The Isle of Man is a great place and ’totally safe’ according to former UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

Mr Farage was speaking to a nearly full room at the Palace Hotel in Douglas on Friday evening.

During his talk, Mr Farage spoke of how growing up he had an ’expensive and wasted education’ but ’a strong sense of my country’.

It is because of this, he said, that he began his fight to get Britain out of the EU.

Mr Farage added: ’I went into politics because I saw prime ministers like Major just happy to hand over the levers of control, and I thought, we’re better than this.

’My colleagues, family and friends thought I was mad but I decided if no one in the backbenches has the balls to stand up to the establishment, then I’ll do it.’

Mr Farage first stood in the infamous Eastleigh by-election of 1994 where, in his words, he was ’very proud as I beat the legendary Screaming Lord Sutch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party’.

First elected to the European Parliament in 1999, Farage told stories of his various bust ups with fellow MEPs and a famous incident with first EU President Herman Van Rompuy where Farage called Belgium a ’non-country’ and told Van Rompuy he had ’all the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk’.

Mr Farage later apologised to low-grade bank clerks.

Speaking on Brexit, he called Prime Minister Theresa May the ’worst Prime Minister we’ve ever had’.

He added: ’But you have to admire her stick ability. She has not shame but the "Maybot" somehow keeps on going.’

Mr Farage said the Northern Irish backstop part of the withdrawal agreement is so bad it ’may be better risking a second referendum’ to avoid it.

Taking questions from the audience, Mr Farage praised the role of social media in ’leading the fight back’ against the mainstream media.

Speaking to the Examiner, Mr Farage said: ’I had a walk along the seafront today, stopped to have a look at the war memorial and went for a walk through town.

’And you know, in Britain, I sadly won’t go many places without security. But here I went into the Irish pub [O’Donnell’s] and had a drink and spoke to a few people. Not all agreed with me, but they were very nice about it, so it’s good to come somewhere you feel totally safe.’

A group of protesters gathered outside of the Palace Hotel ahead his talk.

One told the Examiner the group were there to ’represent the people who oppose his views and represent a different side of politics’.

They added: ’Immigration has been good for the island since the time of the Celts and we wanted to show that.

’If Brexit was sold on business rather than immigration I think there’d be less opposition to it now, it was mis-sold.’