Dame Priti Patel has taken a swipe at Nigel Farage after the Reform UK compared recent riots to Black Lives Matter protests.
Patel, who has described Farage as a “friend”, put pressure on the Clacton MP by rejecting his claim about “two-tier policing”.
Farage said: “Ever since the soft policing of the Black Lives Matter protests, the impression of two-tier policing has become widespread.
‘Stark difference!’ Priti Patel takes swipe at Nigel Farage’s ‘irrelevant’ comments on ‘appalling’ riotsPA“The Prime Minister's faltering attempts to address the current crisis have only added to that sense of injustice.”
Despite also putting pressure on the Prime Minister to bring MPs back to the House of Commons, Patel wanted to make a clear distinction between rioters and protesters.
She told Times Radio: “I've seen the statement and the comments that he has made, particularly about the Black Lives Matter protest, which, by the way, took place during the pandemic when we had a range of restrictions around protest.
“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.
“Those kinds of comments are simply not relevant right now. That is not correct. It is not correct.
“There's a stark difference between what we've been seeing over the last week. Over the last week, we saw the most appalling stabbings in Southport.
“Horrific crimes being committed. We've seen violence and thuggery on the streets.
“What we saw during the pandemic, we saw protest. We believe in free speech. We saw protests that were being policed.
“What we're seeing right now is thuggery and disorder and criminality. There is a complete distinction between the two.”
Sunderland was one of the cities hardest hit by the riotsGettyThe former Home Secretary, who last week received the surprise endorsement of Reform UK’s former Deputy Leader Ben Habib, added: “We have to, as elected politicians, always be careful, number one in the language that we use but ensure that we are as fully informed as we can possibly be before commenting on the situation.”
Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf rejected Patel’s criticism.
He told GB News: “The Conservatives did absolutely nothing to say that our police are off limits. What we have now with Priti Patel saying all this stuff is that she is obviously complicit in the situation we are in as a country.
“She was Home Secretary. Things only got worse with illegal boat crossings, they spiked and she made it much worse. She’s trying to wash her hands of that problem but fundamentally the Tories, I’m afraid, governed in a deeply cowardly way.”
Yusuf added: “The fact that Nigel Farage and Reform UK are getting attacked by all sides is very telling.
“This uni-party, the political establishment, that is largely full of ‘Champagne Socialists’, who have never done a proper day’s work in their lives, who have no idea what hard-working British people are actually thinking, those people are terrified of the momentum and success of Reform.”
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Reform UK Chairman Zia Yusuf told GB News that Patel was trying to 'wash her hands of the problem'
GB NewsPatel’s remarks came shortly before Starmer also rejected suggestions of two-tier policing.
Speaking after his emergency Cobra meeting, the Prime Minister said: “There’s no two-tier policing. There is policing without fear or favour, exactly how it should be and exactly what I would expect and require. That is a non-issue.”
Starmer also announced a “standing army” of special officers would help deal with the riots.
However, Farage has not held back in his criticisms of Starmer, claiming that the Prime Minister “hasn't got an earthly clue” about how to deal with the situation.
Riots started last week after misinformation related to the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport, Merseyside, on July 29, circulated online.
Starmer vowed to 'ramp up criminal justice' after an emergency Cobra meeting was called in the wake of a sixth day of disorder which saw rioters storm hotels housing asylum seekers
PA
More than 420 people have been arrested since riots began last week, with unrest witnessed in Middlesbrough and Bolton.
Hundreds of thugs petrol-bombed a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham yesterday.
Balaclava-clad rioters also hurled bricks and fire extinguishers at officers who tried to stop them from torching the hotel.
Violent rioters also destroyed a children's library in Liverpool and a Citizen's Advice centre in Sunderland.
Mosques across the country have also been targeted during the six days of unrest.