Nigel Farage is a contestant on this year's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and unsurprisingly people are voting for him to take part in every bushtucker trial. The former UKIP leader, however, has revealed that he is exempt from several trials because of a back injury he sustained in a plane crash 13 years ago.
The 59-year-old politician said, 'Anything involving weightlifting, I’d be out because I’ve obviously had some quite serious physical injuries and neck reconstructions and goodness knows what else.'
He explained that the ITV producers are aware of his injuries and said, 'So they are fully aware that I’m a little bit damaged when it comes to bodily structure. But having said that, I can still do most things.'
In the lead-up to the general election in 2010, Nigel was in plane crash that resulted in a punctured lung, two chipped vertebrae, several fractured ribs and a fractured sternum. The crash happened while he was leader of the UKIP party and was beginning his Brexit campaign to get the UK to leave the European Union.
Talking to his camp mates about the crash, This Morning presenter Josie Gibson asked where he was going on the plane journey. He replied, 'Being an idiot, flying a banner' and First Dates star Fred Sirieix asked, 'what was on the banner?'
Nigel then said, 'A Brexit message, obviously. Vote for independence or something like that.' He revealed that he didn't recall being unconscious after the crash, but he did remember the explosion and the plane flipping over, then being stuck in the wreckage. 'Every rib front and back, split sternum, punctured lung... it was bad,' Nigel said.
The decision to cast the Reform UK Party founder in this year's I'm A Celeb line-up has proved controversial with many viewers – especially since he is the highest paid celebrity in the show's history, earning £1.5million for his stint in the jungle.
A statement from ITV says, '_I’m A Celebrit_y has always featured a diverse cast from all areas of public life and has a history of featuring political figures throughout its 20 years on screen.'
I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! airs Sunday to Friday at 9pm and Saturday at 9.30pm on ITV.