Tag Archive for: Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage has been condemned over his repeated use of conspiratorial language popular in far-right circles.

Mr Farage, the leader of the Brexit Party, has recently made reference to “unelected globalists shaping the public’s lives based on secret recommendations from the big banks” and, commenting on the Black Lives Matter movement, has said that it is funded by “globalists”. Mr Farage has made use of these phrases repeatedly in the past.

He has also made continual reference to the Jewish financier, philanthropist and political activist George Soros, Goldman Sachs and “cultural Marxism”.

While these tropes are not necessarily antisemitic in isolation, Mr Farage’s repeated use of these tropes, which are very popular in far-right circles, has led to wide condemnation.

Mr Farage has previously courted controversy with comments about a “Jewish lobby” in the United States, and participated in a series of interviews on the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ radio show.

Andrew Percy MP, The Conservative co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism, reportedly said: “These conspiracy theories have real world and dangerous consequences and are without question antisemitic. So now he is being put on notice. Farage needs to cut it out before he causes further harm by providing further fuel to racist antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories.”

Catherine McKinnell, Mr Percy’s Labour co-Chair, said: “Talk of shadow cabals, Soros conspiracies and other nonsense has repeatedly been proven to find its roots in anti-Jewish racism. His choice of language, which echoes some of that circulating amongst the far-right online, is worrying and getting worse.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

In an article for The Guardian about stereotyping Jews, Michele Hanson has peddled the stereotype that people are accused of antisemitism merely for “expressing a smidgin of concern about the Palestinians”.

In an article titled “Nigel Farage isn’t just crass, I find him dangerous and cruel” she wrote: “I notice Theresa May mentioned illegal settlements to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, but he wasn’t keen to chat about them, and instead started droning on about his commitment to peace and ‘the battle against militant Islam’. That was a pretty daring move by May, because some people might easily have called her antisemitic, as she was expressing a smidgin of concern about the Palestinians and questioning the Israeli government’s actions.”

It is ironic that Ms Hanson made this unpleasant and derisive remark in an article about “insidious stereotypes” in which she criticised Nigel Farage over his remarks to LBC listeners that he believes that American Jews wield disproportionate political power. Ms Hanson wrote that “I would like to write Farage’s statement in bold, 10ft-high letters to shame him, but it wouldn’t work.”

Instead of welcoming Ms Hanson’s criticism of Nigel Farage, which echoes our own thoughts on his remarks, we find ourselves faced with an article about stereotyping Jews which claims that antisemitism is wielded as a political weapon to stifle Israel’s critics. In so doing she deploys the so-called Livingstone formulation, named for the notorious Ken Livingstone.

The International Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the British Government, states that “criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” Campaign Against Antisemitism suggests that Ms Hanson takes a close look at the definition and retracts her comments that conflate criticism of Israeli government policy with accusations of antisemitism.

Whilst attempting to point out and isolate Nigel Farage for his remarks, she has simultaneously echoed the poisonous claims of Len McCluskey, Ken Loach and Ken Livingstone. She should be ashamed to keep such company.

We are now making a complaint to The Guardian which we will withdraw if Ms Hanson apologises.

We are grateful to UK Media Watch for bringing this matter to our attention.

Nigel Farage has attempted to end the controversy over remarks he made earlier in the week when he told LBC listeners that he believes that American Jews exert disproportionate political power and even appeared to agree with a claim that they have financial control over American politics.

After Campaign Against Antisemitism made a formal complaint to broadcasting regulator Ofcom, Mr Farage has now stated that a “Jewish lobby” did not wield influence over the outcome of last year’s Presidential election. He told a caller to LBC this morning that he rejected claims that his remarks were antisemitic but then said: “the Jewish lobby in America is organised and powerful, but not for one moment do I think that they tried to influence the election, I think it’s ridiculous”.

Whilst we welcome Mr Farage’s statement that he does not believe that Jews “used their influence” to determine the outcome of the election, we remain concerned that he is clearly convinced that there is a “Jewish lobby” which is “organised and powerful”, again conflating the political lobby for Israel with Jews in general.

It is common for countries to lobby their allies, and Israel is no different, but in Mr Farage’s call on Monday, it was not merely alleged that Israel conducts lobbying, but that it is carried out by the entire Jewish population of the United States and that in doing so American politics are subverted. Counting all American Jews as lobbyists with disproportionate, subversive power and both major political parties in their financial grips is the stuff of antisemitic conspiracy theories, and whilst Mr Farage has now said that he does not believe that American Jews influenced the last year’s Presidential election, he has only reiterated his belief that there is a powerful “Jewish lobby” at work.

The controversy began when, during his regular primetime slot on Monday evening on popular talk radio station LBC, Mr Farage, who is the former leader of the UK Independence Party, discussed with callers whether Russian influence had really aided the election of President Donald Trump. When a caller named only as Ahmed told Mr Farage that he thought that the pro-Israeli lobby in the United States was no less dangerous than alleged Russian hacking, Mr Farage appeared to agree, and started talking about Jews: “Well the Israeli lobby, you know, that’s a reasonable point Ahmed, because there are about six million Jewish people living in America, so as a percentage it’s quite small, but in terms of influence it’s quite big.” When Ahmed said that Israel has both the Republicans and Democrats “in their pockets”, Mr Farage responded: “Well in terms of money and influence, yep, they are a very powerful lobby”. Summarising the call, Mr Farage once again made clear that he believes that a “Jewish lobby” is at work on behalf of a foreign Government, repeating Ahmed’s claim: “Ahmed, new caller from Leyton, I thank you. He makes the point that there are other very powerful foreign lobbies in the United States of America, and the Jewish lobby, with its links with the Israeli Government is one of those strong voices.”

Mr Farage should delay no further in withdrawing his deplorable comments and apologising for them, or LBC should relieve him of his duties. We await Mr Farage’s urgent apology and the outcome of Ofcom’s investigation.


Nigel Farage has told LBC listeners that he believes that American Jews exert disproportionate political power and even appeared to agree with a claim that they have financial control over American politics.

During his regular primetime slot on popular talk radio station LBC, Mr Farage, who is the former leader of the UK Independence Party, discussed with callers whether Russian influence had really aided the election of President Donald Trump. When a caller named only as Ahmed told Mr Farage that he thought that the pro-Israeli lobby in the United States was no less dangerous than alleged Russian hacking, Mr Farage appeared to agree, and started talking about Jews: “Well the Israeli lobby, you know, that’s a reasonable point Ahmed, because there are about six million Jewish people living in America, so as a percentage it’s quite small, but in terms of influence it’s quite big.”

When Ahmed said that Israel has both the Republicans and Democrats “in their pockets”, Mr Farage responded: “Well in terms of money and influence, yep, they are a very powerful lobby”.

Summarising the call, Mr Farage once again made clear that he believes that a “Jewish lobby” is at work on behalf of a foreign Government, repeating Ahmed’s claim: “Ahmed, new caller from Leyton, I thank you. He makes the point that there are other very powerful foreign lobbies in the United States of America, and the Jewish lobby, with its links with the Israeli Government is one of those strong voices.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism was immediately contacted by listeners, one of whom said that they had contacted an LBC producer after Mr Farage first made the comments about a “Jewish lobby”, only for him to then repeat them again.

It is common for countries to lobby their allies, and Israel is no different, but in Mr Farage’s call with Ahmed, it was not merely alleged that Israel conducts lobbying, but that it is carried out by the entire Jewish population of the United States and that in doing so American politics are subverted. Counting all American Jews as lobbyists with disproportionate, subversive power and both major political parties in their financial grips is the stuff of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Mr Farage should immediately withdraw his deplorable comments and apologise for them, or LBC should relieve him of his duties. We await Mr Farage’s urgent apology and in the meantime we will be asking Ofcom to open an investigation.