Ukip leader: ‘I could kill a badger with my bare hands’

THE new leader of Ukip has bragged that he could kill a badger with his “bare hands”.

Henry Bolton, who took over as leader last month, made the claim in an interview with the Russia Today television station when asked whether he had taken part in any initiation rites when he took the top job.

Mr Bolton was asked about the comment when he appeared on Sunday with Paterson on Sky News.

He said he had been presented with a number of tongue-in-cheek options for what may have taken place after he was elected and that the option of chasing a badger and strangling it was “probably most suitable for me”.

He said: “They gave me a few options, ideas for an initiation ceremony into the leadership of Ukip, and the one that was probably most suitable for me was chasing a badger across Dartmoor, capturing it and breaking its neck with one’s bare hands, which was a slightly unusual thing. It was a little odd.”

Badgers are protected by law in England and Wales and it is illegal to wilfully kill or injure one.

Mr Bolton also used his interview with Sky News to say that in an “ideal world” Britain should be aiming for zero net migration. But he insisted he was not suggesting that such an aim would be practical, noting it would be “very difficult” to hit such a target.

Mr Bolton became the leader of Ukip after he beat the two front-runners in a seven-way contest.