Nigel Farage Admits He Wasn't The Target Of An Assassination Attempt

The UKIP leader said he might have gone a bit far in claiming someone was out to kill him.

Nigel Farage has admitted he was wrong to suggest he had been the target of an assassination attempt when his car crashed on a French motorway last year.

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The UKIP leader claimed he may have been deliberately targeted after one of the wheels on his Volvo estate came loose.

Farage told the Mail on Sunday last month he was "absolutely certain of foul play" when he crashed while driving back to Britain from the European parliament in October 2015. He claimed the bolts on all four wheels had been deliberately unscrewed.

But he faced mockery after French police and mechanics insisted there was no criminal incident. On Friday, Farage told LBC radio he had made a "terrible, terrible mistake" by confirming details of the incident to the newspaper and prompting the coverage.

"I did give a few bits and bobs of information that it appeared to have been tampered with," he said. "That then turns in a Sunday newspaper into an assassination attempt. I never said anything of the kind."

Farage was driving his Volvo V70 – described as "the luxury estate without compromise" – back from Brussels to Kent when the incident supposedly happened.

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According to the original story, Farage's wheels came loose while on the French motorway and he was forced to jump over a wall near Dunkirk after abandoning the car at the side of the road.

"There was a huge section of roadworks with cars going back and forth on the same side of the carriageway," the UKIP leader said at the time. "I suddenly realised I was losing steering but there was no hard shoulder to pull on to. I slowed down, put the hazards on, and then one of the wheels came off. I jumped over the wall as quickly as I bloody well could to get away from lorries and everything."

He added: "The French police looked at it and said that sometimes nuts on one wheel can come a bit loose – but not on all four."

However, since then the story has fallen apart.

Jim Waterson @jimwaterson

This graphic artist's impression of Nigel Farage jumping a motorway wall is quite something. https://t.co/lel9IOIw6V

09:03 AM - 03 Jan 2016

French newspaper Libération contacted police and the mechanic involved in the incident, who denied the story. The mechanic said he was forced to communicate with Farage in sign language because he does not speak English, meaning there was no way he could have told the UKIP leader about the supposed sabotage.

"Not only did they [the authorities] not say anything, but they did not even suspect a thing," the newspaper concluded.

Farage, who travels around the UK with a security detail on public visits, has now said he won't be making any further claims about assassination attempts.

"My view is whether it was deliberately tampered with or not, what happened happened, and I just want to get on with my life," he told LBC, alleging that an enemy within UKIP leaked the original claim to the media. "Next time I get a phone call from a newspaper asking me anything about anything that is personal or linked to my security I will not give an answer."