Nigel Farage has been hit with criticism by politicians and public figures, including the leader of Manchester City Council, over his recent comments surrounding ethnicity in the UK.
He claimed the new 2021 census data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that London, Manchester and Birmingham are all minority white cities.
Leader of the Manchester City Council, Bev Craig highly criticised Farage, suggesting that he is a “massive racist”.
Farage, former UKIP leader, said in his rant on Twitter there is a “massive change taking place in this country through immigration”.
Savid Javid, who served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019, simply replied: “So what?”
The ONS found the number of people identifying as white British in the capital has decreased from 44.9% in 2011 (3.7 million) to 26.8% (3.2 million) in 2021.
In Manchester, 48.7% now identify as white British, compared to 59.3% a decade ago.
In Birmingham, the white British population did drop from 52% in 2011 (581,000) to 43% in 2021 (491,000),
Mick Lynch, a British trade unionist, also criticised Farage, labelling him a ‘right wing bigot’.
Sunder Katwala, director of the think tank British Future, tweeted: “Farage is wrong about this – on his facts.
“He is conflating ‘white’ and ‘white British’ to say ‘minority white’ for cities with a white majority.
“London is 53-54% white in the 2021 census, but 37% white British.”
Jonathan Portes, a professor of economics at King’s College London, broke down the figures further saying that a minority (46%) of London’s population identify as non-white.
Main image by Gage Skidmore
