Nigel Farage has made some shocking statements over the years but I never expected him to come out as a yogi.

Having practised yoga myself for many years, I was surprised to learn that Mr Brexit has even heard of it, let alone committed to a regular practice. Yet apparently it’s true. I nearly dropped my plant-milk latte over my Krishna t-shirt when I read his comments in The Times.

Farage makes for an unlikely yogi. Some of the mainstream classes in the West have watered down the traditions, but ultimately the goal of yoga is to align oneself with the divine.

Catching glimpses of your universal soul, your ‘atman’, you begin to live with increased harmony and compassion, eventually ceasing to perceive any difference between yourself and others.

Farage does little else but perceive differences between people. He claimed he doesn’t want to live next to Romanians and he thinks parts of Britain have become ‘unrecognisable’ because some people living there were born in other places.

He‘s said breastfeeding women should ‘sit in the corner’ and female employees are ‘worth far less’ than men. He questions climate change and said Donald Trump’s ‘go home’ remarks are ‘genius’. So much harmony, so much compassion. Namaste.

I can’t imagine the culture of yoga fitting well with Farage either. Does he greet Donald Trump with his hands pressed together and an: ‘Om Namah Shivaya’?

I can’t imagine the culture of yoga fitting well with Farage either. Does he greet Donald Trump with his hands pressed together and an: ‘Om Namah Shivaya’?

The yogic chant of ‘Satnam’ (translated in yoga as ‘truth is my identity’) is also difficult to reconcile with a populist propagandist who’s often accused of being economic with the truth.

Even the more earthly and practical side of yoga doesn’t seem to fit well for him. One of the physical goals is to gradually lose interest in sense pleasures. Many yogis shun not only alcohol and cigarettes, but even onions and garlic as they’re considered too stimulating.

Maybe he’s renouncing it all really (really) gradually. For now it’s hard to find a photo of the spluttering politician where he’s not got a pint in one hand and a fag in the other.

Obviously a lot of people who do yoga in the West still drink alcohol and caffeine. Some also smoke. I don’t know what form of yoga Farage is learning, but I wish him well in his path to inner peace.

Perhaps he’ll discover some of the techniques that open the heart chakra. These simple postures and meditations allow anyone to quickly feel increased compassion and love.

This is important because if the heart chakra is too weak, a lack of trust and sense of disconnection from other human beings is almost inevitable.

I’ll look out for him next time I visit London’s Sivananda Yoga centre, whose glorious founding guru, Swami Sivananda, spoke of unity and encouraged his students to follow ‘religion of the heart and religion of love’.

What a wonderful plot twist that would be.

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