Brexit Party spokesman Gawain Towler stood by Nigel Farage’s comments about Prince Harry made during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Sydney, Australia, during the weekend – Yahoo News reported on Monday, 12 August.
“No derogatory comments were made about Prince Harry whatsoever and all reporting otherwise is incorrect,” Towler told Yahoo News, in defense of Farage’s reported verbal attacks on Prince Harry.
However, according to Guardian reports, even though the media was banned from participation in the conference, Farage’s comments about members of the royal family were particularly strong, primarily targeting Prince Harry.
“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,” - said Farage, while commenting on Prince Harry and his wife's recent declarations about their intentions to have only two children due to climate change issues.
“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.”
Farage was not less critical towards other royalty in his speech, calling the Queen Mother an “overweight, chain-smoking gin drinker” and referring to her grandson Prince Charles as “Charlie Boy”, while criticising his attitude to climate change.
The only positive references to the royal family the Brexit Party leader made were directed towards the Queen, whom he described as “an amazing, awe-inspiring woman”.
“Mr Farage explicitly said he hopes the Queen lives a long and healthy life and he continues to support Her Majesty,” the spokesman said, referring to Farage’s remarks about his desire for the Queen to “live a long time” to prevent Prince Charles from becoming king.
Farage has been a long and outspoken critic of Prince Charles, for example publicly refusing to applaud him after the latter's 2008 speech on climate change.
Farage was UKIP party leader from 2006 to 2009 and then again from 2010 to 2016, strongly defending his pro-Brexit and anti-European stance. He is currently the leader of the Brexit Party in the European Parliament.