13 Things You Probably Don't Know About Nigel Farage

The UKIP leader led his party to victory in the recent European Parliament elections. But how much do you know about Nigel Farage?

1. Farage only has one testicle.

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Farage has had all manner of setbacks in his life but contracting testicular cancer aged 24 was one of the worst.

"I believed I was going to die," he later wrote in his autobiography, adding that he was originally misdiagnosed and had to sign a form "consenting to any mutilation named apt" before going in for his operation.

Against the odds Farage survived the cancer, which did not spread elsewhere, although he lost a testicle in the process.

2. Farage was "dazzled" by Enoch Powell as a teenager.

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The politician, best known for his anti-immigration "Rivers of Blood" speech, left a major impact on Farage when he visited Dulwich College in the 1980s.

Farage would later reminisce about driving the "great man" around Newbury in support of UKIP during a 1994 by-election.

3. Farage was at school with the Turner Prize-winning conceptual artist Jeremy Deller.

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Left-wing artist Deller, best known for recreating the Battle of Orgreave from the miners' strike and getting a brass band to play KLF covers was at Dulwich College in the 1970s with Farage.

Deller apparently remembers Farage "running around a lot in military gear".

4. Farage really, really hates John Lennon's song "Imagine", according to his autobiography.

Nigel Farage / Via amazon.co.uk

5. Farage almost joined the army.

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Farage was active in his school's army cadet force and actively considered joining the army as a teenager.

He says he was attracted by the "unchallenging camaraderie, the duties performed with undeserved ease, the travel, the jaunty social life".

Instead he went into finance but continued to run guided tours of World War One battlefields under the banner of "Farage’s Foresters".

6. Farage was hit by a car after having an drunken argument over politics.

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Farage was involved in a serious car crash outside Orpington station after spending the afternoon in the pubdebating the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985.

While recuperating in hospital he met his first wife, Clare, who was working as a nurse.

7. Farage's father was an alcoholic who attempted suicide.

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Guy Justus Oscar Farage was an alcoholic City trader who spent a lot of time away from his wife and children, who lived in rural Sussex.

After becoming increasingly distant he made a "determined attempt to kill himself", aged just 29, but survived and later rebuilt his life.

8. Farage received death threats from the pilot of the plane that crashed while carrying the UKIP politician.

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Farage was involved in a plane crash on election day in 2010 after a promotional UKIP banner became tangled around the rudder of the light aircraft he was in.

Although the pilot was later exonerated of wrongdoing he became fixated on the UKIP leader and was found later guilty of issuing death threats to Farage.

9. Farage's wife is German.

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Despite his anti-immigration stance Farage insists he loves Europe. He met his wife in Frankfurt in 1996 while visiting on business and described her as a "stunning government bond broker".

She recently told the Daily Telegraph that she is concerned by her husband's lifestyle.

"He smokes and he drinks too much," she explained.

10. Farage once defeated an attempt by rebel UKIP members – led by Rowan Atkinson's brother – to split the party in two.

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Rowan Atkinson's brother Rodney Atkinson came within 16 votes of becoming UKIP leader in 2000. He took the loss very badly and attempted to cause a schism at an emergency meeting of the party,forcing Farage to jump on stage at an emergency meeting and call for calm in a bid to save the party.

Just to make things more bizarre the meeting was chaired by former Record Breakers host Norris McWhirter, an avowed Eurosceptic and UKIP supporter.

11. Farage used to vote for the Green Party.

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Farage voted Green in the 1989 European Parliament elections, saying they were the only truly Eurosceptic party standing.

He later said the Greens are "consistently principled" party, unlike mainstream parties.

12. Farage used to live with fellow UKIP politician Godfrey Bloom.

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Bloom is best known for his comments on "Bongo Bongo Land" and for referring to a group of women as "sluts". But before stepping down as an MEP he shared a flat with Nigel Farage in Brussels.

13. Farage was branded "seven times a night Nigel" by a Latvian woman who claims he seduced her in a local pub.

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The now-defunct News of the World claimed in 2005 that former TV reporter Liga Howells, then 25, was seduced by the married UKIP leader in a Kent pub.

"I was quite shocked when he asked me to smack him during love-making," she told the newspaper. "He asked me if I would put him over my knee, but I refused, although I did give in and give him a few gentle taps while we were having sex.

"He also liked to call me Miss. It was ‘Yes Miss' or ‘No Miss' when we were in bed. I found this very odd. We must have had sex about seven times. He had very good stamina."

Farage denies any of this happened and says he slept on the sofa at her house.