Nigel Farage slams 'shameful' and 'racist' establishment

Ukip leader says the political classes and the media are guilty of 'inbuilt racism'

Nigel Farage has attacked the “shameful” reaction of the “racist” British establishment to his call to scrap race discrimination laws.

The Ukip leader sparked a race row by claiming that laws barring discrimination on grounds of nationality or race were not required because race is no longer a significant issue in Britain.

It drew an angry reaction from David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, who united in condemning his remarks.

The prime minister described Mr Farage’s comments as “deeply concerning” and accused him of “attention seeking”, Mr Miliband said he was “wrong, divisive and dangerous” while the Lib Dem leader said Mr Farage "instills fear by confusing a lot of these things”.

But in a column for The Independent, Mr Farage hit back at all three leaders for conforming to what he said was a consensus that “nothing can or should be done about the burgeoning unemployment rates amongst British young people, be they black, white, Asian, or otherwise”.

Read more: How political leaders reacted to Farage race row
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He added: “If I’m not allowed to make the point that these people – our people – should not be discriminated against in favour of migrant workers from southern and eastern Europe – then we may as well be honest with young people in this country and tell them to go abroad and find jobs elsewhere. So which is it?”

He claimed it was parties such as Labour, not Ukip, that were the ones really guilty of racism. Labour “still sees things in black or white or brown”, Mr Farage wrote.

He said the media was also guilty of racism in its reporting of his comments.

“I’m afraid that what this incident has really shown us is that the mainstream establishment, including the press and the media, are perhaps racist themselves. Because when I said “British” they heard “white”, and set a course for the media narrative to pretend I made a distinction between people of different skin colours. This is their own, inbuilt racism. And it’s shameful.”