Farage attack on high street Turkish barber shops is dog-whistle racism, minister says

Miatta Fahnbulleh said Reform ‘blames people of difference rather than deal with the fundamentals’. Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

Nigel Farage’s attack on Turkish barber shops amounts to dog-whistle racism without a credible plan to fix struggling high streets across the country, a government minister has said.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, the devolution, faith and communities minister, said the Reform UK leader was deploying the “politics of grievance” as his populist rightwing party attempts to capitalise on high street decline.