Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage said he came to Deal for his new show because it is part of the 'blue wall'

In all honesty, I felt charmed by Nigel and certainly didn't see the villain that a lot of his critics paint him as. I asked how he would respond to critics who consider his complaint about migrants from "very different cultures to our own" coming across the channel that it is "dogwhistle racism". Farage told me he was "radical left" in his politics and that he has never been a conservative, with a small 'c'. I really do think that the first past the post system is desperately out of date. And so ultimately, it's the lack of support from our own side that has led to this change of direction." And in the end, that was a compromise that I had to go for. "And I think the real frustration is that we have not had the changes to business regulation that we'd all hoped for, it just hasn't happened. I told him I was from Deal, "oh, I know it very well," he said enthusiastically, "I was a member of the Cinque Ports Golf Club a few years back". Instead, he told me he wanted to help small businesses thrive and that "Deal is a town that thrives on local independent business". "Now, I mean, I do think there's an element of the French being difficult over this. He chuckled and shrugged his shoulders before adding: "Well up until the last couple of weeks. It was almost as though the cigarette was the equivalent of a phone booth for Clark Kent, he was the person you know and recognise from television.