Protesters attempted to hijack an appearance by Nigel Farage last night as he tried to spread his political message to hundreds of willing listeners.

Trouble erupted inside Hove Town Hall where more than 400 people had packed in to hear the UKIP leader speak yesterday.

About 100 protesters waving European flags and carrying placards with anti-racist messages had set up outside the town hall to confront Mr Farage as he arrived at the venue, but he was able to dodge them by entering the building through a different entrance.

The scenes weren’t a carbon copy of those a month ago when crowds of protesters barricaded Mr Farage inside a pub in Edinburgh when on a campaign trip.

But his presence fuelled tension and fierce opposition outside the building, which was evident when police had to be called to help the UKIP leader leave.

Inside Hove Town Hall last night he was greeted with a round of applause.

But as he began to speak about his party’s ideas, the first echoes of abuse rang out as opponents tried to shout him down.

The UKIP leader refused to stop and security staff bundled about a dozen shouting protesters outside.

Addressing the protesters inside the hall, he said: “Why can’t you stay and have a reasonable political debate? Isn’t this kind of behaviour, and the refusal to engage in a democratic process, the very thing you are shouting against?

“If these people believed in democracy they would sit down, listen and have an opportunity to make a counter argument.”

Various pockets of the crowd spontaneously shouted phrases like “scum” and “racist”, including one man who was carried out by security guards.

But after all the infiltrators were eventually removed, Mr Farage’s hour-long speech on immigration, the European Union and British politics was met with a standing ovation.

He blasted critics who labelled UKIP as a “protest vote party” and said the recent UKIP support from the English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson was nothing more than a man “trying to ride on the wave of our success”.

He said: “We don’t need people like Tommy Robinson, or whatever his name is, to help us in our quest for democracy.

“Our message is strong enough.”

Speaking outside the town hall, opponents said they would continue to oppose Mr Farage and his “bigoted” message.