Richard Madeley and Nigel Farage conflict in debate over Muslim feedback
Nigel Farage clashed with Richard Madeley today as the Good Morning Britain host challenged his controversial comments on Muslims by asking, ‘What on earth were you talking about?’
The Reform UK honorary president provoked a backlash on Sunday when he warned of the ‘growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values’ and ‘loathe much of what we stand for’. He later clarified he was talking about Muslims.
Mr Madeley challenged the former UKIP leader on his comments this morning by quoting the findings of a major review of the existing polling carried out in 2018 by IPSOS Mori.
‘They found absolutely conclusively that Muslims in the UK attach more importance on being British than the general population,’ he said.
‘85% feel they truly belong to Britain, 55% feel that their national identity as British is very important to them and that compares to 44% of the general population. So I’m bound to ask, what on earth were you talking about there?’
Nigel Farage was challenged today on Good Morning Britain for his comments about Muslims
Richard Madeley quoted a major review of the existing polling carried out in 2018 by IPSOS Mori which found 85% of British Muslims feel they truly belong to Britain
In response, Mr Farage said he wanted to provide ‘context’ about what he said on Sunday in an interview with Trevor Phillips on Sky News.
He said: ‘What I said is that a growing number of young people do not subscribe to British values. If fact, despise them in many ways.
‘And all of your viewers would have seen the local elections where in parts of our inner cities we saw sectarian politics – people voting purely on religious lines, councillors getting elected and screaming Allahu Akbar…’
He then quoted recent polling by JL Partners commissioned by the Henry Jackson Society.
‘It showed that 23% of 18 to 24-year-old of young Muslims living in Britain think that jihad is a good thing,’ Mr Farage said.
‘Now that of course is not a British value in any way at all and its a very disturbing trend that’s particularly prevalent among the young.’
Mr Madeley replied: ‘The poll that you just quoted from has been very heavily criticised as self-selecting – people were basically drawn in through a series of clicks and by the time they were asked to register their opinion they had already made their minds up.
‘You also said in the interview that you could take someone to a particular street in Oldham and there would be nobody there who speaks English.
‘Well again that’s just not true – the Office of National Statistics say that only 0.7% of people in Oldham don’t speak English – that’s less than one in a hundred.’
Mr Farage said it was possible to ‘argue about numbers and statistics’ but it was ‘undoubtedly true’ that there is an increasing number of young people in Britain who ‘don’t only not subscribe to our values – they openly support Hamas’.
Mr Farage (pictured on Sunday) has decided not to stand in the general election for his Reform party
Steve Baker became the latest Tory minister to challenge Mr Farage’s comments as ‘ignorant and offensive’.
Mr Baker said in an social media post this morning: ‘It is not right that good British people should be slandered like this and I will defend them.’
The Wycombe MP praised the contribution of British Muslims in his Buckinghamshire constituency, where he is seeking to defend a 4,000-vote majority at the general election.
‘I am proud that in Wycombe, British Muslims are councillors, mayors, council chairs and parliamentary candidates, justices of the peace and the present High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire,’ Mr Baker added.
‘They are teachers and headteachers, doctors and pillars of our society. These are my colleagues, friends and supporters and I am glad.
‘They deserve much better than to be the object of this clear and intolerable bigotry. This is why I have always fought Islamophobia and why I will continue to do so, supporting the creation of a practical definition.’
Mr Farage, who has decided not to stand in the general election for his Reform party, mentioned Muslims while commenting on Rishi Sunak’s plans to revive national service for 18-year-old’s, which he called ‘a joke’.
Mr Farage added: ‘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.’
Challenged over who he was referring to, Mr Farage replied: ‘Oh, I think we see them on the streets of London every Saturday.’
Pressed on whether he was referring to Muslims, he added: ‘We are.’
Asked about Mr Farage’s comments on LBC yesterday, Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said she disagreed and said the ‘vast proportion’ of British Muslims were ‘peace-loving, community-minded people’.
But she added there was a ‘very small proportion’ that wanted to challenge the ‘values that we hold dear in the UK’.
‘The vast proportion of British Muslims are wonderful, peace-loving, community-minded people, certainly in the North East where I’m based, we have fantastic communities and they are a really important part of our social fabric,’ Ms Trevelyan told the radio station.
‘There are a very small proportion for whom they want to challenge those values that we hold dear in the UK, which are British values, and there we need to continue to work in community to bring those people to this.
‘The UK has incredible values of freedom of speech, freedom of choice… these are incredibly important values, but they have to be nurtured and looked after, and where there are those who would threaten them we need to make sure that we deal with that.’
She said it was not a problem specific to any religion, adding: ‘There are people who do not wish to stand alongside the values and laws that we have, and we continue to have to defend those.’
