Reality Check

As the interview approached its end Andrew Neil brought up Chancellor George Osborne's recent criticism of the UKIP leader - he called him mean and divisive - and says the Remain camp are seeking to target him for the rest of the campaign.

Mr Farage says he doesn't care because his opponents are part of a "Westminster bubble" and don't know what's going on, let alone be willing to go out for a drink.

He says his goal is "divorcing the UK from political union and enable the UK to re-engage with the rest of the world". He concludes.

The UK has lost most of heavy manufacturing in recent years, because of the UK's support for green industries such as offshore wind, Mr Farage says. 

We now move on to the economy and a detailed discussion of the implications of leaving the EU's single market.

Mr Farage insists that the whole world has access to the EU's internal market.

The UKIP leader says that 88% of UK firms do not export to the EU at all. 

The worst-case scenario for the other 12% is that EU exit will make the costs of trade a "bit more expensive" - adding in that situation the UK would be better off as it would have less regulation and would not have to abide by free movement rules.

Mr Farage suggests that EU passports are "on sale to virtually anybody" in certain EU countries, adding "surely that does not make us safer".

Andrew Neil moves the discussion on to the issue of Turkey's ambition of joining the EU, which he says is a "long way away".

Why, in this case, he asks is the Leave campaign saying that Turkey is on the road to membership and, with free movement rules in place, up to 80m Turks could potentially have the right to come to the UK.

Mr Farage says that David Cameron has been Turkey's "biggest cheerleader" since 2005 and that, although the UK would have veto, no-one is suggesting that it would ever use it if all 27 other EU leaders are in favour.

He accepts there is no clear timetable but adds:

Mr Farage is now pressed on recent comments about the increased likelihood of Cologne-style assaults on women by migrants if the UK remains in the EU.

He says that he may have said that in January - in the aftermath of the attacks - but that he had tried to make it a "non-issue" in the campaign.

Andrew Neil brings up Archbishop of Canterbury's criticism of Mr Farage's comments. Mr Farage watches as the criticism is broadcast on the big screen (see pic above).

In response, Mr Farage says "we have good archbishops and bad archbishops" and, pressed on which category Justin Welby falls into, he simply says that the prelate did not read what he said and only looked at the headline and "not the very careful words I used".

Too many UK firms have relied on EU migrant labour, Mr Farage suggests, with some "unscrupulous employers" exploiting them by not paying the minimum wage.

He cannot believe that British workers are "too drunk, too lazy or too useless" to fill the jobs that are available in the workplace.

He is now pressed on comments that he made about terrorist suspects getting into the EU - which were criticised by Europol boss Rob Wainright. He stands by that - saying that it only took eight people to cause havoc on the streets in Paris. 

To emphasis his point that the UK should control who comes into the country, the UKIP leader whips out his passport. 

This has become a favourite campaign tactic by Mr Farage, leading an unimpressed-sounding Andrew Neil to say he had "wondered how long it would take" for the passport to come out.

The UKIP leader responds by saying these things matter. He goes on to say that British people on average earnings have seen their real living standards fall by 10% since 2005 and that while immigration may have contributed to increases in GDP, output per person has fallen.

Anyway, he adds, economic growth is not everything - adding that quality of life is equally important and that is being eroded. 

The UKIP leader says there are two issues - the quantity and quality of new migrants. He says that if you restrict the quantity you have a big impact on quality. 

He says his favoured approach is to issue work permits in a "fair and non-discriminatory" way - where everyone has a "level shot" and EU migrants are not given preference. 

Andrew Neil starts by asking what level of net migration the UKIP leader would like to see in the UK. Mr Farage says that for six decades from the 1940s, levels of net migration were about 30,000 or 40,000 a year. (It was over 300,000 last year)

That is a level that would be "acceptable", he says, adding let's get back to normality, he adds. David Cameron, he says, has shown no resolve to bring migration levels from the EU down, while it has become increasingly hard for an engineer from India to get into the UK. 

We are under way with Andrew Neil introducing his guest as the man who is credited, by some, for bringing about the referendum. 

Nigel Farage is gearing up for his big encounter with Andrew Neil but he had time to share a joke with BBC executive Robbie Gibb in the lift at the broadcaster's New Broadcasting House offices beforehand.