UKIP leader compares himself to Gandhi

Paul Nuttall, the leader of the right-wing U.K. Independence Party is embroiled in a new controversy as he compared himself and his party’s policies to Mahatma Gandhi.

Pointing to a number of his party’s election policies — from banning the burqa to checks for female genital mutilation on girls from certain communities, — he said that the party was “decades ahead of our time,” adding that its past stance on immigration and leaving the E.U. showed how it took the lead on issues.

“It is a bit like the Gandhi thing — first they laugh at you, then they attack you, and then you win,” he told the Express and Star tabloid in an interview published on Wednesday. “Unfortunately on this issue we seem to be at the laughing or the mocking phase which I think is wrong as I feel the issues we raised were so important.”

Mr. Nuttall was elected as the party’s leader in November last year, but is yet to clarify whether he will stand for Parliament in the forthcoming general elections. Some of the party’s recent positions, including on the burqa, have caused internal rifts, with the party’s foreign affairs spokesperson stepping down in protest at he policy.

Mr. Nuttall’s decision to compare himself to Gandhiji was swiftly ridiculed online.

“His comments show how he has no sense of history at all — Mahatma Ji was someone who united communities and showed tolerance and respect to others,” Virendra Sharma, the MP for Ealing Southall told this paper. “Nuttall is a divisive individual who shows no respect to humanity and comparing himself to Mahatma Ji is an insult to all human kind.”

According to the latest poll by YouGov from earlier this month just 6% of the public have a favourable opinion of Mr. Nuttall, against 22% for Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party and 48% for Prime Minister Theresa May. A separate poll by Opinium at the weekend found that support for UKIP had fallen 5 points as former supporters turned to the Conservative party.