We’re a week into I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and so far, we’ve seen two celebrities attempt to question former UKIP leader Nigel Farage on his controversial politics. The outcome? Much of nothing. In fact, worryingly, some of the viewing public appear to be warming to Farage’s far-right political views.
It was his intention going into the jungle to ‘reach a whole new audience’, Farage said in a recent episode, noting that he wanted to be nominated for tasks so he would get 25 per cent of the airtime. While he’s only been nominated for one task so far, he will seemingly also be aware that the more polarizing conversations he has in camp, the more airtime he will get.
Painfully, his ability to reel off statistics and speak eloquently about his views is gaining him some favour with the viewing public – notably because the campmates that attempt to oppose him are markedly less experienced debating politics compared to him, and thus he can often appear like the level-headed winner of the debate. While those opposing him are certainly passionate about their views, much of their politics comes from their lived experience or personal views that they can’t articulate with the same statistics or policy examples that Farage can.
So, if we’re going to be forced to uncomfortably watch him churn out controversial takes, we might as well fact-check him in the process. Here’s every claim he’s made on I’m A Celebrity so far, fact-checked…
Farage's Brexit campaigning wasn’t about ‘demonising migrants’
In the first episode of I’m A Celebrity, Fred Sirieix dived straight into political chat with Farage, asking him ‘What’s the benefit of Brexit then? If you are an average person from Britain, what’s the benefit?’ To which Farage replied, ‘To know that we’re independent, we stand on our own two feet in the world.’
When Fred then said he felt it was more about demonising migrants, recalling the 2016 image of Farage pointing to a poster of people queuing to cross the Slovenia-Croatia border with the words ‘Breaking point’ over it. Ukip posted the picture on their social media with the caption ‘Leave the European Union…We must break free of the EU and take back control of our borders.’ It was reported to the police with a complaint that it incited racial hatred and breached UK race laws.
Experts noted that most of the people queuing were likely be refugees fleeing war and persecution, a point Farage denied. At the time, the Brexit campaign poster caused outrage, with some accusing Ukip of inciting racial hatred – which they also denied. Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: ‘Using the innocent victims of a human tragedy for political propaganda is utterly disgusting. Farage is engaging in the politics of the gutter.’ Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader at the time, also said the poster was disgusting.
Fred clearly remembers it too, telling Nigel, ‘The thing is the intolerance that came because Brexit was about immigration, I remember your poster. I thought it was shameful what you did Nigel. Shameful.’ Farage denied that Brexit was about demonising migrants, saying ‘In your view it was, but it wasn’t.’
Of course, Nigel has said many uncomfortable things that imply he has a problem with migrants, and those from countries outside Britain coming to the UK. In 2014, as part of a speech at Ukip’s spring conference, he said:
‘In scores of our cities and market towns, this country in a short space of time has frankly become unrecognisable. Whether it is the impact on local schools and hospitals, whether it is the fact in many parts of England you don't hear English spoken any more. This is not the kind of community we want to leave to our children and grandchildren.’
When asked to justify his comments, he doubled down that people speaking foreign languages make him uncomfortable. ‘It was a stopper going out and we stopped at London Bridge, New Cross, Hither Green, it was not until we got past Grove Park that I could hear English being audibly spoken in the carriage,’ he said. ‘Does that make me feel slightly awkward? Yes, it does.’
In 2020, he was again accused of inflaming anti-migrant tensions after claiming a small group of refugees – including children - arriving on a beach in Kent by dinghy amounted to a ‘shocking invasion on the Kent Coast’.
At the time, Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, explained. ‘These are women, men and children exercising their right to seek asylum in dangerous circumstances that they more than anyone else would much rather avoid. Sadly, they remain easy targets for too many willing to exploit their distress and suffering for attention or political gain.’
Britain's immigration policy stops us getting GP appointments
In another conversation in camp, YouTuber Nella Rose confronted Nigel on his migration stance in which he denied being anti-immigration at all. ‘Anti-immigrant, right? No, no, all I've said is we cannot go on with the numbers coming to Britain that are coming,’ Farage said. When Nella asked Nigel what the problem was, he elaborated ‘Since 2000, the British population has increased by 10million,’ to which Nella responded, ‘Good thing, right?’ and Nigel replied, ‘Good thing, unless you want a GP appointment.’
So, does immigration impact waiting times for GP appointments? According to a 2018 study by researchers from University of Oxford, it’s done the opposite to what Nigel suggests.
‘Using data from 141 local authorities in England, merged with administrative information drawn from the Hospital Episode Statistics (2003-2012), we found no evidence that immigration increases waiting times in A&E and elective care,’ researchers state in the study. ‘In fact, we found that higher immigration in an area actually reduces waiting times for outpatients there. On average, [an] increase in the share of migrants living in a local authority would reduce waiting times.’
Why is this the case? The study says, because migrants tend to be young and healthy so are less likely to need healthcare, plus migrants are significantly less likely to use health services than UK-born. This research is supported by a study by University College London, which also found in November 2022 that international migrants receive fewer GP appointments than those born in the UK – in fact, their researchers were concerned migrants were not being given equal access to GP appointments.
None of that research is accounting for the many migrants that come into the UK to be a part of the healthcare workforce, by the way. In fact, 35% of NHS doctors are not British as well as 27.2% of NHS nurses – overall, 18.7% of healthcare staff in the NHS are not from Britain.
So, when Nella said the following to Nigel, ‘You're not getting an appointment because the NHS is lacking funding. I bet you anything if every single immigrant or from immigrant descent was to leave the UK, all your doctors gone, most of your doctors are Asian right? Most of your nurses are African women, right?’, she certainly had a point.
NHS spending is up by £500million
During another episode, Fred and Nigel also discussed the impact Brexit has had on the NHS, with the politician insisting that spending was up.
Fred said, 'One thing they said during the Brexit vote is, "We’re going to get £350 million a week that we can redirect to the NHS and build new hospitals and free care and all that." Never happened.'
'Spending is up, Fred, by £500million,' Nigel replied.
An NHS Board Meeting paper titled '2023/24 financial position and the future financial outlook' offers an explanation for why the Government provided an additional £500million last year - and it was COVID related.
The report read, 'The number of patients in hospital for more than a week is around 7,000 higher than it was before the pandemic, largely because of difficulties in discharging patients from hospital, leading to increased length of stay and associated problems in urgent and emergency care and ambulance services, as well as reduced capacity for inpatient elective care. The Government is providing an additional £500m for this winter to support discharge and social care to improve this position.'
Elsewhere, a report published in April by openDemocracy suggested that the government handed half a million pounds to private healthcare companies to ease the NHS backlog, but it still struggled to treat any more patients than it was.
Per Fred's comment about new hospitals, a GOV.uk report states this is in progress.
'The government is on track to deliver the manifesto commitment to build 40 new hospitals in England by 2030.'