Nigel Farage tells US audience Oldham has streets that are split on racial lines

Nigel Farage has been criticised after he claimed Oldham has streets that are split on racial lines.

The leader of the newly formed Brexit Party was addressing an audience of students at a US university when he made his controversial comments.

He described Oldham as a “divided society” to young libertarians at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania.

He told the Young America’s Foundation: “I could take you to a town called Oldham in the north of England where literally on one side of the street everybody is white and on the other side of the street everybody is black.

“The twain never actually meet, there is no assimilation.

“Whole streets in Oldham of people who have lived in my country for over 30 years who don’t speak a word of the English language.

“These, folks, are divided societies in which resentments build and grow.”

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Mr Farage, 55, failed to unseat Labour at a by-election in Oldham West & Royton in 2015 when representing Ukip.

But Sean Fielding, the Labour leader of Oldham council, countered by saying: “I’m not familiar with any visits that Nigel Farage has made to Oldham since he came during the 2015 by-election, so I have no idea what streets he has walked down and what experiences he bases them on, because by all accounts, when he came to Oldham all he did was go to the pub.”

Mr Fielding told The Guardian: “Let’s face it, this is the latest in a string of desperate cries for relevance from a second-rate shock jock.”

He said some parts of the town were dominated by certain ethnic minority groups. However, he added: “That has been the nature of any wave of immigration in Britain, where communities tend to live together, so I don’t think that’s unique to Oldham.

“It doesn’t mean that those communities don’t mix.”