Ukip’s Nigel Farage has said the views of the new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Northern Ireland leaving the UK are out of touch with the electorate.
He claimed people would be shocked when they realised what the republican “working-class hero” who wants to abolish the monarchy stood for.
Mr Corbyn has said he supports the idea of Northern Ireland leaving the UK and joining the Republic.
Mr Farage, Ukip’s leader, was in Belfast to launch his party’s campaign for a Yes vote in a future referendum on the UK leaving the EU.
“[Corbyn] is a republican in both senses. Firstly, he wants to get rid of the queen,” Mr Farage said.
“Clearly he does not believe that Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom, which will make a lot of people think.”
Mr Corbyn organised Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams’s visit to the House of Commons in the early 1980s. He observed a minute’s silence for eight IRA members killed by the SAS in 1987.
Mr Adams has described him as “a friend of Ireland” and the peace process.– (PA)