Nigel Farage criticises Prince Charles again and refuses to back down in royal row

Nigel Farage has refused to back down from his criticism of Prince Charles and again said the late Queen Mother was a ‘slightly overweight, chain-smoking gin drinker’.

Supporters of the Brexit Party leader have backed his attack on the Royal Family after he criticised the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in an incendiary speech.

Mr Farage slammed Prince Harry’s ‘wokeness’ and lambasted Prince Charles – dubbing him ‘Charlie Boy’ – for his climate change views in Sydney on Saturday. 

Then, 24 hours after his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, he seemingly refused to back down from his claims on Sky News Australia.

Mr Farage told the programme of Charles: ‘He came to the European Parliament ten years ago to tell us within seven years the polar ice cap would disappear completely. At the end of his speech, I refused to stand, I just sat there like that.’

He added: ‘All I can say about the Queen and his succession is this. The Queen Mother was a chain-smoking gin drinker who did not look after herself at all and lived to 101. The Queen is 93 and looks fit, may she reign for a very long time.’

While he faced a backlash from many on Twitter, dozens of others praised him for being ‘dead right on his opinion’, ‘absolutely correct’ and ‘spot on’.

And a source close to Mr Farage told the Sun of his comments about the Queen Mother: ‘The idea he was attacking her is ridiculous – Nigel loves smoking and having a drink.’

Graham Smith, chief executive of anti-monarchy group Republic, told MailOnline today: ‘Farage is wrong to dismiss the issues Harry, Meghan and Charles focus on, but he’s free to criticise the Royal Family if he wants to – and he’s right to suggest the royals need to keep out of politics.

‘We need to stop feigning outrage every time the royals get called out for what they say and do in public. They are public figures on the public payroll, we all have every right to criticise them any way we see fit. I may disagree with what Farage is saying, but I support his right to say it.

‘This is a salutary lesson in why the royals do themselves no favours by getting involved in political issues. It will divide opinion and often turn their own supporters against them. 

‘But the problem is if they do and say nothing people will lose interest and start asking what’s the point of them. The royals should be very worried about the willingness of the Right to turn on the royals. Once the Queen goes, who will be there to defend the king?’

Writing on Twitter, one Farage supporter said: ‘He’s just voicing what we are all thinking… and she got the taxpayer to pay for it! As far as Harry and Meghan are concerned they are just having a whale of a time and all on the British taxpayer!

‘We could use the money on far more deserving things instead of two jet setters.’ 

Another added: ‘Farage was clearly making the point that Markle is too overtly political and if you take the public purse, keep your views to yourself. Quite right.’

And a third said: ‘Farage is totally right in this. Harry was my second favourite royal after the Queen, but all of a sudden he’s a raging Lefty pain! The timing of the transformation would seem to support Farage’s thinking.’

However, others criticised his views including Labour MP David Lammy, who tweeted: ‘Lay off Meghan, you bellicose toad.’

Another said: ‘Nigel Farage is a weird kind of patriot. One that complains about every aspect of his country apart from himself.’

During the speech on Saturday, Mr Farage also ridiculed comments by the Duke of Sussex that he and wife Meghan planned to have a ‘maximum’ of two children for the sake of the planet.

And Mr Farage – who described the Queen as an ‘amazing, awe-inspiring woman’ – said he hoped she would live a ‘very, very long time’ to stop the Prince of Wales becoming king.

Media were not present at the event, but the Guardian newspaper said it had heard a recording of part of Mr Farage’s speech.

‘When it comes to her son, when it comes to Charlie Boy and climate change, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Her mother, Her Royal Highness the Queen’s mother was a slightly overweight, chain-smoking gin drinker who lived to 101 years old,’ he reportedly said.

‘All I can say is Charlie Boy is now in his 70s… may the Queen live a very, very long time.’

In reply to a question about women choosing not to have children because of climate change, Mr Farage said: ‘Well, if I want the Queen to live a long time to stop Charlie Boy becoming king, I want Charlie Boy to live even longer and William to live forever to stop Harry becoming king. 

‘Terrifying! Here was Harry, here he was this young, brave, boisterous, all-male, getting into trouble, turning up at stag parties inappropriately dressed, drinking too much and causing all sorts of mayhem.

‘And then – a brave British officer who did his bit in Afghanistan – he was the most popular royal of a younger generation that we’ve seen for 100 years.

‘And then he met Meghan Markle, and it’s fallen off a cliff. We’ve been told in the last week that Meghan and Harry will only have two children… and we’re all completely ignoring the real problem the Earth faces.

‘And that is the fact the population of the globe is exploding but no one dares talk about it, no one dares deal with it, and whether Prince Harry has two kids is irrelevant given there are now 2.6 billion Chinese and Indians on this Earth.’

Last month, Harry told activist and chimpanzee expert Dr Jane Goodall he will only have two children for the sake of the planet.

Harry said he now views the natural world differently since becoming a father to three-month-old son Archie, and when quizzed by the primatologist about how many children he is planning to have with Meghan, he replied ‘two, maximum’. 

It is not the first time Mr Farage has taken aim at Charles, having previously described his views on climate change as ‘naive and foolish at best’.

In 2008 he was the sole MEP who refused to applaud a speech on global warming by the prince.

Royal commentator Robert Jobson said Mr Farage’s comments were the ‘epitome of ignorance’ and said his attack on the Queen Mother was a ‘cheap shot’.

He told MailOnline: ‘I was surprised by Farage’s rant against the royal family given his stance on the importance of the Sovereignty of our nation.

‘His comments are rude and unfounded; epitome of ignorance. But given his huge ego and overblown sense of self importance perhaps I shouldn’t be.

‘I thought his remarks against Her Majesty late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother were particularly offensive and uncalled for. I am sure many will find his comments offensive.

‘Especially given The Queen Mother’s life time of public service for Great Britain and her role alongside the King during World War Two… not to mention she is no longer here to answer back. A cheap shot.

‘He is undoubtedly an ego-centric exhibitionist who seems to says what he thinks the audience he is addressing wants to hear,

‘I think his assessment of our Royal Family and what they do for this country, the realms and the wider Commonwealth is both misjudged, very unfair and ill informed.

‘Perhaps at this time he should be talking up our country when overseas not insulting an institution that is at the heart of what is good about Great Britain.’

Mr Farage’s spokesman said the comments were not meant as criticism of Elizabeth’s mother, the wife of George VI who died in 2002, and were taken out of context.

‘This is not an attack on the Queen Mother in the slightest. It’s basically saying she lived until 101 so the queen, given that has a much better lifestyle than the Queen Mother, will live for a lot longer,’ the spokesman said.

His comments come as Prince Harry faces renewed controversy over his trip to Google’s ‘green’ summit in Sicily.

The Prince is thought to have given an impassioned speech about the environment and humanitarianism while barefoot in front of an A-List crowd who flew in on 114 private jets.

But Harry was said to have been flown into Palmero airport on a chartered plane, before a helicopter whisked him onwards to the luxury resort of Verdura for the summit.

If he did travel via private jet, it would have put around three tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere – ten times more than going via commercial airliner.

The Prince then stayed on one of the giant super-yachts moored near the exclusive Verdura Golf and Spa Resort where the climate change retreat was held, according to reports.

According to experts, a 390ft super-yacht produces about 3.3 tons of damaging carbon dioxide each hour at sea by burning through around 200 gallons of fuel.

Environmental groups blasted the meeting for hypocrisy.

Tech giants and celebrities flocked to Sicily to show off their green credentials for the camp that focuses on global warming – but many failed to leave their private jets at home. 

When contacted by MailOnline, Buckingham Palace refused to confirm Prince Harry’s attendance at the event or how he travelled to Sicily.

Mr Farage was introduced to the crowd in Australia as ‘quite possibly’ the next British PM, despite not being a member of parliament, and failing four times to be elected.

With the UK’s exit from the EU just weeks away, the former UKIP leader also used his stage time to tear strips out of the EU and its outgoing president, Jean Claude Juncker – but admitted that he and Mr Juncker shared a rapport.

‘I like Mr Juncker,’ Mr Farage said, ‘He’s the only person I know that makes me feel that I haven’t got a drink problem. I mean there’s having a glass of wine at lunch but crikey!’

The Brexit party leader also called Australia’s former PM Malcolm Turnbull a ‘snake’ as he savaged ‘trendy, metro, liberal elite’ leaders like David Cameron.

Mr Farage told the audience: ‘Malcolm Turnbull … pretended to be a conservative but actually turned out to be a snake.’

He added: ‘David Cameron was someone who was not conservative at all but a part of the trendy, metro, liberal elite masquerading as a conservative.’

Mr Farage backed Australia’s new PM, Scott Morrison who was elected last summer, telling the audience: ‘You’ve now got someone conservative, mainstream media [and] those in the middle of Melbourne and Sydney may not like him … But out where real people live, they voted for him.’