LBC host James O’Brien has taken aim at Nigel Farage following the Reform MP’s interview with Nick Ferrari on the station on Thursday morning.
While taking calls from callers, Farage refused to apologise for comments he made amid far-right riots in England and Northern Ireland.
He was challenged over his remarks which were seen as stirring up violence after he questioned whether the Southport attacker was known to police, and suggested the "truth is being withheld from us”.
It's rare that James O'Brien and Nigel Farage are in the same room. So when the Reform UK leader was leaving the LBC studios after his phone-in with Nick Ferrari, @mrjamesob delivered a one-of-a-kind handover. pic.twitter.com/owIDJUce9q
— LBC (@LBC) September 19, 2024
Farage said: “I asked a question – was he known to the security services?
“They still haven’t told us the truth. What I thought vindicated me wholly was Jonathan Hall KC who is the tsar for terrorism and rioting backed up by Lord Carlisle both said that the government and police need to level with the public.
“If they’d levelled with the public I don’t think those riots would have been anything like the scale they were.”
Farage released a video saying that what was being seen on the streets of Hartlepool, London and Southport was “nothing to what could happen over the course of the next few weeks”.
He also released a video shortly after the stabbings which accused police of withholding the truth and repeated misinformation claiming the suspect was under surveillance.
Former head of counter-terrorism policing Neil Basu said Farage should “think very carefully” about the power of his words.
When taking over from Ferrari’s show, O’Brien tore into the Reform leader.
He said: “Well, there’s a lot to get through today. For example, have you ever had violent race riots named after you or indeed been accused by the head of the Met of emboldening the racist thugs responsible?
“Has your vile and ignorant rhetoric ever helped instigate attempts to burn people alive in their beds?
‘I’ll have a tenner with you that within the next month we find some evidence of it.’ Nigel Farage is convinced that there's some truth in Donald Trump's claim that Haitian migrants in Ohio are eating pets. pic.twitter.com/YZvDV5W0YZ
— LBC (@LBC) September 19, 2024
“Have you ever cited a self-described misogynist facing rape and people trafficking charges in Romania [Andrew Tate] as a trustworthy news source for events in the UK, or described yourself as part of a similar phenomenon to him?
“Have you ever helped a convicted woman beater get elected to the UK Parliament and have any newly-elected MPs spent more time in America getting binned off by Donald Trump than they have in their own constituency?
“And what would you call someone who answers yes to all those questions?”
During the same interview with Ferrari, Farage also said he believed Donald Trump’s claims that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating pets would be proven right.
“Whenever he says something like this, that sounds absolutely crackers, in the end, there always proves to be some truth in it,” Farage said.
In fact, Trump's vice presidential pick JD Vance has admitted he was "creating stories" when spreading false claims about immigrants eating dogs, and the woman who was one of the originators of the rumour online has since retracted it.
