Some Muslims ‘want to challenge British values’, says minister
Kevin Rawlinson
Mon, 27 May 2024
Anne-Marie Trevelyan said that ‘the vast proportion of British Muslims are wonderful, peace-loving, community-minded people’.Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A Foreign Office minister has claimed some Muslims in Britain “want to challenge” fundamental UK values.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan was responding to widely criticised comments made by Nigel Farage, the honorary president of Reform UK, who said on Sunday there was a growing proportion of people in the UK who “loathe much of what we stand for”.
Farage explicitly identified Muslims when challenged on the remarks, claiming polls showed 46% of British Muslims supported the terror organisation Hamas.
Asked if she agreed with him, Trevelyan told LBC Radio there were some Muslims who matched that description. She said: “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.
“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.”
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said Farage’s claim was “incendiary rhetoric”. She told the same station: “What we need in this election is a sense of how we bring our country together, how we focus on a more positive and hopeful mission for what our country can be – not this kind of division.”
Trevelyan has also used media appearances to defend her party’s newly announced national service policy, insisting that Operation Interflex – the UK programme that has trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian recruits – demonstrates the country has the capacity to rapidly house the 30,000 young people the government has said would be pushed into military service.
Trevelyan also said the scheme would be compulsory in the same way as was staying in education or training until 18.
Asked on Times Radio whether parents would face prosecution if their 18-year-olds refused to sign up for the military or volunteering activity, she said: “I’m not going to write the detailed policy now. That’s what a royal commission programme of works will be for.”
Nigel Farage condemned for 'race baiting' after claim Muslims are 'hostile to British values'
David Maddox
Sun, 26 May 2024
Nigel Farage condemned for 'race baiting' after claim Muslims are 'hostile to British values'
Nigel Farage signalled a return to right-wing shock tactics for his Reform UK party, as he used his first election interview to attack Muslims in the UK for “not sharing British values”.
Speaking to Sir Trevor Phillips on Sky News this morning, Mr Farage accused Rishi Sunak of “not being a leader” and instead being “a follower of focus groups” who is “not willing to tackle the real issues in this country”.
He was dismissive of Tory plans to reintroduce compulsory national service for school leavers, describing the policy as “a joke” but then stunned Sir Trevor by launching into an attack on millions of voters.
The ex-Brexit leader is hoping to capitalise on the Tories’ poor performance in the polls, which has seen his Reform Party now at 14 per cent, just five points behind the Conservatives.
In a prickly exchange, Mr Farage said: “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.”
Sir Trevor interjected: “Who are we talking about then?”
Farage responded: “Oh! I think we see them on the streets of London every Saturday.”
An uncomfortable Sir Trevor, who used to be chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, interupted again: “What do they look like? Are we talking about Muslims here?”
Mr Farage agreed. The former Ukip leader said: “We are. I am afraid I found some of the recent surveys saying 46 per cent of British Muslims support Hamas, support a terrorist organisation that is proscribed in this country. What is interesting is that this prime minister is building up far more of that population than anybody before in history.”
Sir Trevor replied: “We don’t have this survey in front of us but are you sure you want to make the blanket accusation that you have just made that Muslims are somehow less patriotic? Would you like to revisit this statement?”
Mr Farage though was unrepentant, asking if Sir Trevor had watched the recent local elections in the UK.
He went on to make it clear that immigration numbers will be the top priority of Reform which is being led now by Richard Tice with him as honorary president.
Farage also admitted that Mr Sunak had scuppered his own plans to run to become an MP in Clacton by calling a snap election.
“I had a six-month plan. I was wrong-footed I admit that.”
He said it would be impossible for him to tour the country campaigning for Reform but also running a campaign to win a seat in just six weeks.
His words on Muslims and immigration shocked the studio guests including Labour peer Baroness Hazarika who pointed out that she had “just sworn an oath to King and country” as a British Indian Muslim.
She said: “This reveals his true colours as a nasty race-baiting character.”
She noted that in previous elections he had also said he would not want to live next to Romanians and even blamed traffic jams on the M4 on immigrants.
Commentator Lord Finkelstein said the remarks had made him pleased that Mr Farage was not running for parliament.
He questioned why Mr Farage claims to “speak for real people as if those who disagree with him are somehow not real”.
But Rachel Johnson warned: “He is speaking to a constituency in this country.”
A vote for the Tories is a waste, says Nigel Farage
Anahita Hossein-Pour, PA
Tue, 28 May 2024
Nigel Farage has said voting for the Conservative Party is a “wasted vote” as he set out Reform UK’s election campaign agenda in Dover.
The Reform honorary president, who has declined to stand as an MP, launched the party’s campaign at a yacht club on the Kent seafront, which he described as the “frontline of the great national debate on immigration”.
Speaking to press and supporters, Mr Farage said the Tories have “wrecked it for themselves” and rejected the Conservative argument that a vote for Reform is a vote for Labour.
The former Ukip leader said: “This election is a foregone conclusion. Labour are going to win and they’re going to win quite big.
Nigel Farage announces Howard Cox as the Reform UK candidate for Dover (Gareth Fuller/PA)
“And therefore you could argue, actually, that a vote for the Conservative Party is a wasted vote.
“And given that, you know, Labour are going to win, why not vote for something that you actually believe in?”
He said he changed the party’s name from Brexit to Reform because the party is not after a “quick hit” but seeking to “build a base” and “launch a serious assault” in the next election of 2028 or 2029.
Speaking to PA news agency he ruled out electoral pacts or coalition agreements, adding: “This is now a six year plan. This is our first big election. It’s the place to try to spearhead into Parliament. We’re building a campaign for the 2029 general election.
“We are here to be the voice of opposition.”
Mr Farage, who has unsuccessfully stood as a Ukip candidate at five general elections and two by-elections, described illegal immigration to the UK as a “national security emergency”.
He said: “I think what we ought to be doing with this situation here is declaring a national security emergency and this is an emergency.
Nigel Farage on the campaign trail (Gareth Fuller/PA)
“I talked over the course of the weekend to Trevor Phillips about the small but worryingly growing number of young men, predominantly young men in this country, adopting radical views, views that aren’t just un-British, but views that frankly are extremely anti-British.”
After his interview on Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Mr Farage was accused of “incendiary rhetoric”.
Asked about his comments in Dover, he said: “I’ve always been prepared to put my head up and talk about things that other people would rather brushed under the carpet.”
On integration he said he was proud of the UK having the “best levels” of integration in Europe in the post-war period, but added about net migration: “The thing is out of control.”
Mr Farage took pictures with supporters with a pint of beer in hand following the campaign speech.
The launch, also announcing Howard Cox as Reform’s Dover candidate, comes as Dover MP Natalie Elphicke defected from the Conservatives to Labour and will not be standing at the next election.
Dover and Deal Conservative Association chairman Keith Single has said “don’t write us off” as the process of selecting a new Tory candidate takes place.
Labour has said its existing candidate, Mike Tapp, will stand in Dover.
Ms Elphicke increased the Conservatives’ majority to 12,278 in the 2019 election.
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