Shabana Mahmood Criticises Nigel Farage Over Race Remarks

Nigel Farage is “giving a dog whistle to every racist in the land” over his comments about immigration, Shabana Mahmood has said.

The home secretary hit out at the Reform UK leader as he continues to face allegations of anti-semitic bullying when he was a schoolboy.

A Jewish former schoolmate of Farage claims he told him “Hitler was right” and “gas ’em” followed by a hissing sound in reference to the Holocaust.

Other pupils have also accused the former Ukip leader of racism, but Farage has insisted he never abused anyone “in a hurtful or insulting way”.

On Sky News this morning, presenter Trevor Phillips asked Mahmood if she believed the Reform boss was a racist.

She said: “It’s for him to answer for his own conduct – allegations have been made, he has to deal with it.

“I think he does something, in my view, almost worse, which is he’s very careful about leaning in plausible deniability but giving a dog whistle to every racist in the land about what he might really mean.

“I think that’s really irresponsible and I’ve always called him out on that.”

Reform UK has refused to respond to Mahmood’s comments.

Farage was criticised earlier this month after he said 29% of schoolchildren in Glasgow did not have English as their first language and claiming that was leading to “the cultural smashing” of the city.

SNP leader John Swinney told the BBC: “I think Nigel Farage’s comments are quite simply racist. There’s no other way to describe them.”

Scottish Labour leader also confronted Lord Offord, who recently defected from the Tories to Reform, about Farage’s remarks on BBC Question Time last Thursday.

He told him: “Why are you presuming they’re new migrants, why are you presuming they don’t speak English and why are Reform using Glasgow children to spread your bile and poison into our communities? It’s utterly shameful.”