Nigel Farage has taken aim at Michael Gove following the announcement the Levelling Up Secretary is poised to appoint a new anti-Muslim hatred tsar next week.
The GB News presenter took to X to issue a withering response to the news. Striking a sarcastic tone, he addressed his post directly to Mr Gove, asking: “When are we getting a new advisor on anti-British hatred? Thanks.”
GB News revealed earlier on March 8 that the 56-year-old Tory veteran is expected to announce the Government’s new anti-Muslim hatred chief next week, with Fiyaz Mughal the favourite.
Mr Mughal has been lauded for his work founding Faith Matters and Tell Mama – two groups set up to combat anti-Muslim discrimination.
The announcement of a new anti-Muslim hatred boss comes after Tell Mama’s announcement that it has received the highest number of reports of Islamophobia since it was founded in 2011.
Mr Mughal endorsed the findings of the Shawcross Report, which assessed the Government’s Prevent programme. He criticised ministers for not stopping money being “channelled through prevent to tackle extremism, being squandered on people that actually maintain the status quo”.
In 2022, he told the Express: “We should give hope instead of hate, and courage where there is fear. That is what we ask from our politicians.”
As well as rising anti-Muslim hatred, antisemitism has also seen a sharp increase since the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas.
Express.co.uk reported in February that Jewish Londoners believe areas of the city are now a “no-go zone” on Saturdays, during the pro-Palestine protests.
One woman, Natalie (not her real name) who lives five minutes walk from Hyde Park, where the pro-Palestinian marches often start, said that she does not want her or any of her four children to be identifiable as Jewish in public.
“I feel that I don’t want to be obviously Jewish [in public], I don’t want our children to be obviously Jewish [in public] because I think we would face abuse”, she said. “I’ve seen enough of it happening in nice local areas.”
She added that the “oppressive” and “frightening” protests have “changed the way we live”.
“We try and time things for when things [the protests] are finished,” she said. “And I certainly wouldn’t want to come out of a synagogue, crossing the march. I wouldn’t want to be wearing anything that identified myself as Jewish.”
