It was more of a half apology
Nigel Farage has issued a half-baked apology for falsely claiming that Essex police had “bussed in” counterprotestors to an anti-migrant protest.
Farage was forced to make the apology after receiving a phone call from a senior police officer telling him he was wrong.
The Reform UK leader accused the police of transporting Stand Up to Racism activists to the Epping protests, claims which the police straight out refuted.
Farage even called on the chief constable of Essex Police, Ben-Julian Harrington, to resign, stating: “There is no way Chief Constable BJ Harrington can stay in position.”
He made other false claims, including accusing the counter-protesters of causing the “riots” and saying that “Essex Police caused the disturbances”.
In reality, violence at the anti-migrant protests, which were promoted by the likes of far-right thug Tommy Robinson, was instigated by far-right activists and led to a series of arrests.
On his GB News slot yesterday, Farage said: “I learned some things over the past two days that led to me putting up a video saying that it was absolutely astonishing that the police had bussed a group called Stand Up To Racism, who had within them Antifa, who we know to be a vile organisation. What were they doing busing them from the station to the hotel?
“Well I got a phone call from a police officer who was in charge of the situation that night to say that I was wrong. They did not bus them to the protest. They walked them to the protest and bussed them back later. So if I was slightly out on accuracy, I apologise, but I think the gist of what I was saying was right.”
Protests outside the Bell Hotel started on 13 July, after a resident at the hotel was charged with sexual assault.
The protests moved to the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf after false rumours were spread online that asylum seekers had been moved there from the Bell Hotel.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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