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Good Morning Britain star Adil Ray has blasted Nigel Farage’s suggestion that migrants are ‘eating swans’, calling the statement ‘ridiculous’.
Earlier this week, the controversial Reform UK leader stated during a phone-in on LBC: ‘If I said to you that swans were being eaten in Royal Parks in this country, that carp were being taken out of ponds and eaten in this country by people who come from cultures that have a different… would you agree it happened, is happening here?’
Shortly afterwards, a spokesperson for the Royal Parks issued a statement, emphasising that the organisation has received no reports of people killing or eating swans in the eight Royal Parks of London.
They continued: ‘Our wildlife officers work closely with the Swan Sanctuary to ensure the welfare of the swans across the parks.’
On Friday’s Good Morning Britain, Ray addressed the results of a poll, which places Farage as the frontrunner to become Britain’s next Prime Minister.
According to the poll conducted by YouGov, it’s been suggested that if an election were held tomorrow, Reform UK would win 311 of the 650 seats, which would in turn lead to Farage taking office in Number 10, Sky reported.
‘This is an extraordinary poll, and people were asked literally the question, who would you vote for?’ the ITV presenter said on the programme.
‘Just in recent weeks, Nigel Farage has talked about mass deportations, wasn’t clear enough on whether paracetamol is a contributor to autism – he couldn’t rule that out. He’s then come out with this bizarre thing that some people are eating swans.
‘These are ridiculous things he comes out with. He says that Sharia Law does exist with some people in the country, and his evidence is a taxi driver in Buckinghamshire. These are quite ridiculous, quacky things that he’s coming out with, yet he leads the polls. Why is that? What’s going on?’
In addition to Farage’s debunked suggestion that migrants are eating swans, Ray also referenced the politician’s refusal to dispute President Donald Trump’s suggestion that paracetamol taken during pregnancy could be linked to autism in children.
Scientists, including Dr Alison Cave, the chief safety officer at UK medical regulator the MHRA, stressed that there is no evidence linking the two.
In response to this claim, Farage said on the radio: ‘I have no idea…’ before adding that ‘when it comes to science, I don’t side with anybody, because science is never settled, and we should remember that’.
Continuing the discussion about Farage on Good Morning Britain, Salma Shah, a former Conservative special adviser, replied to Ray: ‘Well, I think that largely, we do give Reform a lot of airtime, and their scrutiny perhaps isn’t as stringent as it is for others.
‘That may be, because, actually, they’re just a parliamentary party of five people, so they can’t actually affect change, but they are, as you say, really, really high in the polls, and they’re climbing in the polls, so there has to be that scrutiny, because you’re right.
‘Am I going to be deported under a Reform government, even though I was born here and hold a British passport? What are those questions, and how does that actually impact someone like me who is a Conservative and a patriot?
‘So when I hear Keir Starmer, you know, wrapping himself in the flag, does that include people like me who has made a contribution and whose family has made a contribution.’
Kate Garraway then chimed in to ask Dr Amir Khan about whether he experiences a ‘sense of division and fear’ at his surgery or where he lives.
‘I certainly work in a very mixed community, and I do see it. I drive into work, we see the flags. The flags themselves obviously don’t represent division. They represent the country, but the intent behind them might be very different, and sometimes that can make me feel uneasy,’ the doctor replied.
‘Within my community and where I work, I see huge swathes of people from different backgrounds, and what I actually see on ground level, I’ll be honest with you, is community.
‘Nobody’s ever come up to me and talked about division or made me feel unwelcome. I’ve got to say that, even though sometimes when I see the videos online, that can make me feel unwelcome and at risk, but I think this idea of getting back to the community, working together is so important.’
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.
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