UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has plunged his party into controversy by claiming waterboarding would be "a price worth paying".

Mr Nuttall said if the practice - which simulates the experience of drowning - saved lives from terrorism then he would support it.

Speaking to Sky News on the campaign trail in Cumbria, he echoed US President Donald Trump by saying the West had to "fight fire with fire".

Mr Nuttall divided opinion in his party, with his former leadership rival and UKIP's health spokeswoman Suzanne Evans saying she did not "share his views".

President Trump on waterboarding: “I feel it works,” but will rely on team’s guidance and do everything “legally." https://t.co/89o6NhpsWh pic.twitter.com/vWoL5W2ycc — ABC News (@ABC) January 26, 2017

In an interview this week which attracted widespread condemnation, Mr Trump said that people "at the highest level" of the intelligence services had told him that the interrogation method "works".


While he said he would defer to his defence secretary and CIA director, he claimed during his campaign that he would advocate "tougher" methods against terror suspects.

The remarks have caused an outcry in the US, with senior Republicans reiterating that torture is illegal.

Prime Minister Theresa May, who is visiting Mr Trump in Washington, told reporters she "absolutely condemns" it.

May arrives in Washington to meet Trump

It raises the prospect that Britain could be forced to limit the intelligence it shares with the US about suspected terror plots. Strict rules prohibit sharing information which could lead to a suspect being tortured.

Mr Nuttall, who is running as a parliamentary candidate in Stoke on Trent Central, a seat the party hopes to take from Labour, said: "I think sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, and I think these people are incarcerated because they are bad people, OK? And they want to do us harm.

"If waterboarding ensures that we save a number of lives in this country or in America because someone admits to something that is going to happen in terms of a terrorist attack, well through gritted teeth I'd probably be OK with it.

"If someone admits that a terrorist attack is going to happen and saves the lives of innocent individuals then I think maybe it's a price worth paying… if a British government was elected and said it was required to ensure it saved innocent people's lives then sometimes you have to go that extra mile."

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Cori Crider, a lawyer for torture victims at human rights charity Reprieve, said: "The reality is that torture doesn't work. As anyone with a shred of common sense could tell you - and as the US Senate itself has found - people being tortured will make up anything to make it stop."

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said Mr Nuttall's comments were "shocking and disappointing".

"There should be no ifs, no buts, torture is abhorrent," he said.

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"UKIP are seeking to trash our proud values in a desperate bid for cheap votes. Shame on them. Britain is better than that, which is why they will fail."

Waterboarding was one of a number of "enhanced interrogation methods" drawn up by the CIA after the September 11 attacks, and used against suspects at so-called "black sites".

The subject is strapped to a board with a cloth placed over their mouth and water poured over their face, creating the sensation of drowning.