LONDON: Good Morning Britain presenter Richard Madeley clashed with Nigel Farage during a live TV interview with the former politician about comments he made on Sunday that prompted allegations of Islamophobia.
The former leader of the right-wing UK Independence Party (UKIP) and Reform UK, and honorary president of the latter, sparked controversy when he said there is a “growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values” and “loathe much of what we stand for.” He specifically referenced the Muslim community.
Madeley challenged Farage by citing a 2018 survey conducted by IPSOS Mori and said: “They found, absolutely conclusively, that Muslims in the UK attach more importance on being British than the general population.
“Eighty-five percent feel they truly belong to Britain, 55 percent feel that their national identity as British is very important to them, and that compares to 44 percent of the general population. So I’m bound to ask, what on earth were you talking about there?”
Farage responded by citing another survey, and argued that his comments on Sunday, during an interview with Sky News, were taken out of context. He claimed 23 percent of 18-to-24-year-old Muslims in Britain believe jihad is a good thing.
“Now that of course is not a British value in any way at all and it’s a very disturbing trend that’s particularly prevalent among the young,” he said, adding that it was “undoubtedly true” that there is an increasing number of young people in Britain who “not only don’t subscribe to our values, they openly support Hamas.”
Madeley and co-presenter Charlotte Hawkins pointed out that the poll Farage referenced was heavily criticized because of its methodology.
“You also said in the interview that you could take someone to a particular street in Oldham and there would be nobody there who speaks English,” Madeley said.
“Well again, that’s just not true; the Office of National Statistics say that only 0.7 percent of people in Oldham don’t speak English. That’s less than one in a hundred.”
Several MPs have condemned Farage’s comments. The minister of state for Northern Ireland, Steve Baker, described the remarks as “ignorant and offensive.”
Meanwhile, BBC News presenter Geeta Guru-Murthy issued an on-air apology on Tuesday after saying earlier in the day that Farage was using his “customary inflammatory language.”
Guru-Murthy, who was speaking after the broadcast of a clip of Farage speaking at a Reform UK event in Dover, said she acknowledged that her comment “didn’t meet the BBC’s editorial standards on impartiality.”
