Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage said that the launch of a Jewish wing of Reform UK was “necessary” amid rising sectarianism in Britain and the threat it presented to the country.
The MP for Clacton was one of the keynote speakers at the launch of the Reform Jewish Alliance, which he said was his idea, on Tuesday at Central London synagogue.
Addressing the nearly 200 activists and supporters present, Farage spoke about how he was outraged by the lack of urgency to release Emily Damari, the British-Israeli hostage kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, and how moved he was to meet her mother, Mandy.
“I simply couldn’t believe it; here was a British citizen being held hostage by these savages in Gaza. And there was no campaign within British politics to stand up for her, even to tell the British people that there was a British hostage being held in those tunnels, and no plan, no campaign.”
The Reform UK leader said that the episode was demonstrative of a “fear that now inhabits mainstream politics in Britain”, accusing parties of being “far too scared” of standing up for the Jewish community, as they “fear perhaps offending a few million more”.
Farage said another motivation for setting up the group was “the advent of sectarianism in Britain, now rife and rampant sectarianism, terrifying sectarianism”.
“I have been told by some quite senior intelligence sources that the Muslim Brotherhood is now deeply embedded in several of the structures of our country … I'm talking about the education system, I'm talking about politics, I'm talking about the police force.”
He continued: “I mean, sensible Arab countries ban the Muslim Brotherhood. They're a proscribed terrorist organisation. They've been allowed to dig themselves very, very deep into the British structure. And again, we see the gutlessness that we saw over Emily Damari with no one prepared to stand up and do the right thing.”
Speaking of his time as a Member of the European Parliament, Farage recalled with sadness the sight of Jewish children going to school being protected by armed guards.
“That is where we're going. I've seen it happen in Strasbourg. I've seen it happen in Brussels. I don't want it to happen here. As I say, we're not asking for any special rights the Jewish community. We're not asking the Jewish community to be treated any differently to anybody else, but at this particular moment of peril, they're going to need a lot more protection than everybody else, because they're under a direct threat”, which he said was linked to a “civilisational struggle” for the soul of the country.
The start of Farage’s speech was disrupted by a small number of hecklers linked to a left-wing Jewish group, who objected to the Reform leader’s robust immigration policies, with one saying “my grandmother fled Germany, you would deport her” and another saying “the Torah says to love the stranger”. They were removed from the venue.
Before the event started, 20 or so demonstrators protested Farage’s presence outside the synagogue with some holding placards with images of his face and quotes of antisemitic comments, including “Hitler was right” and “Gas them”, which he is alleged to have made as a schoolchild nearly 50 years ago.
Several senior Reform figures also spoke at the event, including deputy leader Richard Tice and Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, the former Conservative cabinet ministers who recently defected to Farage’s party, both of whose partners are Jewish.
Braverman told the crowd that as prime minister, Farage would “bring an end to unprecedented antisemitism, he will ban the hate marches”, and received a raucous applause, adding: “he is the only man with a backbone that will stand up for the Jewish community”.
Jenrick, whose wife and children are Jewish, said that if he had “thought for one moment that there was an antisemitic bone in Nigel Farage’s body” he wouldn’t have joined Reform UK.
The Reform Jewish Alliance is set to be led by Gary Mond, former chair of the National Jewish Assembly and erstwhile Conservative parliamentary candidate.
He said that the purpose of the group would be “to get Nigel Farage into 10 Downing Street as the head of a majority government of Reform UK MPs” and that their efforts would be focused on winning over Jewish voters in parliamentary seats where there is a substantial Jewish electorate.
Others involved with the group are Caroline Clapper, leader of the Reform UK group on Hertsmere council, Martin Green, director of Reform UK in Scotland, and Ian Price, the party’s chair in the London Borough of Hillingdon, who in 2021 was the party’s first-ever Jewish candidate.
Also present at the event were Laila Cunningham, the party’s candidate for Mayor of London, and Alex Wilson, its representative on the London Assembly.
A separate Reform Friends of Israel group is also set to be established within the next few weeks, to be chaired in the interim by Daniel Seal, formerly of the JNF, while Jason Pearlman, a former spokesperson for Israel President Isaac Herzog, will be the group’s director.
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