The disrupter Dismissive, unpleasant, rude-but will Farage change tune in Commons?

It was the speech that made Nigel Farage’s reputation: inflammatory, insulting and riddled with distortions.

- Jennifer Rankin

Speaking on the floor of the European parliament, Farage addressed Herman Van Rompuy , an erudite, softly spoken former Belgian prime minister, appointed to the new post of European Council president. “I don’t want to be rude,” Farage began. “But, really, you have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a lowgrade bank clerk and the question I want to ask is: who are you?”

Van Rompuy’s job was to chair meetings between EU leaders, rather than, as Farage put it, be “the political leader for 500 million people”. Amid heckles and boos in the far-from-full Strasbourg chamber, Farage said Van Rompuy’s intention was to be “the quiet assassin of European democracy", before going on to insult the Belgian's home nation as "a non-country".

The new MP for Clacton, who was sworn in yesterday, is not likely to get away with such unparliamentary behaviour in the House of Commons. (Farage was fined for the attack on Van Rompuy in 2010.) But allies and EU officials agree it was that one minute 24 second speech in 2010 that propelled him to public attention and notoriety - all across Europe.

"Suddenly the media sat up and took notice," said Gawain Towler, Reform UK's head of press, who has been working with Farage for 20 years. "That really put Nigel Farage on the map," he said, recalling "hundreds thousands of views" on Greek, Italian and Dutch YouTube.

For EU insiders, the insults were not a surprise. "It was the usual stuff," said Guy Verhofstadt, the veteran Belgian MEP, who is standing down from the European parliament and was in the chamber that day. "His style of debating was always like that," Verhofstadt said.