NIGEL Farage yesterday pledged to gut BBC funding if he gets into power.

The Ukip leader accused the broadcaster of bias and trying to scupper his party’s election hopes after he was not invited to take part in Thursday’s question time debate alongside David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband.

None of the other smaller parties were invited to attend the leaders’ debate but Mr Farage appears to have taken his omission as a personal slight.

This was despite the fact that he accepted an invitation to appear in an individual programme aired in England and Wales.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Farage said: “Ukip are the fourth major party in British politics and that is something that has been respected by Sky, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 but not by the BBC.”

He then went on to say that: “If I was in a position of power, I would take away a lot of their funding, a lot of their influence. I think in the modern world the BBC having this vast budget and this huge power over broadcasting is frankly an anachronism.”

His latest outburst will do little to dispel the view of many that this is merely sour grapes.

Last month Mr Farage did appear in the live televised debates and after a dismal performance attempted to claim that his lack of success was due to the BBC’s having stacked the audience with leftwingers.

A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC strives to be fair to all parties in this highly charged election. We believe that over the campaign we have given fair representation to all the key players.”