Nigel Farage has clarified his suggestion that he would abolish much of Britain’s anti-race-discrimination legislation, saying he was merely arguing employers should be allowed to prefer British workers over migrants for jobs. The Ukip leader said he had been “wilfully misinterpreted” after an interview with Trevor Phillips, the former Equality and Human Rights Commission chief, in which he indicated the party would like to do away with much equality legislation.
During the interview, Farage said: “I think the situation that we now have, where an employer is not allowed to choose between a British-born person and somebody from Poland, is a ludicrous state of affairs ... I would argue that the law does need changing, and that if an employer wishes to choose – or you can use the word ‘discriminate’ if you want to – but wishes to choose to employ a British-born person, they should be allowed to do so.” When asked if there would be a law against discrimination on grounds of race or colour, Farage replied: “No. We are colour-blind.”
Political rivals rounded on Farage. David Cameron said he was guilty of attention-seeking, while Ed Miliband branded the remarks “wrong, divisive and dangerous”. Nick Clegg accused Farage of instilling fear by conflating issues such as warning that some Muslims are a “fifth column” and calling for scrapping anti-discrimination laws. Sadiq Khan said: “This is one of the most shocking things I have ever heard from a mainstream politician ... What Ukip is suggesting would take us back to those days” of signs saying “no blacks, no dogs, no Irish”.
Farage hit back, saying he had not been talking about anti-discrimination law but the ability of employers to favour British workers. He pointed out that Gordon Brown had also been in favour of British jobs for British workers. In his column for the Independent, Farage said the mainstream establishment were “perhaps racist themselves” because when he said “British” they heard “white”. He added: “There appears to be consensus between Labour, Lib Dems, and the Conservatives that nothing can or should be done about the burgeoning unemployment rates amongst British young people.”
