I’m A Celeb campmate Nigel Farage ‘used to dealing with snakes’ in politics

By Ellie Iorizzo, LA Correspondent, PA

Nigel Farage said he is sure he will be able to survive the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! jungle because he is “used to dealing with snakes and other horrible reptiles” – both in the European Parliament in Brussels and at Westminster.

The former Ukip and Brexit Party leader said he has been training for the ITV reality show for the past five days by abstaining from tea, coffee and alcohol.

Farage also confirmed he is “not a big fan of heights” after surviving a plane crash in 2010, adding: “I know that the ground does hurt quite a lot.”

The GB News presenter said in a video for the channel: “So the speculation is over, I am going into the jungle, but it’s okay because I am used to dealing with snakes and other horrible reptiles both in Brussels and here in Westminster – I’m sure I’ll be able to survive.”

The 59-year-old continued: “They’ve asked me every year since 2016 to go in the jungle I always thought it’s not the right time for me to do it.

“But I can’t do it next year because we’ve got a general election, we’ve American presidential elections, so this year I am kind of free in a way to do it.

“You know the (Brexit) referendum was a long time ago, there are a lot of young people who don’t know who I am, don’t know what I stand for.

“This is my big chance to reach a really big audience of young people, which I think will be good for me and really good for GB News as well. That’s one reason for doing it.”

Farage said the second reason is because for more than 40 years he has “lived by the clock” working in financial markets, in the European Parliament, as a radio and TV broadcaster – “I’ve lived on news, numbers, information,” he said.

“To go away from all of that for several weeks is one really big challenge, to confront things that are obviously frightening, to have to deal with them and come through them is a really good challenge,” he added.