receiving.
And Farage told ITV bosses to “go to hell” in a furious row over his naked I’m A Celebrity shower.
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Farage also took aim at Kevin Lygo, the Director of Television at ITV, in the interview and said he was willing to ignore his rude gestures.
“What I will say to Kevin Lygo, the boss of ITV, it’s up to you mate. If you want to go to war with me, you really can.
“The last person to do that was Dame Alison West, from NatWest bank, and look what happened to her.
“So I would suggest, Mr Lygo, that I am prepared to ignore your rude, one-handed gestures, the rude pathetic attempts from your staff to stitch me up.
“I am prepared to forget all of this if we can call a truce. If you really want to go to war with me, I don’t think it would do ITV share prices a lot of good.
“Let’s end the nonsense, and let’s do it now.”
Farage did also not specify what the "rude, one-handed gestures" he referred to were, but The Sun has reported that Lygo had made one last month at Farage's expense.
In front of dozens of ITV stars including Susanna Reid, Davina McCall and Lorraine Kelly Lygo joked: “Thank you to the signer — I don’t know any sign language, I just know the sign for Nigel Farage.”
The politician was said to be getting paid £65k a day for being on the show and seemed to enjoy his experience.
“I was the odd man out, I came from the world of politics and current affairs”, he said.
“Despite there being people there who disagreed with me strongly on Brexit or didn’t think wide scale illegal immigration was a problem, I did manage to have civilised conversations.
“The whole thing was the most incredible experience.”
I'm a Celebrity was eventually won by Sam Thompson on Sunday night.
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The former Made In Chelsea star was revealed as the King of the Jungle after a tense finale with Farage and retired boxer Tony Bellew.
ITV has been approached for comment.