Nigel Farage has been branded 'silly and dangerous' after blaming immigrants for clogging up Britain's roads for him missing an event charging Ukip supporters to meet him.

The Ukip leader said he arrived too late for a £25-a-head drinks reception in Port Talbot because the UK's 'open door immigration' policy meant that the M4 'is not as navigable as it used to be'.

And he vowed to continue speaking his mind, warning he will not be 'brow beaten' into becoming a 'vanilla' politician, despite a storm of criticism over his suggestion that breastfeeding women should sit in a corner.

Scroll down for video

Ukip leader Nigel Farage was challenged on BBC Sunday Politics Wales about why he missed an event charging party members £25 to meet him

Ukip held its first ever Welsh National Conference at the weekend, with Mr Farage delivering a speech to activists on Saturday.

But he had been due to mingle with paying guests at a reception on Friday night.

Around 100 Ukip members paid £25 each for tickets for the event at the Orangery in Margam Country Park, Port Talbot.

The M4 is not as navigable as it used to be Ukip leader Nigel Farage

But the leader failed to turn up, hours after complaining that his chauffeur and security is paid for by Ukip and not the taxpayer.

In an interview broadcast yesterday, Mr Farage blamed immigration for there being too many cars on the roads to make the 180-mile journey from London to Port Talbot in south Wales.

And he hit back at criticism that the no-show was further evidence of his party lacking professionalism.

He told BBC Sunday Politics Wales: 'It took me six hours and 15 minutes in the car to get here. It should have taken three-and-half to four.

'That has nothing to do with professionalism. What is does have to do with is a country in which the population is going through the roof, chiefly because of open door immigration and the fact the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be.

'In all these years in Ukip that's probably about the third event out of a thousand that I haven't made in time.'

Mr Farage complained that the M4, linking London to south Wales, was the 'not as navigable as it used to be'

'FARAGE IS A CONTROL FREAK... AND THAT'S A GOOD THING' Ukip MEP Patrick O'Flynn said it was right that Mr Farage led from the front A senior Ukip figure has appeared to suggest that Nigel Farage is a 'control freak' in the way he runs the party. Patrick O'Flynn said policy decisions were a 'sort of collective operation' but Mr Farage is the 'dominant figure' in the party. The economic spokesman announced that Ukip could look at introducing a luxury goods levy - quickly dubbed the WAG tax - at the party's annual conference but was slapped down within hours by the leader. He told BBC One's Sunday Politics 'that one didn't make the cut, no'. Mr O'Flynn added: 'It's not just Nigel Farage, but clearly we have a party leader who leads, which is a bit of an innovation in contemporary politics.' He added: 'I remember Tony Blair in my days as a journalist saying to me you are either a control freak or you have lost control. 'And, if you have to decide which side of that fence to go on then having control is probably the right option.' Asked if that meant it was the 'Nigel Farage show', he replied: 'Well, Nigel Farage is the dominant figure in the party who has transformed us from a 3 per cent party to a 18/20 plus party.' Advertisement

Owen Smith, Labour's shadow Welsh secretary, said: 'Remarks like these are what makes Farage so dangerous.

'It is clearly absurd to suggest heavy traffic on the M4 is caused by immigration, but through the laughter at his silly comments you can hear Ukip's dog-whistle politics of division.'

Last week it emerged that Ukip pays £60,000-a-year for Mr Farage to enjoy the services of a chauffeur.

Mr Farage was also challenged about whether he has regrets about any of his more outspoken comments.

On Friday he trigged a row when he suggested mothers of newborn babies should avoid being 'openly ostentatious' when breastfeeding and might think about sitting in a corner when doing so. He has previously complained about people not speaking English on trains and said people would not want a group of Romanians living next door.

But he was unrepentant, telling the BBC: 'I look at politics. I look at the incredibly bland people that are now in politics who dare not give an opinion on any issue for fear of criticism.

'Is it any wonder the public don't know their names, don't know what they stand for.

'You know we have finished up with vanilla politics, right across the United Kingdom.

'I am going on, saying it as I see it. It's just me. But I am not going to be brow beaten by you and everybody else into becoming like the rest of them.'

Meanwhile Mr Farage has been accused of recruiting 'toffs for the top' of Ukip after a candidate in a key target seat expressed fury that he had been ousted in favour of a star of the TV programme Gogglebox.

Andrew Michael, a wealthy, retired hotelier who features on the Channel 4 programme, has been parachuted in as Mr Farage's candidate in Hastings and Rye, where the sitting Tory MP holds a wafer-thin majority.

Now the deposed candidate has given vent to his anger in a leaked email to local party members in which he condemns Ukip's policy of recruiting defecting Tory MPs and celebrities.

Ralph Atkinson calls on Ukip members to bombard Mr Farage with complaints about his treatment, and claims that his party boasts 'standards of democracy lower than the unelected European Commission'.

Mr Michael, 55 – whose Gogglebox appearances with his wife Carolyne and two of their four children have included discussions about whether Ukip is racist – was selected for the seat last week shortly after Mr Atkinson was removed in a coup which he says was orchestrated by the party's head office.

Last week Mr Farage complained about not having taxpayer-funded travel and security, which is given to other leaders like Ed Miliband.

He told LBC: ' You look at all the other leaders of political parties, they of course, all have the state provide them with, you know, the means to get around, and with security. The state doesn't provide Ukip with anything.'

He said he had written to the government asking for state help with his security bills, but it had been refused.

He suggesed he should be given the same level of protection as 'any former Northern Ireland Secretary'.

'I'm not having an argument over it, the fact is we don't get help. Do I need (a) security? Yes. And do I need to be driven around from place to place? I think I probably do.

'I mean, I came up here early this morning, I'm off to Swansea in a minute to give a speech. I think I do actually need...so there is a team, there are two guys who are with me and take me round the place.