Nigel Farage, the border campaigner and Brexit leader, pointed to the unpleasant spectacle of a top Labour politician begging a “group of Muslim leaders” to help him get re-elected in the summer’s general election and warned that a new wave of sectarian politics was about to hit the UK.
Speaking at a border control campaign event in Dover, England, on Tuesday – the “front line” of a mass immigration “invasion” on Britain’s south coast – Nigel Farage warned that failing to integrate large numbers of new immigrant arrivals is allowing communities at odds with mainstream Britain to take root.
He said: “There is a small but worryingly growing number… of young men embracing extreme views, views which are not only un-British but frankly extremely anti-British. In recent local elections our candidates have been elected in Leeds, Burnie and other inner city areas.”
To illustrate his point, Farage cited leaked footage from a Labour election event over the weekend, where there were no women in the audience, speakers included MPs pleading to keep their jobs and promising that the new left-wing government would recognise Palestine as a state in exchange for Palestinian votes.
These are the words of Angela Rayner, who is courting the Muslim vote in Ashton-under-Lyne, and has pledged to recognise Palestine as a state.
Expect further Labour Party capitulation to the Islamic lobby. Expect jail time for “Islamophobia”. pic.twitter.com/hDaKBT9rht
— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) May 28, 2024
Mr Farage said: “We have seen the attacks and you may have noticed yesterday that Angela Rayner was in her constituency begging and pleading with a group of Muslim leaders to vote Labour and you will have noticed there were not a single woman in the room.”
“So I fear and am concerned that in our cities and towns we are moving towards an era of sectarian politics from which women are completely excluded.”
Angela Rayner’s speech to a room of “Islamic leaders” was covered by the British newspaper Daily Mail I say I believe The comments were recorded on Sunday as left-wing populist George Galloway pandered to Muslim anger against Palestine to win recent elections and as European countries recognise Palestine as a state.
In the video, Rayner begins by talking about the importance of the votes of the men in the chamber, enunciating slowly and carefully in what Farage describes as a “plea,” saying: “…my voters were so angry with Labour. I was with you. And you watched me win. You supported me. In constituencies similar to mine, people lost their seats. You supported me. I don’t think I would have won as much without you.”
Labour’s Muslim support falls by over 40 points after Starmer’s support for Israelhttps://t.co/F4HTASbPVK
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 6, 2024
Explaining what he is offering voters in return for their needed votes at election time, Mr Rayner, a left-leaning politician, said:
Now, I know people are angry about what’s going on in the Middle East. I said it on live TV, and I say it now, if I resign from Parliament now and it would bring about a ceasefire, I would do it. I would do it…Last week, the Labour Party supported the ICC, the Conservative Party did not. So, in this general election on this issue, we can’t do anything unless we are in power. To be honest, if the Labour Party gets into power, our power is limited. To be honest, I can’t make any promises, because even Biden in the United States, who has much more influence, has limited influence.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, all our people, we are working to stop what is happening. We want that. So I promise you that that is what we want. And if Labor gets to power, we will recognize Palestine. I don’t just ask for recognition. Sadly, there is nothing to recognize at this point. Palestine is devastated, and we have to rebuild Palestine. We have to rebuild Gaza. It takes more than recognition. We need resources. We need infrastructure. We need teachers. We need civil servants.
Spain, Norway and Ireland announced last week that they would recognise Palestine as a state, and made the move this Tuesday, saying they would open embassies in the region. Israel said that recognising a Palestinian state so soon after the October 7 terror attacks had resulted in “encouraging terrorism” and rejected the Spanish government’s justification that it was “helping to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians”.
The group is clear that Palestine is seen as a step towards achieving a “two-state solution.” “You are complicit in inciting the genocide of the Jews and war crimes,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote to Spain’s Socialist prime minister.
A home for Hamas? British MPs push for Ukraine-style asylum system for Palestinianshttps://t.co/VLnyOwL8fF
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 15, 2024
The footage of Rayner openly calling for using Gaza to win Muslim votes may not be seen as helpful within the party, where current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been keen since taking office to distance himself from far-left populist Jeremy Corbyn, whose Labour tenure was marred by anti-Semitism scandals and whose fixation on traditional far-left concerns, including Palestine, made him unelectable.
While Starmer hopes that attempts to appease that element of the Labour Party (such as expelling Corbyn and his key aides from the party) will make the party more popular with the British public as a whole, a rift is opening up between the party and its traditionally solid Muslim voter base. As reported earlier this year, Labour’s Muslim support was estimated to have fallen by 40 points over the Israel-Gaza war.
Earlier this month, a coalition of Islamic activist groups called on Labour to meet a set of demands in exchange for their vote being returned, a stark reflection of the rise of sectarian politics that Farage mentioned this week.
“Labour will recognise Palestine as a state and pledge to impose sanctions on Israeli companies and settlers. The Islamist vote also required Labour to pledge to sever all military ties with Israel and impose a travel ban on “all Israeli politicians who wage this war and support the illegal occupation”.
“Turning to domestic UK issues, the group called for the publication of guidelines to allow Islamic prayer in UK schools and the repeal of a long-standing provision in the UK constitution that bans religious leaders from telling followers how to vote in their places of worship. It also called on the Labour Party to direct 7% of public sector and local authority pensions into an “ethical and Islamic fund.”
