Nigel Farage has no response to caller who points out both Norway and Switzerland have freedom of movement

Former Ukip leader cited countries as 'the two richest in Europe'

Nigel Farage was stumped just once during his debut as a presenter on LBC radio, after a listener pointed out the apparent hypocrisy of his position on the European single market.

The former Ukip leader took mostly friendly calls in the first hour-long Nigel Farage Show on Monday night, including a number who suggested he should be Prime Minister and one self-proclaimed socialist who nonetheless praised him for “changing world history”.

Mr Farage appeared to agree with a caller who said it was “amazing” he had got Donald Trump’s ear and that Theresa May was “one of the most evasive people I have ever heard in my life”.

But the conversation with Joe from Crystal Palace took an unexpected turn when he then said: “I don’t believe leaving the single market is a particularly good idea for the UK,” adding that it was “open for interpretation” whether that was what Britain voted for in the referendum.

Joe suggested being in Europe but out of the single market would but Britain on a par with “Belarus, Serbia and Russia”, to which Mr Farage argued: “Switzerland and Norway are outside the EU, have their own separate arrangements, with Norway it’s a halfway house, Switzerland are completely out, and they are the two richest countries in Europe.”

He was unable to hit back, however, when Joe responded: “But they both have freedom of movement, on the most part.”

Mr Farage failed to respond to Joe’s specific point, but later said “every single big player made absolutely clear that a vote to leave the EU was a vote to leave the single market”.

According to Open Europe, if the UK had the same rate of EU immigration as Switzerland it would mean nearly 400,000 more EU migrants entering Britain per year.

For the most part, Mr Farage let callers speak and refrained from pushing his own view too strongly. Of the first six callers, five declared themselves Leave voters and a sixth said he voted Remain but “respected the fact we are leaving”.

Late on in the hour, Mr Farage did receive one critical call from a man who accused him of “leading the working class in this country to vote for something that is going to be very bad for them”.

Chris said it was not Mr Farage who would be suffering as the devaluation of the pound pushed up prices for fuel and imported food.

Asked if he “felt guilty”, Mr Farage replied that he had been “dead honest” throughout the referendum campaign, and rejected the suggestion that “terrible doom would happen”.

“Hopefully it is going to mean more of them [working-class people] in work, it is going to be good for UK manufacturing,” he said.

Brexit remained the theme throughout the show, with Mr Farage calling the referendum “the most dramatic vote of any of our political lifetimes”.

And in his closing monologue, Mr Farage was highly critical of Theresa May over what he called the lack of progress made in leading Britain towards the EU exit door.

“I never wanted a Remainer to be Prime Minister anyway,” he said. “I did give her the benefit of the doubt... but absolutely nothing has happened.

“In the last two days, when America was mentioned, she said we should build on those relationships. The point of Brexit is that we need to go global, starting with the Trump administration.

“I don’t see that this Prime Minister has the energy, excitement or flair to do it.”