PAUL Nuttall blundered when he attacked Labour's leaked manifesto, telling reporters Jeremy Corbyn would have "surrendered...the Falkland Islands to Australia".
A colleague of the Ukip leader quickly informed the MEP of his error, resulting in a swift correction to Argentina in place of Britain's traditional ally.
Mr Nuttall made the remark as he criticised the policies contained within the leak of Labour's draft General Election manifesto, saying they showed Labour was wanting to "raise the red flag" and "surrender" to Brussels.
Some 255 British service personnel died in the successful defence of the Falkland Islands following an attack and occupation by Argentina, which calls the archipelago Las Malvinas. The 1982 war also claimed the lives of 649 Argentinians.
Mr Nuttall, speaking in Westminster as he launched Ukip's fisheries policy, said of the manifesto leak: "This is proof that Jeremy Corbyn's Labour wants to take us back to the 1970s. It's also clear they want to raise the red flag. It's as if they never learn.
"It's 1983's longest suicide note in history all over again and although it's clear in this manifesto that he is intent on running up the red flag, it's also obvious he wants to run up the white flag.
"We all know that he would have surrendered Northern Ireland to the IRA back in the 1980s. We all know that he would have surrendered Gibraltar to the Spanish, and indeed the Falkands to Australia."
Patrick O'Flynn, the Ukip MEP, sitting in the front row, quickly interjected: "Argentina."
Mr Nuttall, realising his mistake, corrected himself and said: "To Argentina.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here