‘To demonise, particularly the Muslims, this is the sort of thing why we worry about Reform.’
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was brutally mocked on BBC Question Time over his hopes of becoming Prime Minister by musician and activist Billy Bragg.
Farage has continued to make the headlines this week, seeking to whip up a moral panic over migrants and Muslims, without providing proof for any of his ludicrous claims.
Appearing on LBC earlier this week, he refused to condemn President Trump’s claims linking the use of paracetamol to autism.
There is no evidence of a link between pregnant mothers taking paracetamol and the birth of a child with autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD.
Rather than speak the truth, Farage went on to defend the President’s previous claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti were eating domestic cats and dogs in Ohio. Farage is a Trump supporter and the President was also condemned this week for his false and Islamophobic claims about the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, where he told the UN that Khan was a ‘terrible Mayor’ and that he wanted to bring Sharia law into London.
During the LBC interview, Farage said he believed Sharia Law was being introduced to the UK because he had been told so by a taxi driver.
Bragg told the Question Time audience: “After giving the impression he doesn’t trust scientists, he later said in the interview when he was asked by Nick Ferrari, why he believed that Sharia Law was coming to Britain, he said he’d been told by a taxi driver.
“So he was willing to believe a Muslim taxi driver in Buckinghamshire rather than believe the scientific establishment. This guy wants to be prime minister? You must be joking”, leading to much applause.
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice interrupted, and told him: “Billy, there are over 80 Sharia courts in the United Kingdom. Are you aware of that?”
The singer hit back: “Yeah I am, but there are also Jewish courts and that is part of their religion and we, as a tolerant nation, accept that.
“To demonise, particularly the Muslims, this is the sort of thing why we worry about Reform.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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