Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has been speaking at an event in Devon this evening.

Farage said it had it had been a “very odd 48 hours” after he said the Daily Mail accused him of being a “Putin apologist”.

Farage has been criticised for suggesting the West “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by expanding the European Union and Nato military alliance eastwards.

“Somehow, I am made out to be a Putin apologist, which of course I’m not. What he’s done in Ukraine is reprehensible,” Farage said.

“In Ukraine, I said, don’t poke the Russian bear with a stick because if you do you will get a very predictable result,” he added.

Away from Ukraine, Farage said that children’s minds are being “poisoned at school”.

“Millions of people who don’t want our kids being poisoned at school and university, being told our country is the worst country that ever existed,” he said.

Farage added that there is “nothing to stop us winning a couple of these seats” in next week’s election.