UK Politics

The Conservative leadership candidate Priti Patel has criticised Nigel Farage’s response to the far-right riots, saying it was wrong to compare the violence to Black Lives Matter protests.

The former home secretary has also written to the prime minister and home secretary, urging them to recall parliament, drawing parallels with the 2011 riots when MPs returned for a government statement on civil disorder and to condemn the violence.

Farage condemned the violence against police officers in a statement posted on X on Monday morning but the Reform UK leader said “deeper long-term problems remain”. He also called for the recall of parliament and said the government should consider deploying the army.

He added: “Ever since the soft policing of the Black Lives Matter protests, the impression of two-tier policing has become widespread. The prime minister’s faltering attempts to address the current crisis have only added to that sense of injustice.”

Patel said Farage’s comments were deeply misleading and “simply not relevant right now”. She told Times Radio: “There’s a clear difference between effectively blocking streets or roads being closed to burning down libraries, hotels, food banks and attacking places of worship. What we have seen is thuggery, violence, racism.