Nigel Farage's comms chief steps in after car crash LBC interview

In one of the toughest passages, Mr Farage faced a grilling on his comments from February that parts of Britain were "like a foreign land" where "you don't hear English spoken any more".

At the time, he described being on a rush-hour train leaving Charing Cross, saying "it was not until we got past Grove Park that I could hear English being audibly spoken in the carriage".

Asked today whether he felt similarly uncomfortable when his wife and daughters spoke German, Mr Farage pointed out that they could also speak English.

But he then admitted that he did not know whether the people on the train spoke English as well.

"Maybe they could, but I got the feeling that it certainly was not their language of choice," the MEP said.

"If you look at the primary school situation in the East End of London where you have now got schools where the majority doesn't speak English, doesn't that say to us that what we want is a sensible balanced immigration policy where we want people with skills to come into Britain, (but) we also want integration in society."

Mr O'Brien pointed out that those figures recorded how many children had a first language that was not English - and not how many were unable to speak English.

"Your own children would fit into that category," he added.

Mr Farage replied: "Hopefully lots of people can speak different languages...

"They come from homes where English is most definitely not the first language, and in too many cases is not the language at all."

The presenter insisted: "But no one's counted how many people are in the second category?"

"No, no, and it would be a very helpful and useful thing if they did, and perhaps we would be even more surprised and shocked if they did."

Mr Farage said he was making a "simple point" about the dangers of having an "open door" immigration policy with the EU, and denied there was anything racist about his position.

"What is racism?" he said. "Is race about colour? Is race about race or is it about nationality? I made a comment there that wasn't intended to say any more than that I felt uncomfortable about the rate and pace of change..."

Mr O'Brien cut in: "You felt uncomfortable about people speaking foreign languages, despite the fact that presumably your own wife does when she phones home to Germany."

"I don't suppose she speaks it on the train," an exasperated Mr Farage responded.

Mr O'Brien: "Why not, is she not allowed to?"

"Of course people are allowed to," the MEP conceded.

Mr Farage was then pressed on his suggestion that he would feel uncomfortable if Romanians moved in next door.

"If you lived in London I think you would be," he said.

Mr O'Brien asked: "What about if a group of German children did? What's the difference?

"You know what the difference is," Mr Farage said.

"We want an immigration policy that can control not just quantity, but quality as well."

As the live interview moved on to examine Mr Farage's expenses, Ukip communications director Patrick O'Flynn stepped in to complain that it was running over time.

"Sorry, we had an agreement about timing... you've massively... " Mr Flynn began.

But Mr Farage told him to "hang on" and finished his answer.