Nigel Farage clashed with Sky News's Trevor Phillips over post-Brexit immigration in a tense interview this morning.
The presenter challenged Reform UK's honorary president on whether he was responsible for net migration going up in the wake of Britain's exit from the EU given he was the architect of Brexit.
But Mr Farage accused Mr Phillips of talking “absolute rubbish” and insisted the Tories were to blame.
The Sky News host said: “The thing that you're worried about is your responsibility.
“You're the father of the policy that produced this, made EU migrants leave and increased the number of non-EU migrants.”
Mr Farage replied: “That's the biggest load of cobblers I've ever heard in my life.
“What we did by leaving the EU was to change a policy which meant we discriminated against the rest of the world, often against talent interestingly, in favor of an open door with the EU.
“What Brexit did was give us back control, by the way we're not even discussing Dover, of our legal migration.
“What Boris Johnson chose to do was to set the bars at the lowest possible level. He also allowed, I mean for example students to bring dependents. It's unfair to put this population explosion on the British people.”
Mr Phillips said: “It's a fact. It's a consequence of Brexit.”
But the ex-Ukip leader denied his claim and insisted it was a “consequence of government policy”.
The Sky host replied: “Well it only happened after Brexit?”
Mr Farage said: “This is Conservative policy and of course there is no opposition to it because Labor dare not even debate this.
“If you want mass immigration vote Conservative, if you want mass immigration vote Labour, if you want a proper debate about why this is the most impactful policy on everyone's life in this country then we're the people to talk to in Reform.”
Mr Phillips asked: “Are you essentially denying you have anything to do with the change in immigration policy?”
Mr Farage said: “100%”.
Mr Phillips went on: “Even though the point of your whole campaign was to put it under our control. It was your responsibility that put it in Boris Johnson's hands, he then used it in a particular way.”
The former MEP said: “No I'm really sorry that is absolute rubbish. Getting back control of our own country means we can't blame the EU, we can't blame anyone else.
“This was done by a Conservative government and they thought they'd get away with it.”