London: Nigel Farage hit out yesterday at `vicious’ smears about his health he claimed were being made by rivals.

The Ukip leader said rumours had been spread that he was seriously ill because he had not been seen on the national political stage. But Farage said this was because he was busy campaigning in South Thanet, where he is standing at the election.

While the other party leaders had been `boring the public’ with promises that they have no intention of keeping, he had been working on the ground in the constituency and holding public meetings, he said.

`There has been lots of speculation about where I have been, why have I not been seen on the television all the time,’ Farage told Ukip’s conference in Margate.

`Why have I not been out there like the others making an endless sea of promises which of course they never intend to keep?

`It is said I am seriously ill and that is why I haven’t been seen. Well, I hate to disappoint my opponents, but can I please tell everyone now, the rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.’

Farage, 50, later made a categorical denial that he is ill. He said: `I want to knock it on the head. I’m as fit as a flea.’

Asked if he would have made it public if he was ill, he said: `Of course.’ In his early 20s, Farage was diagnosed with testicular cancer but he made a full recovery.

His speech came as he had just returned from a visit to the US where he faced embarrassment on Thursday night after flying thousands of miles to address an almost empty room.

The Ukip leader took up an invitation to address a gathering of American conservatives just outside Washington DC in attempt to boost his credentials as a statesman. But by the time he went on stage as the final speaker of the day at the Conservative Political Action Conference, all but a few hundred of the 8,000 delegates had gone home.

During his address, Farage accused Barack Obama of being `an American president who doesn’t have the courage’ to fight terror.

He said that Obama lacks the vision to see `what has gone wrong’ and added: `We must stand firm and defend our Judeo-Christian culture.

`We must make it clear that we believe in common law and not Sharia.’

He added that he believed the British government was wrong not to reveal the identity of the IS executioner known as Jihadi John, named in the media on Thursday as Mohammad Emwazi from West London. Farage said: `Of course they should have told us his name. We should have heard it weeks ago.’

— Daily Mail