Nigel Farage’s unwillingness to reject President Trump’s false assertion that paracetamol use during pregnancy is related to autism shows that he is not fit to be Prime Minister, writes Herald columnist Mark McGeoghegan.

When my wife fell pregnant this summer, it was a moment of elation for both of us. It had taken a long time, involving going through IVF, to get there. We had spent a long time contemplating pregnancy, and so I thought we were well prepared for what she would go through. But nothing could have prepared us – no offence to pregnant women everywhere – for just how fundamentally weird pregnancy is.

One of the consequences of that weirdness, whether it’s organs shifting to accommodate the growing womb or constant congestion and nose bleeds, thanks to increased blood volume, is pain. The symptoms pregnant women experience vary from woman to woman and pregnancy to pregnancy, but the one constant is that pregnancy is painful. So believe me when I say that I found Nigel Farage’s prevarication over the non-existent link between paracetamol use during pregnancy and autism not just personally offensive, but outright grotesque.

Paracetamol, also known as Tylenol in the United States, is the only off-the-shelf painkiller and antipyretic (meaning it reduces fever) that pregnant women can take. A whole host of other painkillers, from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen to medications containing codeine, like co-codamol, can have harmful side effects during pregnancy. NSAIDs can cause kidney........

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