NIGEL FARAGE went to war against paracetamol and in defence of swans in royal parks today while stepping up his confrontation with Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.

Sir Ed had told his party conference in Bournemouth this week that the Liberal Democrats were the only force standing against the “forces of darkness” embodied by the Reform UK boss.

The dark forces fought back, with Mr Farage telling LBC radio that Sir Ed “doesn’t want us to live in a Trump-style country.

“He doesn’t want borders. He doesn’t want economic growth. He doesn’t want men taken out of women’s sport,” he added, accusing Sir Ed of “Farage derangement syndrome.”

However, the Reform leader did not enhance his own claims to be taken seriously by refusing to distance himself from US President Donald Trump’s bizarre claim that pregnant women risked their health by taking paracetamol.

“We were told thalidomide was a very safe drug and it wasn’t. Who knows,” Farage opined. “I have no idea. When it comes to science, I don’t side with anybody.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting attacked Mr Farage’s equivocation as “dangerous and irresponsible.  This man is a snake-oil salesman and it’s time people stopped buying.”

Still peddling the snake oil, Mr Farage also claimed that migrants were eating swans and fish from the royal parks, in an echo of Mr Trump’s claim that Haitians were eating US cats and dogs.

He told LBC that “swans were being eaten in royal parks and carp were being taken out of ponds and eaten in this country from people with different cultures.

Challenged as to who might be doing this, the Reform leader claimed it was “people who come from countries where it’s quite acceptable to do so,” by which he meant eastern Europeans.

This latest racist absurdity met with a flat denial from the Royal Parks, which said “we’ve not had any incidents reported to us of people killing or eating swans in London’s eight royal parks.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is believed to be mulling over taking on Reform and the far-right more powerfully, something he has conspicuously avoided doing so far, limiting criticisms to practicalities.

But he is under pressure from within Labour to be more assertive in defence of democracy and decency, as Sir Ed has long been.

Sir Ed told the party conference that in “the Trump-inspired country Farage wants us to become,” there would be no NHS, climate change would rage unchecked, gun laws would be repealed and “social media barons are free to poison young minds with impunity.

“Where the government tramples on our basic rights and freedoms. Where Andrew Tate is held up as an example to young men. Where racism and misogyny get the tacit support of people in power.”