LONDON -- Nigel Farage didn't hold back.
The leader of the Brexit Party lashed out at the "irrelevant" views of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the "overweight" late Queen Mother, and Prince Charles -- or "Charlie Boy"-- who he hopes never becomes king.
Farage made the comments Saturday at a dinner of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Sydney, inspired by the American gathering of the same name. Media outlets were banned from the dinner, but the Guardian newspaper obtained a partial recording of the speech.
Queen Elizabeth II, Farage said, is "an amazing, awe-inspiring woman; we're bloody lucky to have her."
But he expressed little love for other royals.
He called the queen's mother "a slightly overweight, chain-smoking gin drinker who lived to 101 years old."
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Farage also mocked Prince Harry as "the prince of wokeness" and blamed the influence of American actress Meghan Markle, now Duchess of Sussex.
Harry, Farage said, was once "this young, brave, boisterous, all-male, getting into trouble, turning up at stag parties inappropriately dressed, drinking too much and causing all sorts of mayhem. And then, a brave British officer who did his bit in Afghanistan. He was the most popular royal of a younger generation that we've seen for 100 years.
"And then he met Meghan Markle, and it's fallen off a cliff. We've been told in the last week that Meghan and Harry will only have two children ... and we're all completely ignoring the real problem the Earth faces, and that is the fact the population of the globe is exploding but no one dares talk about it, no one dares deal with it, and whether Prince Harry has two kids is irrelevant, given there are now 2.6 billion Chinese and Indians on this Earth."
In the September edition of British Vogue, which Meghan guest-edited, Prince Harry talked to primatologist Jane Goodall about climate change and how when it comes to children, he plans to have "two, maximum!"
Prince Charles, the 70-year-old heir to the British throne and a passionate environmentalist, did not fare well in Farage's assessment, either.
"When it comes to Charlie Boy and climate change, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear," Farage said. He said he hoped that the queen, 93, would live "a very, very long time" to stop Charles from becoming monarch.
Farage was greeted warmly at the conference. He was introduced as "quite possibly" the next British prime minister and received a standing ovation.
Farage has tried, and failed, to become a member of Parliament seven times. But his new Brexit Party has eaten into the governing Conservative Party's support.
Farage was also applauded at the Sydney conference when he described former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as "a snake."
David Lammy, a Labor Party member of Parliament in the London borough of Tottenham, urged Farage in a tweet Monday to "lay off" the Duchess of Sussex, labeling the Brexit Party leader a "bellicose toad."
A Section on 08/13/2019