UKIP is only seen as racist by white people, Nigel Farage has claimed. The party leader said that he gets an ‘unbelievably’ positive welcome when he meets black people. But he said claims the party is racist have stopped many supporters – including internationally acclaimed rock stars and billionaires – from backing him publicly. Mr Farage said that when he goes into ‘black parts’ of London he gets a warm reception. UKIP leader Nigel Farage (pictured canvassing today) says the party is only seen as racist by white people . ‘I stopped this morning to get some newspapers in a petrol station in Catford [south east London]. Everybody was black, getting petrol, buying newspapers,’ he said. ‘It's unbelievable, they all wanted selfies and pictures. And the only people who think Ukip are racist are white people, middle class white people. ‘Come with me to a black part of south London, walk down the street, and you will find black people going: 'Hey man, good to see you‎”.’ Mr Farage said the idea that Ukip is racist is based on ‘no evidence whatsoever’. ‘It is the self-loathing that the middle and upper classes in Britain have about themselves in this country and they’ve convinced themselves that Ukip is a racist party on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, he said. ‘These Michael Heseltine types, they hate Britain, “oh things are done so much better on the continent”, they’ve built up this narrative that Ukip is racist, black people don’t think that.’ Mr Farage said supporters in the Thanet South constituency where he is standing to become an MP had been targeted by vandals. Nigel Farage claims that he gets an ‘unbelievably’ positive welcome when he meets black people . He added that claims the party is racist have stopped many supporters – including internationally acclaimed rock stars and billionaires – from backing him publicly . He said one man had his garage spray-painted with the word ‘racist’ three times in a month because he displayed ‘Vote Ukip’ signs. Mr Farage added: ‘I’ve got internationally acclaimed rock stars, famous actors and actresses, billionaire owners and runners of FTSE 100 companies who in private support me, who will not say a word in public because they are so scared of what will be said about them. ‘That’s where we are and that’s how we get the phenomenon of the “shy kipper” and I’m getting people who say “I wouldn’t even tell a pollster on the phone that I’m voting Ukip in case they smash my windows in”. ‘That is how much fear and loathing has been put on us.’ As Mr Farage canvassed in the Kent constituency he met one supporter who said he hoped the Ukip leader would become Prime Minister, but said he did not think it would happen at this election because ‘we have got too many foreigners over here at the moment who are eligible to vote and will obviously not be voting Ukip’. Asked what he thought of the remarks, Mr Farage said: ‘Well in London he might have a point.’ He added: ‘He is the sort person Ed Miliband would condemn as being an appalling and despicable human being, but these are real people.’ Whilst knocking on doors, Mr Farage was also greeted by an eight-year-old boy who told him: ‘Thank you for trying to take our country back.’ Cameron should have offered me a deal but he thinks I'm a ghastly yobbo . Nigel Farage has said the Tories would have offered him an election pact if they had ‘half a brain cell’. But he Ukip leader said David Cameron had not tried to strike a deal because he sees him as a ‘ghastly yobbo’. Mr Farage pictured celebrating St George's Day with a pint at the Northwood Club in Ramsgate yesterday . He said: ‘If the Tories had half a brain cell they would have come to me with a deal six months ago . ‘But they see me as a member of the lower orders, that's how Osborne and Cameron look at me. Well fine, I don't care.’ Asked how they could see him as a ‘member of the lower orders’ when like them he attended a public school, Mr Farage said: ‘Don't forget, unlike them I had to work for a living. 'That's quite a big difference. I'm not a trustafarian. ‘A ghastly yobbo, that's what they think I am. They're never brave enough to tell anybody to their face what they really think, they don't do things like that I do.’ Mr Farage said that the deal could have been an agreement not to stand against each other in certain seats. He said: ‘I don't think Ukip would have accepted it anyway, but if I'd been them, I'd have said well look here's 25 seats ‎in the Midlands and the North - like Dudley North, Grimsby, Rotherham and Heywood and Middleton - where they haven't got a cat's chance in hell, but against that in Somerton and Frome where you've got up to 22 or 23 per cent Ukip vote where they're trying to get rid of the Lib Dems. ‘If I was in their boots that is what I'd have considered, but they just no didn't consider it.’
Ukip leader says people of Catford, south east London, 'all wanted selfies' Mr Farage said racist claims stop supporters from backing him publicly . Says they include internationally acclaimed rock stars and billionaires . He adds the idea that Ukip is racist is based on ‘no evidence whatsoever’