The comedian Frankie Boyle clashed with the Ukip leader Nigel Farage on Twitter on Tuesday evening, over a spat between Mock the Week presenter Dara Ó Briain and right-wing comic Andrew Lawrence.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ó Briain hit back at Lawrence after he accused panel shows including Mock the Week of indulging in “liberal back-slapping”.

In a Facebook post Lawrence said the BBC programme and those similar to it featured “ageing, balding, fat men, ethnic comedians and women-posing-as-comedians” making jokes at the expense of Ukip and Farage.

Ó Briain responded by calling Lawrence “bitter” and “self delusional”.

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By Tuesday evening, Farage had shared an article on Lawrence’s comments with his Twitter followers, writing: “It's rare to find someone so honest in the media, particularly in comedy. This is very interesting.”