Nigel Farage condemned 'utterly loathsome' Northern Ireland peace process

Ukip leader Nigel Farage once branded the Northern Ireland peace process "utterly loathsome", a newly-released video shows.

Speaking to a website called The Tangled Web in 2007, the leader of the anti-EU party said: "I find the whole peace process, so called, in Northern Ireland loathsome. Utterly and entirely loathsome.

"I think to have released back into the community over 400 convicted murderers -- some of whom served sentences as short as 18 months -- That is not what I call a peace process.

"That is what I call surrender to the wrong 'uns... you know, both from the Protestant and the Catholic side.. and so I am sickened by the whole thing."

Watch the 2007 interview below:

The Ukip leader also attacked the late Rev Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, who dropped his long-standing hostility to Sinn Féin by entering a power-sharing agreement.

"I am very surprised that Paisley has been prepared to go into government with Sinn Féin, IRA. I really am very surprised by that," said Farage.

During the 21-minute interview, the Ukip leader also attacks the smoking ban in pubs which came into force in 2007, describing it as "crackpot".