John Cleese has waded into the row over Britain’s immigration policy

The Monty Python star says people in the capital now feel like foreigners in a city where the “parent culture has dissipated”. Cleese, 71, made his comments during an appearance on Australian television. He is currently in Sydney for a run of sell-out shows at the Opera House. During the interview, the funnyman was asked what he makes of British culture, particularly after the recent rioting. He said: “I’m not sure what’s going on in Britain. Let me say this, I don’t know what’s going on in London because London is no longer an English city and that’s how they got the Olympics. “They said ‘we’re the most cosmopolitan city on Earth’ but it doesn’t feel English. “I had a Californian friend come over two months ago, walk down the King’s Road and say to me ‘well, where are all the English people?’

John Cleese has waded into the row over Britain’s immigration policy

“I love having different cultures around but when the parent culture kind of dissipates you’re left thinking ‘well, what’s going on?’ ” Earlier this year Cleese – an ardent Liberal Democrat supporter – said he preferred living in Bath to London. He said: “I love being down in Bath because it feels like the England that I grew up in.” With a population of eight million London is recognised as one of the world’s most ethnically-diverse cities with 300 languages spoken and more than a quarter of the population from an ethnic minority. Last night, Ukip leader Nigel Farage welcomed Cleese’s comments. “John Cleese has said what an increasing number of people in London are thinking,” he said.

“It is sad, and may not be 100 per cent accurate but people do seem to be feeling that they are becoming foreigners in their own land. “What makes these comments even more surprising is that Mr Cleese is a well-known Liberal Democrat supporter having starred in their party political broadcasts. “For him to make these remarks certainly shows a tremendous strength of feeling on this matter. Of course other cultures are welcome but Mr Cleese is right to point out that it should not be at these expense of the parent culture.” Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of MigrationWatch, said: “John Cleese is an astute man. “London has of course changed hugely in recent years. He is also not the first to point to the failures of multi-culturalism – the Prime ­Minister has said much the same thing.

“London is not the city I knew as a child and it saddens me that many of the unwelcome developments have largely been the result of mass and rapid migration.” Somerset-born Cleese is currently dating jewellery designer Jennifer Wade. His marriages to Connie Booth, with whom he wrote Fawlty Towers, Barbara Trentham and Alyce Faye Eichelberger all ended in divorce. It was his £12million settlement with Eichelberger, a US psychotherapist, in 2009 which forced Cleese out of retirement for a series of one-man shows known as the “alimony tour”. In the interview with ABC show 7.30, Cleese also said he no longer finds television comedy funny. He said: “It’s a disaster and I feel very sad about it. English television from the Fifties to the Nineties was the least bad in the world and now it’s just as bad as it is anywhere.”