British police should be armed to respond to terrorism, and decades of government immigration and integration policies have ‘totally failed’, Nigel Farage told LBC listeners.
Following the Parsons Green terror attack, the former UKIP leader said: “We’re constantly playing catchup. If we’re going to take [terrorism] seriously, we have to routinely train and teach our police officers [to handle firearms] whether they be tasers or guns.
“We have to have armed police.”
Reflecting on the London Bridge vehicular ramming and stabbing attack committed by Youssef Zaghba, Khuram Shazad Butt, and Rachid Redouane, Mr. Farage told his Sunday morning show listeners that “Had [we had armed police] on London Bridge that night, those three terrorists would not have got into Borough Market and caused those terrible, harrowing scenes.”
The UKIP Member of European Parliament also slammed the government, following the fourth terror attack in London this year, saying they have not done enough to protect British people from attack.
“My view on this is that our government and governments across Europe have been very, very reluctant to face up to the severity to the problem in front of us.
“They have been reluctant to admit their own mistakes because nearly all of this has been caused by government policy either in the last couple of years, but indeed over decades.
“It’s not just immigration – it’s actually about the total failure to integrate people in our society,” Mr. Farage said.
Guest Chris Phillips, former head of the government’s National Counter Terrorism Security Office, condemned the government for cuts and supported the view that the British tradition of not arming police was out of date.
“Circumstances are changing and I think police officers will have to be armed in future,” said Mr. Phillips.
Arguing that internment “never worked historically”, the former counterterrorism chief said, “again, I think circumstances have changed,” projecting that jihadist terrorists were moving towards vehicular bombs based on recent attempts in Barcelona and Cambrils.
“I don’t think people understand the danger of a vehicle bomb happening in our cities,” Phillips said. “If a large vehicle bomb decimated one of our cities and killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of people the circumstances would change dramatically and I think people would have a different view [on interning some 3,000 suspected terrorists].”
Asked by Farage how long he believes it would take for the nation’s security status to be returned to low, the former Metropolitan Police detective chief inspector said: “Fifteen years ago, I was standing up with others and saying this is a generational threat. We are now a generation down the line.
“There will be another two generations before we see an end to this. Our working life, and probably our children’s working lives, will be spent dealing with this problem.”
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