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QPR manager Harry Redknapp has defended Joey Barton following his appearance on BBC’s Question Time.

The Premier League midfielder, dubbed the "football philosopher king" by host David Dimbleby, sparked controversy last week after comparing UKIP to the best of an ugly bunch of girls, which some viewers – and notably fellow panelist, UKIP MEP Louise Bours – deemed sexist.

Barton apologised later in the show, before releasing a statement via Twitter, but Redknapp insists that the footballer was speaking from the "average person’s point of view".

“Joey will say it how it is, and tell you what he thinks,” Redknapp told the London Evening Standard. “He’s not trying to gain votes by taking the popular opinion all the time.

“He’s come up from a working class background – I don’t even know what he said on there – but I think he was speaking from the average person’s point of view, than that of the politicians.”

“I’d sooner listen to Joey’s opinions than some of the politicians.”

Harry Redknapp was speaking at the launch of www.666bet.com who are offering their first 1966 customers odds of 1966/1 for England to win the World Cup.