Nigel Farage says The Sun's bare breasts on Page 3 is fine – but breastfeeding mothers should not be 'ostentatious'

The Ukip leader has ‘not got a problem with Page 3 at all’

Nigel Farage has waded in to the on-going conversation about The Sun’s use of glamour models baring their breasts on Page 3, and, like many of his party’s policies, it conflicts with his previously uttered opinions, specifically on women’s breasts being revealed in public for the purpose of breast feeding.

Speaking to Evan Davis on Newsnight, Farage said he had no problem with the red-top’s regular full-page feature of bare-breasted glamour models in their underwear.

Davis mentioned that Ukip MP Douglas Carswell had been glad to see the back of Page 3 when the feature was thought to have been dropped, but Farage did not share the same opinion.

“I haven’t got a problem with Page 3 at all. It’s a free press for goodness sake. If you buy The Sun newspaper and it’s got Page 3, you know what you’re getting,” he told Davis.

His apparent comfort with the feature and matter-of-fact attitude about its contents differs greatly from his awareness of other people’s discomfort over the issue of breastfeeding in public.

Farage said on LBC in December that women who are breastfeeding should not be too “openly ostentatious” when nursing in public.

He said that while he was “not particularly bothered” about breastfeeding in public, he understood that “a lot of people do feel very uncomfortable” and that “given some people feel very embarrassed about by it, it isn’t too difficult to breastfeed a baby in a way that’s not openly ostentatious,” suggesting mothers might “perhaps sit in the corner” instead.

Farage also showed understanding towards those who find it “uncomfortable” to see homosexual couples kissing in public.

Speaking to Davis, who had asked Farage’s opinion on a hypothetical situation of seeing two married men kissing in the park, Farage said: “I couldn’t care less, but there are people in this country that could care less, and that’s the problem – they [homosexuals] shouldn’t be banned from [kissing publicly].

“But if there are people out there who are uncomfortable with, for example, gay marriage, they should be allowed to have that opinion without being utterly condemned. And I do think that if we believe in tolerance that has to be a two way street, and we’ve rather lost sight of that.

“Tolerate people who are against it, within reason, and I am referring to active communities, and Muslim communities, and all other faiths,” he said.