Paul Brand: Even Nigel Farage gets upstaged by Katie Hopkins
Normally it's Nigel Farage who does the upstaging. But even he must make way for Katie Hopkins.
Few people in UKIP even knew the outspoken newspaper columnist was here today. She supports the Tories, but wanted to speak at a fringe event about our electoral system. And, in typical style, she had something else to say too.
Out of the blue, she began telling me that people in Britain care too much about refugees. 'There's far too many people out there supporting refugees and migrants' she said, 'everybody saw a photo, they were very upset by that staged photo'.
'Staged?', I asked. 'For me that photo, of course it's a sad thing...but children have been drowning for a long time and the more we welcome refugees the more we encourage them to come, the more people are going to drown...so I say don't get upset about one photo'.
UKIP have been quick to distance themselves from her words. Though when I asked Nigel Farage whether he thought the photo was staged, he didn't exactly condemn her comments. 'I think we shouldn't be focusing on an image of one dead little boy, we should be focusing on three thousand dead people over the course of this year, and those deaths caused by an EU policy that encouraged them to come', he said. 'Was that photo staged?', I pressed. 'I doubt it, I've no idea', was all he'd say.