Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Working class have spoken, says Brexit-backing John Lydon

Sex Pistols star John Lydon
Sex Pistols star John Lydon

Sex Pistols star John Lydon has backed Brexit, saying “the working class have spoken”.

The musician better known as Johnny Rotten also said US President Donald Trump is being “smeared” as a racist by the media and there is a chance something good will come out of his time in the White House.

Lydon told ITV’s Good Morning Britain he wanted to shake hands with former Ukip leader Nigel Farage after he traded insults with Bob Geldof over the EU referendum.

Ahead of the Brexit vote, Mr Farage led a flotilla of fishing boats up the Thames to urge Parliament to take back control of British waters and was greeted by a rival Remain fleet carrying Geldof.

Lydon told the breakfast show: “After that up-the-River-Thames argument he had with Bob Geldof I wanted to shake his hand because it was silly beyond belief.

“Where do I stand on Brexit? Well, here it goes, the working class have spoke and I’m one of them and I’m with them.”

The Londoner, who now lives in Los Angeles, also dubbed Mr Trump “a complicated fellow”, adding: “As one journalist once said to me, is he the political Sex Pistol? In a way.

“What I dislike is the left-wing media in America are trying to smear the bloke as a racist and that’s completely not true.

“There are many, many problems with him as a human being but he’s not that and there just might be a chance something good will come out of this situation because it terrifies politicians.

“This is a joy to behold for me.”

When host Piers Morgan described Mr Trump as “the archetypal anti-establishment figure”, Lydon said: “Dare I say, a possible friend.”

He branded the perpetrators of terrorist attacks such as the Westminster atrocity as “incredibly stupid, easily manipulated people”, continuing: “Get the manipulators and then you will stop the problem. This promise of an eternal heaven and 72 virgins is a little on the naff side for me to accept that that’s the entire motivation.

“There is something else in it.”

Lydon narrowly escaped being caught up in the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 when he missed the flight that blew up over Scotland.

He said: “That was a bit nasty, there but for the grace of. You could be blown out of the sky by some moronic idiot.”

Lydon is poised to release a limited run of his new illustrated book Mr Rotten’s Songbook, which he said was inspired by a tour of China.

He said: “The Chinese government asked every single lyric I ever wrote be presented to them for analysis and they approved and that made me really suspicious.

“But I liked it and started drawing and remember the moods I was in in each particular song.”