Farage: Archbishop of Canterbury 'should go'

The outgoing UKIP leader has said the Archbishop of Canterbury should go because he is not prepared to "stand up for Christian values".

Speaking to Sky News as he prepared to give his last conference speech as leader of the party, he rounded on Justin Welby, who criticised him for giving legitimacy to racism during the EU referendum campaign.

Mr Farage accused the Archbishop of failing to do his job properly, claiming he had not adequately protected Christian values in the UK.

He said: "It's a great shame that the head of our established church is not actually prepared to stand up and fight for our Christian culture in this country.

"He's somebody else who should go too."

As the party prepared to announce its new leader, Mr Farage also launched a blistering attack on the party's only MP, telling Sky News: "He doesn't support anything we do".

Douglas Carswell, who defected to UKIP in 2014 and was re-elected last year, was accused by Mr Farage of not contributing to the national party.

He said: "I don't know why he joined. Genuinely, I don't know why he joined.

"He doesn't seem to support anything we stand for - t's very odd."

The pair have an uneasy relationship and have disagreed strongly on wide-ranging policy issues, most notably the approach to the EU referendum when they supported different Brexit groups.

He praised Boris Johnson for "taking the brave decision" in backing Brexit.

However, Mr Farage branded former chancellor George Osborne as "absolutely disgusting" for "trying to basically terrify people" during the referendum campaign.

hope we never see his face again in public life," he added.

Mr Farage admitted that the pressures on his family and his health played a part in his decision to step down as leader.

"If you do a job with this level of strain, it affects every aspect of your life and everybody around you in a detrimental way."

But, despite resigning twice before as UKIP leader, he insisted that this time it was final.

He said: "I'm not giving up politics entirely - I'm just giving up leadership of a political party."

UKIP will elect a new leader today at their party's conference in Bournemouth.

The contenders are former Hartlepool parliamentary candidate Philip Broughton, Cambridgeshire town and district councillor Lisa Duffy, MEP for the West Midlands and Dudley councillor Bill Etheridge, former businesswomen and healthcare professional Diane James and deputy chair of UKIP's London Lambeth branch Elizabeth Jones.