UKIP leader Nigel Farage was involved in a crash on a French motorway in October after a wheel on his Volvo estate fell off, the nuts holding it in place having been deliberately loosened.

Details of a potentially fatal car crash involving Mr. Farage became public this weekend after they were leaked to the press. A UKIP insider told Breitbart London Mr. Farage is “furious” at the news of his ordeal entering the public domain, while party officials are angry at Kent police for having failed to offer him protection in line with his high profile status and the number of death threats he receives.

Mr. Farage was driving along a French motorway near Dunkirk while he was returning home from Brussels in October when a wheel came off his car, causing the vehicle to crash. Mr Farage was forced to leap over a safety barrier to avoid oncoming traffic, reports the Daily Mail. He said:

“‘It was the middle of bloody nowhere, and I was caught in a very bad position.

“There was a huge section of roadworks with cars going back and forth on the same side of the carriageway. I suddenly realised I was losing steering but there was no hard shoulder to pull on to. I slowed down, put the hazards on and then one of the wheels came off. I jumped over the wall as quickly as I bloody well could to get away from lorries and everything”.

When emergency services arrived to assist Mr. Farage, he was told by a police officer his wheel nuts had been deliberately unscrewed, suggesting the intention was to kill the UKIP leader by causing him to lose control while at high speed. Mr. Farage remarked that while police officers were used to single wheel nuts working themselves free without being noticed, for all four to do so at the same time was unheard of.

Mr. Farage would not be drawn on a likely culprit: “I haven’t got a clue. Quite frankly, the way my life’s been over the past two-and-a-half years, nothing surprises me”.

The UKIP leader had declined to speak about the incident until he was contacted by the Daily Mail newspaper after they received news of the crash from an unnamed source.

A UKIP source told Breitbart London the core UKIP leadership team who knew about the crash had “kept quiet” and the fact the incident had been leaked did nothing more but “rub salt in the wounds”.