UKIP Says Anti-Extremism Manifesto is ‘Similar’ to Trump Policies

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 21: Delegates listen to a speaker …
Christopher Furlong/Getty
Liam Deacon

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) have launched a new interim manifesto, taking a hard line against radical Islamic terrorism, which they say has “similarities” with the policies of U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

The manifesto also proposes housing radical Islamists in separate prisons to stop them spreading extremism, and introducing special security screening for immigrants from some terror-linked states.

One paragraph states: “UKIP will end mass uncontrolled immigration, and under a security-based screening policy we restrict any limited migration from Islamic countries to those people we can be sure, as far as possible, do not follow a literalist and extremist interpretation of Islam.”

Questioned on if the policy emulated those of President Trump, a UKIP spokesman said it was “entirely homegrown” and would apply to countries such as Iran.

But he told Sky News: “Although there are similarities, there has been no conscious aping of the president of America’s policies.”

Like President Trump, UKIP denies the policy represented a “Muslim ban,” with the spokesman insisting this is “clear from the wording”.

Elements of Britain’s mainstream media have characterised the new manifesto as a “lurch” to the right for UKIP.

The document also says “UKIP will legislate to ban the overseas funding of mosques and imams,” something past leader Paul Nuttall promised to do, but did not include in the 2017 manifesto because there was insufficient time to research the policy.

The new, more hard-line manifesto also proposes extra protections for free speech, rolling back “hate crime” laws that police speech, and scrapping some “equalities” legislation that allows the BBC and other organisations to openly discriminate against white people.

It takes a strong like on grooming gangs, too. It reads: “The systematic and industrialised sexual abuse of under-age and vulnerable young people is one of the greatest social scandals in English history.

“A scandal not just because it happened but because the responsible authorities swept it under the carpet for decades.”

Adding: “It is now accepted that one of the key factors that drove the cover up of this phenomenon was adherence by the authorities to political correctness and the fear of identifying the vast majority of the perpetrators as Muslims.”

Like past manifestos, the document also advocates the abolition of postal voting, dissolving the House of Lords, and introducing a first-past-the-post electoral system to give smaller political parties fair representation in parliament.

It also proposes reforming “the Westminster Parliament to adopt a system whereby only MPs representing English constituencies would vote on laws exclusively affecting England.”

UKIP Leader Gerard Batten commented: “Today we release our new Interim Manifesto, Policies for the People. This manifesto builds on UKIP policy of the past and introduces some new ones.

“These policies are aimed at helping the people who form the backbone of Britain: ordinary workers and taxpayers, the unemployed who would like to work, and small and medium-sized business owners.”

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.