Furore broke out in the House of Commons Wednesday as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage accused Prime Minister Starmer of enacting “two-tier” justice in which criminals are set free as people who say “unpleasant” things online are jailed in Britain.
Nigel Farage once again drew heckles from other lawmakers as he raised widespread concerns over some 1,700 criminals being released early from prison this week to make room in British prisons.
The Reform MP said during Prime Minister’s Questions: “Yesterday we witnessed some extraordinary celebratory scenes outside Britain’s prisons, where in some cases serious career criminals were released. This to make way for, yes, rioters, but equally those who have said unpleasant things on Facebook and elsewhere on social media.
“Does the Prime Minister understand there is a growing feeling of anger in this country that we are living through two-tier policing and a two-tier justice system?”
The question drew groans from other members of parliament and shouts of “shame”, in what is apparently becoming the standard response to the Brexit leader taking to the floor of the Commons.
In response, new left-wing Labour Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, blamed his decision to release upwards of five thousand criminals on the previous Tory government.
“I’m angry to be put in a position of having to release people who should be in prison because the last government broke the prison system. The prime minister was repeatedly warned that he had to adopt the scheme that we put in place. The former justice minister said if we don’t do it we will have to get down on our knees and pray,” Starmer said.
Mr Farage has been heavily critical of the government’s response to the anti-mass migration protests and riots which broke out in August following the mass stabbing at a ‘Taylor Swift’ dance party in Southport which left three children dead and several others injured.
So far, at least 1,280 people have been arrested and 796 charged over their involvement in the unrest. While many of these were charged with violent offences, the government has also targeted people for comments on social media, infamously warning the public to “think before you post“.
In one notable case, a 35-year-old man, who was described as a “keyboard warrior” was sentenced to three years in prison for the speech crime of “stirring up racial hatred” with his posts on the X social media platform.
Mr Farage, himself, has also faced accusations of instigating the riots after he questioned whether authorities were withholding information about the Southport attack, allegedly carried out by a second-generation migrant from Rwanda. Amid the information vacuum in the immediate aftermath of the attack, speculation ran rampant on social media, including false rumours about the attacker potentially being an illegal migrant or a Muslim.
The Reform UK leader claimed “vindication” this week after a report from the government’s independent terror watchdog echoed his sentiments for the need for transparency in the aftermath of attacks.
The author of the report, Jonathan Hall KC said that there was a “huge, huge interest” in the attacker’s identity and that the public “quite reasonably wanted to know as much as possible about a massacre of children”.
“The brutal reality is that at some stage in the future, there will be an attack by someone who is an asylum seeker or who came on a small boat,” he said per The Times. “It is better to be as level and as straight as you can be because terrorism is about attacking institutions, and if institutions do not appear to be transparent, then they suffer.”
On his primetime GB News programme on Tuesday, Mr Farage listed out dozens of politicians and establishment media figures who blamed him for the riots and demanded an apology, however, he said he doubted any would be coming.