Farage took the country from ‘pure cold rage’ to white riots

On the 2 June, far-right bigot Nigel Farage put out a statement ostensibly aiming to avoid societal dissolution in response to police treatment of murder victim Henry Nowak. Roughly 24 hours later, rioters took to the streets of Southampton to throw wheelie bins at cops.

Farage tried to despicably weaponise the murder of Nowak to incite racial hatred. He specifically called for “pure, cold rage.” Lo and behold, fellow racists rioted in Southampton, and the riots trended on social media as #FarageRiots.

In the UK, this is precisely how white supremacy functions: politicians, mainstream media, and regular people all do their bit to keep the wheels of racism turning.

Farage got what he wanted

Yesterday, Reform UK Ltd. put out a video video statement by their party leader calling for “pure cold rage” in response to the murder and police treatment of Henry Nowak. He claimed to make demands hoping to avoid the breakdown of society:

The most important thing that needs to change, that has to change, if our society is not to be ripped apart, where communities start to distrust each other and deeply distrust the police and all the other institutions of this country, is we need a change in culture.

For Farage, this meant:

Enough of anti-white prejudice, a promotion of the idea that white lives matter just as much as black lives.

The very next day, like clockwork, hundreds of assorted racists, white supremacists and card-carrying neo-Nazis gathered outside a Southampton police station to riot. Far-right grifter Tommy Robinson addressed the crowd, launching into a rant about Muslims (in spite of the fact that the murderer was a Sikh person).

It’s precisely this kind of riot that the Reform leader claimed he wanted to prevent. After all, this is the same man who actually lost the (extremely lucrative) support of billionaire Elon Musk for preventing Robinson from joining Reform, given that Robinson was a former member of the British National Party (BNP).

This is white supremacy

The thing is, this is precisely how white supremacy functions – all around the world, but especially in the UK.

A compliant media aids and abets Farage, Robinson, and their ilk with its reporting. Despite their claims of in-fighting, it’s hard to believe any of them are particularly aggrieved when violent rioters are throwing bins around and hoisting flags. Whether it’s allowing Reform to grab uncritical headlines and puff pieces like GB News’:

Nigel Farage declares ‘white lives matter too’ after police finally release footage of Henry Nowak’s arrest

Or merely dangerously misleading reporting like the BBC’s claim that the murderer used:

a ceremonial blade Sikhs are required by their faith to carry.

The national broadcaster used that line in the very same article where it quoted Sikh leaders explaining, very patiently, that the knife was not a religious requirement, and certainly wasn’t a kirpan. Likewise, the same community leaders also reported a massive uptick in anti-Sikh hatred as a consequence of the trial.

This kind of reporting primes the public to focus on the murderer’s Sikh faith, and ultimately his race. It fosters the idea that the problem is that Sikhs in general are allowed to carry knives, which quickly slips to the idea that brown people are treated better than white people (in spite of abundant evidence to the contrary).

The same tired line

With the public primed and readied, Farage doesn’t actually have to say ‘I would like my followers to riot’. In fact, he can stand in front of a camera acting as if he wants to prevent a riot.

Meanwhile, he continues to bleat about ‘anti-white discrimination’ and ‘two-tier systems’ – the exact dogwhistles (foghorns) that will prompt his followers to riot. This was so utterly predictable that the Canary drew yesterday’s article on Farage’s address to a conclusion with the line:

Clearly, the far-right leader has now pivoted from avoiding media scrutiny to a frantic attempt to create a distraction. If he has to incite another race-riot to do so, then so be it.

It was so utterly predictable because this is exactly the same attack line the racist right used to incite the 2024 race riots. In fact, an Institute of Race Relations report in the aftermath of the riots stated that:

Even as the ‘riots’ were ongoing, a range of figures sought to spread the notion that white defendants were victims of a ‘two-tier’ policing system that treated them more harshly ‘because of their race and political views’

Shocking nobody, one of those figures bleating about ‘two-tier policing’ was Farage himself. Then, as now, politicians and commentators highlighted that the Reform leader’s words were dangerous.

But, of course, he knows his words are dangerous. He knows they’re driving the rise of white supremacy; he knows they’ll spark white riots. We’d wager that he was counting on it.

That’s wholly a feature, not a bug – Farage knows that he’s the ‘acceptable’ political face of white supremacy in the UK, whether or not he’d call himself that openly. Inciting a race riot is probably cheaper and more effective than hitting the campaign trail for Reform UK.

Featured image via Getty/Finbarr Webster