Tory Euro MP Sajjad Karim has resurrected old claims against UKIP leader Nigel Farage. It is alleged by UKIP founder Alan Sked that Farage used the n-word in a private conversation with him.
In a Facebook post Karim, who used to be a Lib Dem MEP before he defected to the Conservatives, quotes Sked who claims Farage told him: “We will never win the nigger vote. The nig-nogs will never vote for us.”
Farage told the Independent that the claim was “not true.”
Whatever the truth is this latest story raises further doubts about UKIP. Two senior figures, MEP Mike Nattrass and Jeffrey Titford, are former members of the New Britian Party, founded as a pro-Rhodesia and anti- “coloured immigration” party.
In recent years UKIP has expelled several alleged members of the British National Party they suspected of infiltration but former Labour MEP Richard Corbett has accused both UKIP and the BNP of having an “arrangement” not to stand against each other in elections.
Matthew Goodwin, writing in the Guardian last year, said that while UKIP is not an extremist party they share many policies on immigration in common with the BNP.
UKIP spokesman Christopher Monckton is on record as urging members of the extreme British Freedom Party to “come back and join” UKIP.
French Far Right leader Marine le Pen has said that she is “in touch” with UKIP.
UKIP MEP Geoffrey Bloom is alleged to be a founding member of the Europe of Freedom & Democracy (EFD), a group that has entertained le Pen and has been linked to racially-motivated attack in Stockholm.
Earlier this year UKIP MEPs were accused of supporting a financial package to some of Europe’s most extreme parties.
Farage has said in the past that UKIP “do not and will not accept members whom we know
to have extremist views.”
But the New Statesman has this to say about Farage’s party:
Links with European far-right parties
Ukip is part of the group Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD). The group includes representatives of the Danish People’s Party, the True Finns Party, the Dutch SGP and the infamous Italian Lega Nord – all of them far-right. Nigel Farage is co-President of the group along with Lega Nord’s Francesco Speroni, whodescribed multiple murderer Anders Breivik as someone whose “ideas are in defence of western civilization.”
Mario Borghezio, another member of the group, declared in a radio interview that Breivik had some “excellent” ideas. Farage’s reaction was to write a strongly-worded letter to Borghezio, asking him to withdraw his comments or Ukip would pull out of the EFD. Borghezio not only did not apologise, but responded with an extraordinary speech in which he raged: “Long live the Whites of Europe, long live our identity, our ethnicity, our race… our blue sky, like the eyes of our women. Blue, in a people who want to stay white.”
Nigel Farage did not withdraw from the EFD. He continues to co-preside over it, along with the leader of the Lega Nord. MEP Nikki Sinclaire, however, was expelled from Ukip for refusing to take part in the EFD because of their “extreme views”.
Links with domestic far-right parties
“Ukip has no links to the BNP,” explained Farage in 2007. The first line of any description of Ukip calls it “a libertarian, non-racist party”. What party, other than one skating close to the lines of taste and decency, needs to describe itself as “non-racist”? Farage boasted on The Andrew Marr Show(20 January 2013) that “Ukip is the only UK party to explicitly ban BNP members from joining”. What party, other than a party whose policies are attractive to such organisations, would need to do that?
Christopher Monckton, their Scotland Leader and Head of Policy Unit invited the now-defunct British Freedom Party – an amalgamation of mostly breakaway BNP members led by a former Ukip candidate until January 2013 – to join Ukip: “I would very much like them to come back and join us and we stand together.” Ukip’s excuse for this lapse? Monckton had been away on a tour of the US and was not up to speed with current policy. More recently, however, Farage refused to vote to oppose moves for the European Union to fund the BNP.
The founder of the party, Alan Sked, says it has become “extraordinarily right-wing” and is now devoted to “creating a fuss, via Islam and immigrants”.
Xenophobia
“Our traditional values have been undermined. Children are taught to be ashamed of our past. Multiculturalism has split our society. Political correctness is stifling free speech”, states the Ukip manifesto. Their “Pocket Guide to Immigration” promises to “end support for multiculturalism and promote one, common British culture”. After attracting some negative publicity, it has disappeared fromhere, but an archived version can be seen here (pdf).
One of their prospective MP candidates recently wrote: “A removal of multi-culturalism and assimilation of these people needs to be done to save them from the abyss of exclusion and welfare. Above all, one should not shy away of contemplating forced repatriation, or threatening it to further assimilation, as a result of their lack of economic contribution to the UK.” In fact their position on “forced repatriation” and “assimilation” is indistinguishable from the BNP’s. Except, perhaps, that Ukip’s 2005 manifesto advocates that all incoming immigrants should be “subject to health checks” for “communicable diseases”.
More recently, during BBC’s Question Time, Farage caused upset with some gross generalisations he made about Bulgarian people. He sent his trusted lieutenant and deputy chairman of the party Paul Nuttall to Bulgaria to defuse the situation. Nuttall explained that he had nothing to apologize for, since he never bashed Bulgarians, but was just noting facts. He stressed that “Brits fear all immigrants, regardless of where they would come from.”
Islamophobia
“On the question of Islamification,” said Farage during a well-received speech, “we have to do a bit more to teach our children of the values of our Judeo-Christian society.” He proceeded to note that at least 20 police forces are turning a blind eye to the operation of Sharia Law and expressed admiration for countries which say: “You’re welcome to come here and to have your children here… but if you’re coming here to take us over, you’re not welcome.”
A recent manifesto commitment to “tackle extremist Islam by banning the burqa or veiled niqab in public buildings and certain private buildings” wasfurther explained by Farage: “I can’t go into a bank with a motorcycle helmet on. I can’t wear a balaclava going round the District and Circle line.”
Finally, Ukip peer Lord Pearsonput it unequivocally. “The Muslims are breeding ten times faster than us,” he said. “I don’t know at what point they reach such a number we are no longer able to resist the rest of their demands.”
All of which should be enough to persuade my party, the Lib Dems, not to enter any kind of talks with UKIP. Lib Dem Voice has revealed that the two parties are engaged in secret talks. I certainly believe the Lib Dems should have nothing to do with UKIP.
As for Farage, the comments attributed to him by Sked are appalling and racist in the extreme. As mentioned above, Farage denies saying this. Even so, there is plenty that the UKIP leader needs to do to get his house in order. Cutting links with the Far Right would be a good start.
By Lester Holloway @brolezholloway
