LBC's Top 10 of the decade: 2. James O'Brien v Nigel Farage

31 December 2019, 15:14 | Updated: 11 June 2020, 15:45

James O'Brien v Nigel Farage: Watch In Full

The electrifying interview between James O'Brien and Nigel Farage is at number two in LBC's countdown of the top clips of the decade.

10. James O'Brien rails at the fraudsters still selling Brexit
9. Furious Farage goes on attack at Putin caller
8. Eddie Mair skewers Liz Truss over Brexit
7. James O'Brien's first famous viral hit
6. Theresa May refuses to say if she’d vote for Brexit
5. "If Grenfell residents move in, I'll move out"
4. "Which EU law are you looking forward to losing?"
3. Natalie Bennett's incredibly awkward interview

As the 2010s draw to a close, we are counting down the top 10 clips of the decade on LBC, which started in 2010 with 1.0million listeners and ended with 2.6million.

Following James's critical comments about Ukip, then leader Nigel Farage challenged James to a debate.

And in a very tense interview with James O'Brien, Mr Farage defended the parties from other countries he chooses to sit with at the European Parliament, some of which have expressed extreme views.

"What I've done in the European Parliament is try and draw a line to say we will not sit with people who we believe to be on the extremes. We will sit with people who we believe have a reasonable balanced point of view" Mr Farage said.

"I'll be honest - we've had a problem, in this group, with one of two members of the Northern League. But equally - the Conservative Party had problems with the man who celebrated the SS invasion of the Baltic states.

"We have said we will not sit with parties like Front Nationale -we are not a party that wants a billing to the far right."

He added: "If you look at the associations everyone has to form in European Parliament -  a degree of compromise is needed."

Mr Farage also said that any Ukip members with racist, extreme views are expelled from the party.

"Wherever we have found people who have extreme, racist, unpleasant views - we have unceremoniously got rid of them" he told James live in the studio.

"I have tried to protect the party by making clear that anybody that had previously been a BNP member - cannot join. And to hold up the views of a handful of people as representative of Ukip -isn't true."

In an interview that has been described in the media as "car-crash radio", "brutal" and "forensic", Mr Farage looked rattled before his Director of Communications Patrick O'Flynn interrupted and called an end to the debate.

Come back tomorrow to see what is at number one in LBC's top clips of the decade.

Watch the interview in full on YouTube below

Nigel Farage v James O'Brien - Interview In Full - LBC