Update: Farage drops call for all Syrian refugees, says Christians only. Hat tip: Joanne
Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, has riled his followers by declaring it’s time to bring in the Syrian refugees. Yesterday we reported how the Syrian flow into Turkey was destabilizing that government, now the UK political party whose followers joined largely because it had declared that England was “full-up” has been shaken to its core by Farage’s declaration.
Here is a bit of the Daily Mail on the story that fills my Syrian alerts today:
Nigel Farage faced a backlash from his own supporters last night after calling for Britain to admit refugees from the civil war in Syria.
Supporters of the UK Independence Party denounced their leader after Mr Farage used an interview with the BBC yesterday to call for Britain to allow those fleeing Syria to come to the UK.
He said refugees fleeing from conflicts were ‘a very different thing’ from economic migrants.
But he was attacked online by UKIP supporters – who said the country was already ‘full up’ and warned they would no longer vote for UKIP unless he changes his mind.
Mr Farage’s policy goes further than the Coalition, which has limited its help to financial support for countries taking in refugees.
The Daily Mail has a list of on-line critics of Farage and what they said about this new position.
And, here we go again, a “conservative,” knees knocking, fearing being labeled a racist:
He did not put a figure on how many of the nine million Syrians displaced by war who should be allowed into the UK, but Labour has said Britain should accept up to 500.
Mr Farage’s intervention appeared to be an attempt to show voters that UKIP is not opposed to all immigration following months of accusations from political rivals that the party is racist.
[….]
Former shadow minister David Davis said: ‘It’s about Mr Farage trying to reposition his party so that the anti-immigration argument, which is so important to them, is not seen as a barbaric argument, so from that point of view there is a bit of political positioning going on.
“The solution is not taking a few hundred people to make us feel happier.”
My sentiments exactly! And, if the US takes 2,000 Syrians it will be for the same reason!
The Daily Mail wraps up with this:
Fellow Conservative Andrew Brigden branded Mr Farage’s comments ‘political tokenism’.
‘These are Syrian people who want to live in Syria. The solution is not taking a few hundred people to make us feel happier,’ he said. ‘What we need is a politically-negotiated solution to this problem.’
Hear! Hear!