Farage defends ‘lunchtime pint’ as he battles laziness accusations
Nigel Farage has insisted he is "entitled" to a pint at lunchtime, after a new study showed he has the fifth worst attendance level out of all 752 MEPs.
Research published by the Mirror showed Ukip was the laziest party in Europe, with its MEPs missing a third of all votes – double the European average.
"I'll tell you something. I work an 18 hour day most days and I think I'm entitled at lunchtime to a pint," he told ITV's Daybreak
"My voters did not vote for me to go native. They didn't vote for me to move to Brussels, they voted for me to campaign to get out of the European Union and that's what I'm going to go on doing."
The Ukip leader suggested he was facing impossible odds in the European parliament.
"It will be 500 in favour and 15 against. We are not going to win. We're not going to stop legislation as Ukip in the European parliament," he said.
Even worse than Farage on the laziness stakes were fellow Ukippers Godfrey Bloom and Paul Nuttal.
Liberal Democrats are the hardest working MEPs in British politics, with the party attending 87% of votes. The Greens follow on 84.8% and Labour come third on 82.7%.
