Sometimes you sense that Nigel Farage is keen to create controversy, to stir things up. But tonight in his interview with Andrew Neil, Farage seemed keen to do the opposite; turning in a restrained performance.

When Andrew Neil asked what net migration would be post-Brexit, Farage replied that ‘it would be up to us’. He said that the two sides in this campaign shouldn’t be putting forward manifesto-style promises, as the question is really about who governs not what they do. The subtext of this seemed to be that it wouldn’t be him deciding the policy.

Under further questioning from Andrew Neil, Farage said he would like to get net migration down to 50,000 or so. However, he struggled to explain either how he would do that or how such regime would allow Britain to let in more skilled workers from the rest of the world.

But perhaps the most telling part of the interview came when Andrew Neil confronted Farage with both his warnings of Cologne-style sex attacks if we stay in the EU and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent criticisms of his remarks. Farage was determined not to produce a newsworthy response, saying only that ‘there are good and bad Archbishops’. He has, I suspect to the relief of many on the Leave side, realised that stoking the row about his comments would do the Out cause far more harm than good.

When Andrew Neil asked Farage if he was worried that the Remain campaign wanted to make him the poster boy for Out, the Ukip leader said he wasn’t as it was being run by people from the Westminster bubble. But his toned-down performance tonight and his optimistic declaration at the end that this is about ‘re-engaging with the rest of the world’ suggests that he knows, with the race looking tighter by the day, it wouldn’t be good for Out if his rhetoric caused a row.