Nigel Farage today hit out at a ‘cover-up’ after two Afghan asylum seekers were charged in connection with the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.
The Reform UK leader said it was ‘absolutely disgraceful’ that information about the men’s background was not revealed to the public.
It came after George Finch, 19, the Reform leader of Warwickshire County Council, said he had been ‘begging’ for details about the immigration status of the alleged offenders in Nuneaton to be released.
Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was arrested on July 26 and charged the next day with rape, according to Warwickshire Police.
He appeared at Coventry Magistrates’ Court last Monday and has been remanded in custody.
Mohammad Kabir, 23, was arrested in Nuneaton on Thursday and charged with kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting rape of a girl under 13, the force added.
Warwickshire Police did not deny that Mulakhil and Kabir are asylum seekers, as was revealed by The Mail On Sunday.
The force said that once someone is charged with an offence, they follow national guidance which ‘does not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status’.
But speaking at a press conference in central London this morning Mr Farage said the immigration status of those who are charged with alleged offences should be routinely released.
Mr Farage denied that releasing the names, addresses and immigration status of those charged with offences risked unrest on Britain’s streets.
He claimed that last summer’s riots in the wake of the Southport murders was caused by the public not immediately being told the status of the attacker.
Mr Farage said this ‘led to crazy conspiracy theories spreading online’.
At the beginning of the press conference, he said he wanted to discuss a ‘cover-up that in many ways is reminiscent of what happened after the Southport killings last year’.
He later added: ‘It is not… in any way at all a contempt of court for the British public to know the identity of those who allegedly have committed serious crimes.
‘I felt that in the wake of the Southport attacks, and I feel that ever more strongly today.’
Mr Farage also demanded that those who enter the UK illegally should not be ‘free to roam the streets’ and ‘should be detained ahead of them being deported’.
Nigel Farage hit out at a ‘cover-up’ after two Afghan asylum seekers were charged in connection with the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton
George Finch, 19, the Reform leader of Warwickshire County Council, said he had been ‘begging’ for information about the immigration status of alleged offenders in Nuneaton to be released
CCTV image that appears to show someone who resembles the man who has been charged
Mr Finch told the press conference about his efforts last week to demand the ‘immediate release of the immigration status of the two men’ charged in relation to the Nuneaton incident.
‘I was begging for this to be released; screaming, phoning, asking it to be released,’ he said.
He added that he had emailed Warwickshire County Council’s chief executive to say that he wished to speak to the police to urge them to release information about the pair’s immigration status.
Mr Finch also said he later had written a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and the chief constable of Warwickshire Police, which called for the immediate release of the immigration status of the two men.
He added he would be working to ‘fight against’ houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) that are housing ‘illegal immigrants’.
The 19-year-old politician claimed he had been told he could not release information about the men’s background himself ‘due to this phrase ‘community cohesion”.
In a message to his fellow Reform councillors across England, Mr Finch said they were ‘the last line of defence against ‘the blob’, the cover-ups of the councils, and we have to fight every step of the way against this ‘blob”.
In his letter to Ms Cooper, published on X on Sunday, Mr Finch claimed a ‘cover-up’ of immigration status ‘risks public disorder breaking out on the streets of Warwickshire’.
‘Having my ear to the ground locally, it is clear that there is much appetite for protests to take place across the county,’ the letter added.
Mr Farage said it was ‘absolutely disgraceful’ that Mr Finch had, he claimed, effectively been told that ‘the public do not deserve to know the truth’.
The Reform leader said police should ‘absolutely’ be obliged to publish the immigration status of those who have been arrested and charged, adding: ‘I think particularly given there’s a pretty febrile atmosphere around these areas.’
Mr Farage denied that doing so risked inflaming community tensions and sparking unrest on Britain’s streets.
He pointed to a conclusion by Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, that police should have been able to give more information to the media about the suspected attacker in the aftermath of the Southport murders.
Mr Farage said: ‘We might not like the truth… but to have masses of speculation as to what might have happened makes things, I think, far worse than they otherwise would be.’
Mr Farage said police should ‘absolutely’ be obliged to publish the immigration status of those who have been arrested and charged
Mr Finch, 19, told the press conference about his efforts last week to demand the ‘immediate release of the immigration status of the two men’ charged in relation to the Nuneaton incident
Last summer’s outbreak of violence across UK towns and cities followed false rumours spread online that the Southport suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat.
Hotels housing asylum seekers were among the targets which saw protests and disorder.
There have also been demonstrations outside hotels housing asylum seekers this summer, including multiple protests in Epping.
Reiterating his party’s hardline stance on the Channel migrant crisis, Mr Farage said those asylum seekers who came to Britain on small boats, and are now being housed in hotels, should be deported.
He added this should be regardless of whether their home countries are deemed ‘unsafe’, insisting that Britain should not be told it ‘can’t send people to certain countries’.
Mr Farage said: ‘None of these young, unidentified males that are coming into this country should be free to roam the streets.
‘They should be detained ahead of them being deported. That is absolutely what we stand for as a party. And we mean it.
‘We’ll do that to protect the British people. We have simply had enough.’
Asked if police should release the ethnicity of people charged with offences, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the police and courts were operationally independent but the principle was to be ‘as transparent as possible’.
He said: ‘We’ve always said and continue to say that transparency is important.
‘That is our position. For police up to central government, we should always be as transparent as possible when it comes to cases.’
He added: ‘This is clearly a deeply upsetting and distressing case which the public are right to feel shocked and angry about. In relation to this case, the individuals have been charged and we are now in a live investigation.’
Mr Farage spoke as he welomed Rupert Matthews, the police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland, to Reform’s ranks following his defection from the Tories
Mr Farage spoke this morning as he welomed Rupert Matthews, the police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland, to Reform.
Mr Matthews has defected from the Tories to join Mr Farage’s party.
He has been a police and crime commissioner since 2021, and served as an MEP for the East Midlands for the Conservatives between 2017 and 2019.
Mr Matthews told the event at the Reform headquarters in Westminster he had been a Tory member for more than 40 years.
He was quick to turn his fire on modern crime policy, where he said police officers were all too often working with ‘one hand tied behind their back’.
He said: ‘I daily face a fight against crime. I see ordinary, hard-working people burgled, robbed and mugged.
‘Shoplifting is getting out of control. Anti-social behaviour is turning too many of our town centres into an apocalyptic wasteland of lawless Britain.’
Mr Matthews said the ‘dark heart of wokeness’ needed to be removed from the criminal justice system.
At the weekend, Warwickshire Police said two men were charged in connection with the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.
Mulakhil and Kabir will both appear at Warwick Crown Court on August 26.
Officers are appealing to anyone who was in the Cheveral Street area between 8.30pm and 9.45pm on July 22 and may have seen anything of interest to come forward by calling 101 and quoting incident number 418 of July 22.
Warwickshire Police said: ‘Our neighbourhood officers work every day with local community partners.
‘When something significant happens, we brief these partners and local elected officials on the circumstances of the crime, the investigation, the work being undertaken to arrest those responsible and how local people and partners can help a concerned community.
‘Where relevant, sensitive information around locations, details of the crime and policing activity to catch offenders can be shared, with a warning that this is sensitive or confidential information and disclosure by those being briefed could affect future court hearings.
‘We work to hold offenders to account and will always do everything in our power to present a robust case to the courts and protect the integrity of court proceedings.
‘Once someone is charged with an offence, we follow national guidance. This guidance does not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status.’
