Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, has warned that unrest in Belfast, Northern Ireland, could worsen if the British government refuses to address public concerns about immigration and migrant crime.
Speaking at a press conference in Makerfield constituency — where Reform is contesting a parliamentary by-election — Farage criticized Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for failing to provide concrete solutions. “Have you heard a single proposal for how any of this is going to change? In fact, if we go back to the [Henry] Nowak case this week, the Prime Minister is still in denial about two-tier policing in this country… yet you can see it written down on paper in the instructions that are given to police officers,” he stated.
Farage condemned “bad actors” involved in recent riots but emphasized that the “vast majority” of protesters were peaceful and driven by legitimate fears about community safety. He specifically highlighted Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese refugee who entered the United Kingdom via the open border Common Travel Area with Ireland after traveling from Paris to Dublin. Despite passing through two Western European countries deemed safe, Alodid was granted leave to remain in Britain in 2023.
“The vast majority of those people who were out on the streets in Belfast last night were not far right, were not extremists, just really scared about what’s going on in their communities and about the lack of government action,” Farage added. He reiterated that Alodid should not have been in the United Kingdom at all.
The protests, which saw a second night of violence in Northern Ireland following an attempted beheading by Alodid, underscore growing public anger over the government’s handling of immigration and migrant crime issues.
