NIGEL Farage has suggested that Muslim people do not have "British values" in comments which have been branded "racist".
The comments from the owner of Reform UK, who has said he will not stand in the General Election, came in response to Conservative plans to introduce national service for teenagers.
Speaking on Sky News on Sunday morning, Farage said: “Look, it’s totally impractical – the Army has shrunk from 100,000 to 75,000 in 14 years of conservatism and, most interestingly, we have a growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values, in fact loathe much of what we stand for.”
The Brexiteer added that “we see them on the streets of London every Saturday”.
When asked by presenter Trevor Philips to clarify whether he was referring to Muslims, Farage said: “We are.”
"We have a growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values... We see them on the streets of London every Saturday" - @Nigel_Farage "Are we talking about Muslims here?" - @TrevorPTweets "We are" - @Nigel_Faragehttps://t.co/fhIHlpTGAF pic.twitter.com/rpR74phpFG
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 26, 2024
He added: “I found some of the recent surveys saying that 46% of British Muslims support Hamas, support a terrorist organisation that is prescribed in this country.”
It is unclear which survey Farage is referring to.
The comment has been criticised for being islamophobic and racist, with Zara Mohammed, secretary general of the Muslim of Council of Britain, saying that Farage is “inciting hatred towards Muslims”.
Mohammed tweeted: “So horribly Islamophobic and racist – doing what Farage does best, reinforcing his hate-filled rhetoric of misinformation – even challenged by Trevor to consider what he’s actually saying he continues to show us his role in inciting hatred towards British Muslims.”
Farage called Tory proposals to re-introduce mandatory national service for 18-year-olds “a joke” and “totally impractical”.
“They [the Conservatives] don’t support it either – it’s a joke, isn’t it?
“You get a focus group of half a dozen Reform voters in a room, the chairman says ‘Now, what about national service?’
“When you’re a weak leader – and Sunak is not a leader in any way at all – you’re a follower, so you follow what the focus groups say, and you say ‘by doing this I can attack the Reform vote’. That’s what it’s all about.”
