‘Tetchy’ Farage calls for easing of ban on handguns

The Ukip leader branded the current law “ludicrous” and insisted it had not helped to keep gun grime down.

He also dismissed his party’s 2010 general election manifesto as “drivel”, saying it had been written by an “idiot”.

The comments came in a tetchy appearance on a commercial radio station after difficult week, which has seen a Ukip councillor link gay marriage to flooding and Mr Farage argue that women are worth less to City firms than men.

Ownership of most handguns was made illegal by John Major’s government following the 1996 Dunblane shooting, when Thomas Hamilton killed 16 schoolchildren and a teacher before shooting himself.

Tony Blair’s Labour government then extended the restrictions in 1997 to cover all handguns, including the .22 pistols used at the Olympics.

Asked whether he thought the controls were right, Mr Farage said: “I think proper gun licencing is something we’ve done in this country responsibly and well for a long time, and I think the knee-jerk legislation that Blair brought in that meant that the British Olympic pistol team have to go to France to even practice, was just crackers. If you criminalise handguns then only the criminals carry the guns.

“It’s really interesting that since Blair brought that piece of law in, gun crime doubled in the next five years in this country.”

He added: “I think that we need a proper gun licencing system, which to a large extent I think we already have, and I think the ban on handguns is ludicrous.”

Mr Farage also sought to explain a floundering appearance in a BBC interview on Thursday, when he seemed unaware of previous party policies such as repainting trains in traditional colours and setting uniforms for taxi drivers.

The MEP – who had briefly stood down as leader at the time to focus on an unsuccessful run for a Commons seat – said he had not even read the document.

“I didn’t read it; it was drivel, 486 pages of drivel, I didn’t read it, nor did the Party leader, it was a nonsense, and we’ve put that behind us,” he said.