Nigel Farage declares himself a 'commoner', his sympathy for Ed Miliband - and claims Ukip were 'right' on racism row councillor

The Ukip leader joked that he was 'off to the pub' at the end of a pre-10am radio appearance

Ukip leader Nigel Farage (Reuters)

Nigel Farage has said that unrepentant comments from a Ukip councillor accused of racism show the party were "right" to expel her from the party.

Rozanne Duncan, then a district councillor for Thanet South, was recorded as part of a BBC documentary saying: "The only people that I do have problems with are negros and I don’t know why ... but I really do have a problem with people with negroid features, I really do."

Ms Duncan said she felt "betrayed" after she was expelled from the party in December, and insisted she did not regret making the comments that were "neither racist nor derogatory".

Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme today, Mr Farage said Ms Duncan's comments were "horrible" and "unacceptable". He said they were the sort of statements "we seem to get from Conservative defectors", but insisted he was "not for a moment defending" what she said.

"[Her lack of regret] really proves my point that clearly she doesn’t have any understanding of the deep offence she has caused - so we took the right decision," he said.

Mr Farage also surprised his fellow radio panellists Sir Terry Wogan and Dame Jenni Murray by drawing attention to a newspaper piece attacking the Labour leader Ed Miliband, saying it was hard "not to feel a bit of sympathy on a human level".

"I'm not a supporter of Ed Miliband's politics," he said, "but I think he is getting such a doing over every single day that it is going beyond the bounds of fairness."

And after Sir Terry suggested this could be the first sign of a possible Labour-Ukip coalition, Mr Farage joked that he was "a commoner".

Just before the end of the radio segment at 9.53am on Sunday, the Ukip leader said: "I'm a commoner, and like common people I shall be heading off to the pub."

A Ukip source told to The Independent Mr Farage did not actually plan on heading to his local at such an early hour - and that he instead went to a nearby coffee shop "for a cappuccino".