Ukip's Nigel Farage tackles tough questions from young voters in the Leaders Live debate

He had an hour. With an audience not known for their support of the party he leads.

So how did Ukip Party leader Nigel Farage do when he became the second party leader to take part in the Leaders Live debate tonight, part hosted by ITV News?

He'd chosen three topics: EU, democracy and immigration.

The young, social media-savvy audience chose education as the fourth topic to cover.

His party was, Mr Farage said, 'patriotic but not nationalistic' and claimed the country was only better off to the tune of 'one pound per week' because of immigration. A price he said was not worth paying.

But the Ukip leader immediately came under attack for his campaign material in this year's European Election - which claimed 29 million Romanians and Bulgarians could come to work in the UK.

He was also on the defensive over the homophobic views expressed by some in his party, as well as for his private school education.

Mr Farage argued that the UK could 'manage' net migration numbers of around 50,000 a year, like the UK used to accept annually from the Commonwealth, he said.

But current totals of 260,000 was 'simply too much'.

On his background, he said he, unlike many politicians, had worked outside politics and had taken 'lots of knocks in life.'

'My life has not been a seamless transition to success,' he added.

Polls have shown that a lot of Ukip support is drawn from older, male voters.

And Mr Farage showed he was disconnected from this particular audience in this studio when he claimed he would not want 10 Romanian men to move in next door to him - in fact he said he'd be concerned if 10 men of any nationality moved in.

That was the point at which most of his inquisitors disagreed - arguing it was perfectly normal - and they'd barely notice.

There was also the first hint at a policy from Ukip's 2015 election manifesto.

The Ukip leader promised to remove university tuition fees for those choosing to study engineering or science.

He claimed "too many" students were going to university and it was Ukip's plan to reduce the numbers and subsequently cut the cost of the fees.

How did he do in this hour long debate? According to Twitter where #LeadersLive was the country's top trending hashtag during the session, pretty well.

More users voted #YesNigel than #NoNigel.

Next week the chair will be occupied by the Labour leader Ed Miliband.