Boxer Tyson Fury will win the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year competition despite making apparently homophobic and sexist comment, Nigel Farage has predicted.
The Ukip leader said an attempt to ban Mr Fury from the contest by petitioners would “backfire”.
He said the heavyweight boxer’s views were once “mainstream” in Britain and that he should be allowed to hold them without consequence.
“Tyson Fury comes from a traveller community … they have a moral code that is remarkably strong – no sex before marriage, they’re totally opposed to abortion, and they believe homosexuality is wrong. These are views that in 1950s and 60s Britain were actually mainstream views,” Mr Farage told LBC Radio on Friday.
“It isn’t just Tyson Fury who thinks this – virtually every Catholic priest in Britain, every Muslim imam in Britain thinks this. People in my opinion should be able to have their views and I bet you it’s all the same people that want to ban Trump from coming into this country.
“This attempt to shut him up, the idea that he should be kicked off Sports Personality of the Year – it’s all going to backfire. Get down to Ladbrokes, get your money on, ‘cause Tyson Fury is going to win.”
Mr Fury had told the BBC in an interview: “I'm not sexist. I believe a woman's best place is in the kitchen and on her back. That's my personal belief. Making me a good cup of tea, that's what I believe.”
He also likened the legalisation of homosexuality to the legalisation of pedophilia and expressed a view that legal abortion could see “the devil come home”.
A petition to have Mr Fury removed from the contest has garnered over 130,000 signatures.
Greater Manchester Police confirmed they had received a complaint about the boxer but said no action would be taken.
The BBC has refused to remove Mr Fury from the annual competition, whose 2015 winner will be announce on 20 December.
