Ukip: We have christened it the Michael Crick question

Patrick O’Flynn, Ukip’s economic spokesman, has been on the World at One to explain the incident at the manifesto launch earlier when a journalist was booed for asking a difficult question.

He said the query, about why there were so few black faces in the Ukip manifesto, should be “christened the Michael Crick question”.

In 2013, Godfrey Bloom, who has since left Ukip, was filmed hitting Channel 4 Political Correspondent Michael Crick over the head with a Ukip conference brochure, after he was asked why there were no black faces on its front cover.

Mr O’Flynn said that while the journalists are perfectly entitled to ask difficult questions he was “delighted” that black and ethnic minority candidates had stood up in “answer” to it.

Mr O’Flynn, who used to be the political editor of the Daily Express, said that activists of all party stripes boo and hiss journalists, and sometimes hacks just have to have “thick skins”.

He added that he tries to tell Ukip’s ‘true believers’ that journalists are just doing their jobs, but sometimes it is difficult to control.