Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has warned that Britain faces more division and potential violence if the state does not scrap its leftist “two-tier” approach to different ethnic groups, and that it is essential to return to a meritocratic system that treats people equally.
Speaking to Baroness Stroud of Fulham at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London on Wednesday, Mr Farage said that the recent killing of 18-year-old Henry Nowak and the ensuing riots in Southampton demonstrated the dangers of treating people differently based on immutable characteristics.
Nowak, who was stabbed to death by 23-year-old Vikrum Digwa with a traditional Sikh knife — which they are allowed to carry due to a special religious dispensation — was accused by his killer of having been racially abusive. While this turned out to be a lie, the officers attending the scene appeared to instinctively believe the accusation and handcuffed Nowak as he pleaded that he had been stabbed and could not breathe. Infamously, one officer replied to the teen’s assertion that he had been stabbed, “I don’t think you have, mate”.
An additional transcript released this week by the BBC showed that the officers did not realise that Nowak had actually been stabbed until nearly eight minutes after coming onto the scene.
Mr Farage said that police in Britain are being trained to treat racial abuse as “the most serious” offence, regardless of whether it is true or not.
“And if the officer doesn’t take that accusation seriously, they will be suspended immediately. So, we’re not policing each group with colourblindness. We’re not treating everybody the same. And the police chiefs themselves admit that we now police different communities and different groups in different ways. This is a road to disaster,” he warned.
The Reform UK leader, who has vowed to strip all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) measures put in place by previous governments, said that it is imperative for the state to “treat everybody exactly the same” rather than giving preferential treatment to protected groups.
“Whether you’re a police officer on the street, whether you’re a university admissions secretary, everybody must be treated the same. We have to get back to some sense that we’re a meritocracy because if we don’t, the level of division… that sense of division grows deeper. We’re headed for very, very troubled times.”
Mr Farage also warned that the “two-tier” system in Britain was allowing radical Islam to flourish unchecked, noting the anti-Israel demonstrations held in London, in which anti-Jewish messages are frequently seen and heard.
“I’m afraid the whole establishment has run away from radical Islam. We don’t even try. For example, the Muslim Brotherhood thrives in this country. It’s the main spreader of hate and extremism in Britain today. Yet, it has offices all over the country,” he remarked.
“Sensible Arab Muslim states prescribe those organisations and treat extremist terrorists for exactly what they are, and our gutless, cowardly political class have done their best to turn a blind eye to all of it.”
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