Nigel Farage mocks Boris Johnson over aide who made comments on eugenics and race
Nigel Farage has accused the government Conservative Party of being home to “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists” – an insult famously levelled against Ukip while he was leader.
The Brexit Party leader tweeted the phrase, which was used by David Cameron, in the wake of a controversial government adviser’s resignation.
Farage asked if the Tories were now the “fruitcakes” party after Andrew Sabisky quit as a No 10 adviser when a catalogue of comments about race, eugenics and Islam purportedly posted him online were unearthed.
Sabisky was hired to government after Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings called for “weirdos and misfits” to apply for roles helping No 10 shape policy.
Who are the “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists” now? https://t.co/tGkaMwE8OA
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) February 18, 2020
The former Vote Leave campaign boss said he hoped to bring in people with “genuine cognitive diversity” and stay away from civil servants with humanities degrees from Oxbridge.
The hiring of Sabisky created a storm over the weekend, after it emerged he made comments about giving children the drug modafinil even if it meant “one dead kid a year”, “very real racial differences in intelligence” and a suggestion that Western nations would have to adopt Northern Ireland-style community power sharing with Muslims.
The PM faced a barrage of criticism after failing to distance himself from Sabisky’s views.
He also advocated enforcing contraception to avoid a “permanent underclass”.
On Monday, Sabisky posted to Twitter: “The media hysteria about my old stuff online is mad but I wanted to help HMG not be a distraction.
“Accordingly I’ve decided to resign as a contractor.
“I hope Number 10 hires more people with good geopolitical forecasting track records and that media learn to stop selective quoting.”
“I know this will disappoint a lot of ppl but I signed up to do real work, not be in the middle of a giant character assassination: if I can’t do the work properly there’s no point, and I have a lot of other things to do with my life.”