May 26, 2017 4.48 pm This story is over 82 months old

UKIP leader in Grimsby: Paul Nuttall slams ‘libby-dibby’ metropolitan elite and rejects racism tag

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has dismissed calls of racism against him and his party by what he terms the “metropolitan, right-on politically correct elite”, while suggesting unemployed young people living in cities could end up working in the fields of Lincolnshire in the future. Nuttall visited the Port of Grimsby on May 26 to support…
UKIP leader Paul Nuttall. Photo: Steve Smailes for Lincolnshire Reporter

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has dismissed calls of racism against him and his party by what he terms the “metropolitan, right-on politically correct elite”, while suggesting unemployed young people living in cities could end up working in the fields of Lincolnshire in the future.

Nuttall visited the Port of Grimsby on May 26 to support the party’s candidate Mike Hookem when he made the comments, asking the Lincolnshire Reporter journalist whether he wanted to see young people out of work sat home playing on their Xbox.

Take a look at Nuttall’s interview, with his views on NHS privatisation and the Manchester suicide bombing.

Nuttall claimed that the UK was “allowing in” a city the size of Birmingham in immigrants every three years, saying it was bad for working class communities and the greenbelt.

He said: “I know it’s not libby-dibby, metropolitan or right-on or luvvie to say this, but the fact is we’re overpopulated.”

“It’s unsustainable.”

When asked whether the migrants working in the fields of Boston and Skegness were high or low skilled, the constituency Nuttall hopes to represent from June 9, the UKIP leader admitted that they were low skilled but said that there was “a special dispensation” for them provided by the party.

He said: “But do you know what? You’re a young guy. Before we had mass migration before 2004, the fruit wasn’t rotten in the fields, and neither were the vegetables because we had our own young people working there.

“You’ve got a job. But the point is, there’s 800,000 18-24 year olds who aren’t going out to work.

“If farmers need migrants, they can bring them in under our system.

“But in the future, five, six, seven years down the line why not get our own young people out to work?

“What would you prefer they do? Sit at home and play on their Xbox all day?”

Paul Nuttall. Photo: Steve Smailes for Lincolnshire Reporter

Nuttall was most vocal when asked to defend himself and his party against those who accused him of racism.

He said: “Why would they say that?

“Who is saying it? The Guardian, The Independent, the metropolitan right-on politically correct elite.”