Nigel Farage has warned that the attempted beheading in Belfast and the murder of Henry Nowak expose the growing gulf between Westminster and the rest of the country.
The Reform UK leader was speaking alongside Reform’s Makerfield by-election candidate Rob Kenyon at a press conference in Wigan today, to announce the party’s new policy to ease the tax burden on small businesses and sole traders. During his speech, Farage took the time to speak on the “barbarity” seen on the streets of Belfast this week. He said that this showed once again that the political class is failing to grasp the scale of public concern about immigration, law and order, and community safety.
Farage linked the attack in Belfast to the horrific murder of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old university student who was fatally stabbed last December by a Sikh man wielding a ceremonial knife. The case became a national scandal in recent weeks, after it emerged that Nowak had been handcuffed and arrested by police while he bled to death - because his attacker had accused him of racism.
“It feels like Henry Nowak was just a few days ago, and yet we’ve moved on now to a new story”, Farage said.
He said there was “absolutely no doubt” in his mind that the Sudanese man allegedly responsible for the Belfast attack “should not have been in this country”, adding: “It is just as simple as that.”
Farage said people in Belfast and elsewhere were understandably scared by what had happened. He condemned those who went on to cause disorder in the streets, describing them as “bad actors doing bad things”. But he also rejected the idea that most people expressing anger or fear were “far right” or “extremists”.
“The vast majority of those people who were out on the streets in Belfast last night were not far right”, he said. “They were not extremists - just really scared about what’s going on in their communities and about the lack of government action.”
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer's Labour government has failed to offer any serious answer to public concern. “Have you heard a single proposal for how any of this is going to change?” Farage asked. The answer, of course, is a resounding “no”.
He also linked the Belfast attack to the case of Henry Nowak, arguing that both incidents show how detached Westminster has become from ordinary people. He said the Prime Minister remains “in denial” about two-tier policing, despite police guidance showing that different groups are treated differently.
“These issues - the Belfast attempted beheading, the Nowak death - show how incredibly disconnected Westminster MPs and much of the mainstream media are from where the commonsense centre of gravity is”, Farage said. “The gulf… between the two, I don’t think, has ever been wider.”
Asked by the Daily Telegraph whether the two cases had pushed immigration back to the top of the agenda in the Makerfield by-election, Farage said they had.
He accused Labour's Makerfield candidate (and prime ministerial hopeful) Andy Burnham of supporting “open-door migration” and said much of the North West was “filling up with HMOs [houses in multiple occupation]” housing young men “whose identity and background we know absolutely nothing about”.
Farage also pointed to comments from Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, who said immigration had become a national security issue. Farage said this was something he had argued for years. Now, though, he is “perhaps not in quite as lonely a place as I was on this for many, many years.”
Reform UK’s position is clear: “Nobody who comes to this country illegally will be allowed to stay. End of.”
The Reform UK leader was speaking alongside Reform’s Makerfield by-election candidate Rob Kenyon at a press conference in Wigan today, to announce the party’s new policy to ease the tax burden on small businesses and sole traders. During his speech, Farage took the time to speak on the “barbarity” seen on the streets of Belfast this week. He said that this showed once again that the political class is failing to grasp the scale of public concern about immigration, law and order, and community safety.
Farage linked the attack in Belfast to the horrific murder of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old university student who was fatally stabbed last December by a Sikh man wielding a ceremonial knife. The case became a national scandal in recent weeks, after it emerged that Nowak had been handcuffed and arrested by police while he bled to death - because his attacker had accused him of racism.
“It feels like Henry Nowak was just a few days ago, and yet we’ve moved on now to a new story”, Farage said.
He said there was “absolutely no doubt” in his mind that the Sudanese man allegedly responsible for the Belfast attack “should not have been in this country”, adding: “It is just as simple as that.”
Farage said people in Belfast and elsewhere were understandably scared by what had happened. He condemned those who went on to cause disorder in the streets, describing them as “bad actors doing bad things”. But he also rejected the idea that most people expressing anger or fear were “far right” or “extremists”.
“The vast majority of those people who were out on the streets in Belfast last night were not far right”, he said. “They were not extremists - just really scared about what’s going on in their communities and about the lack of government action.”
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer's Labour government has failed to offer any serious answer to public concern. “Have you heard a single proposal for how any of this is going to change?” Farage asked. The answer, of course, is a resounding “no”.
He also linked the Belfast attack to the case of Henry Nowak, arguing that both incidents show how detached Westminster has become from ordinary people. He said the Prime Minister remains “in denial” about two-tier policing, despite police guidance showing that different groups are treated differently.
“These issues - the Belfast attempted beheading, the Nowak death - show how incredibly disconnected Westminster MPs and much of the mainstream media are from where the commonsense centre of gravity is”, Farage said. “The gulf… between the two, I don’t think, has ever been wider.”
Asked by the Daily Telegraph whether the two cases had pushed immigration back to the top of the agenda in the Makerfield by-election, Farage said they had.
He accused Labour's Makerfield candidate (and prime ministerial hopeful) Andy Burnham of supporting “open-door migration” and said much of the North West was “filling up with HMOs [houses in multiple occupation]” housing young men “whose identity and background we know absolutely nothing about”.
Farage also pointed to comments from Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, who said immigration had become a national security issue. Farage said this was something he had argued for years. Now, though, he is “perhaps not in quite as lonely a place as I was on this for many, many years.”
Reform UK’s position is clear: “Nobody who comes to this country illegally will be allowed to stay. End of.”
