UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall has caused outrage in the European Parliament today by comparing outgoing Council President Herman Van Rompuy to Saddam Hussein’s information minister ‘Comical Ali’.

Addressing the Conference of Presidents, a powerful committee of group leaders in the European Parliament who usually meet in private, Mr Nuttall made the comparison as the President of the European Council addressed MEPs for the final time before his term of office ends.

“You’ve come here to talk about the European Council, Ukraine, energy, the economy. It all seems very business as usual to me but I’ve also listened to you for the past five years now and I’d like to give you a critique on what I’ve heard.

“Much of the time you’ve reminded me of that other great statesmen of our time, Comical Ali. You remember him, Saddam Hussein’s information minister. The man who told the world’s press that there were no Americans in Iraq yet tanks were rolling into Baghdad behind him.”

He was interrupted by the European Parliament President Martin Schulz who told him his words were “unacceptable”.

“You cannot compare the President of the European Council to the propaganda minister of a brutal dictatorship,” he said, before threatening to “impose penalties” on the North West Euro MP.

Mr Nuttall was taking the seat of UKIP leader Nigel Farage who, in his first speech to Mr Van Rompuy, caused uproar and was fined ten days pay – the maximum which could be imposed – for calling the Belgian a ‘damp rag’.

He continued, attacking the EU’s record over the last five years which saw riots on the streets in several Mediterranean states.

“So what have you really achieved in your five years as president of this council? You helped destroy democracy in Greece and in Italy by helping to remove two democratically elected Prime Ministers, replacing them with two europhile puppets whose strings were pulled from Brussels.

“You’ve also achieved a massive growth in youth unemployment which is now averaging 50 percent in Greece, Spain and Italy. This is literally over one million young Europeans who are living their lives in despair, unable to find a job and some who are fleeing the continent altogether. The Spanish are going to Argentina, Portuguese to Brazil and even Angola! And it seems everyone else is coming to Britain.”

His words on immigration will not be well received by Downing Street who have faced a tough few weeks debating proposed changes to the EU rules on freedom of movement. Most recently German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would sooner see the UK leave the EU than change one of the ‘fundamental freedoms’.

“Last year we had a massive 247,000 people net come to Britain, the majority from within the EU. This uncontrolled mass influx of people has driven down wages and, in some cases, put people out of work. Yet you Mr Van Rompuy still rule out allowing us to control our own borders.”

But his speech was not popular with the majority of MEPs attending the meeting today. Labour MEP Richard Corbett tweeted that Mr Nuttall’s comments were ‘Pitiful and petty’.

#UKIP now attempting again to get media attention by insults as @paulnuttallukip compares @euHvr with Saddam dictatorship. Pitiful&petty. — Richard Corbett (@RCorbettMEP) November 4, 2014

Mr Corbett lost his seat in the 2009 European Elections to Andrew Brons of the BNP and spent the five years before his return to the socialist group in the Brussels parliament in a highly paid position advising the same Mr Van Rompuy he defended on the social media site.