Nigel Farage has been roundly condemned for saying the West is to blame for Russia's invasion of Ukraine in an interview with the BBC.

The Reform Party's leader wrote in a social media post in February 2022 that Putin's invasion of Ukraine was "a consequence of EU and Nato expansion".

This echoed one of Putin's many justifications for launching his war just over two years ago.

And now a veteran journalist has gone a furious Nigel Farage rant claiming the Reform Party’s leader has “more in common" with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter) this morning Andrew Neil claimed that it is “neither new nor a surprise” that the Reform Party’s leader is a “fanboy of President Putin”.

His full tweet said: “That Nigel Farage is a fanboy of President Putin is neither new nor a surprise.

“It’s long been the case and it’s a common feature of the populist right on both sides of the Atlantic (think Trump, think Orbán).

“They have a curious soft spot for the Kremlin and a hostility to NATO, which means on this issue they have more in common with Jeremy Corbyn, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and others on the anti-West far left.”

In an interview with the BBC's Nick Robinson, Mr Farage was challenged about his tweet.

Mr Farage said he had been arguing since the 1990s that "the ever eastward expansion" of the Nato military alliance and the EU was giving President Putin "a reason to [give to] his Russian people to say they're coming for us again and to go to war" adding that Vladimir Putin's invasion was "immoral, outrageous and indefensible."

Mr Sunak said the Reform leader was "completely wrong" and added that Mr Farage was "playing into Putin's hands."

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer added that the statement from Mr Farage was "disgraceful."