Nigel Farage is 'no Enoch Powell', says late MP's former archivist

UKIP leader Mr Farage was revealed to have begged Mr Powell to support him in a by-election in the 1990s and described him as his 'political hero'.

Mr Powell was MP for Wolverhampton South West when, in 1968, he made a speech about what he saw as the social impact of immigration that came to be known as the 'Rivers of Blood'.

But Richard Ritchie, Mr Powell's former archivist, said he would not have backed UKIP.

He said it was 'easy to understand' why Eurosceptic voters were tempted to support UKIP and its campaign to leave the European Union.

Last year Mr Farage praised Enoch Powell in front of hundreds of people at Telford International Centre when he said people had stopped talking about immigration after the speech by 'a former MP for Wolverhampton' – a reference to Mr Powell.

"Brilliant as he was", Mr Farage said, "It stifled debate on the issue. It's the issue no-one wants to talk about."

Mr Ritchie said: "Nigel Farage is no Enoch Powell.

"Farage today is not acting as Powell would have done in his political prime."

He said rather than set up his own Eurosceptic party or stand as an independent Tory, Mr Powell had instead urged the public to vote Labour in 1974, which was offering a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Common Market.

The contemporary Tories are offering a referendum on Britain's place in the EU while Labour will not unless there is a transfer of powers to Brussels.

Mr Ritchie said: "With immigration and the EU likely to be pivotal issues in next year's election, and with natural Conservatives split between UKIP and the Conservative party, many are asking themselves 'which side would Enoch have been on?'

"Nigel Farage would like to assure wavering Conservatives that Powell would have been a 'kipper'."

Enoch Powell finished his Parliamentary career as an MP with the Ulster Unionists having left the Tories over their support for the common market in 1974.

But Mr Ritchie said: "Powell could not possibly have sanctioned a situation in which the sceptic majority lost to the Europhile minority, because the vote was split.

"But why worry about Powell at all? Why should his views be of interest to today's voters? It is because, as he himself said, 'I was born a Tory, am a Tory, and shall die a Tory'.

"His departure from the Conservative Party was a jolt because, deep down, most Tories knew that he represented an authentic Tory patriotism which spoke for the nation. Since he died, nobody yet has taken his place – certainly not Farage. For the first time in generations, the Tory Party has the chance of returning to its natural position as the guardian of our unwritten constitution. Nobody will forgive UKIP if they undermine this prospect and possibility."