Nigel Farage's specious speculation on Fairford five

In the immediate aftermath of five men being arrested on suspicion of terror offences near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire at the weekend, Reform leader Nigel Farage ignored the pleas of police for politicians not to engage in conjecture to do just that.

Taking to, inevitably, X, Farage posted a video of himself having apparently investigated and concluding definitively that the men – now released on police bail – were Iranians.

Suggested Reading

No, the Foreign Office is not funding abortions in Afghanistan

Rats in a Sack

“The attempted terrorist attack at Fairford may come as a surprise to many people, but not to the US president, who made it very, very clear these people had been looked at for a long time, and certainly not to me,” he said.

“I know that over the course of the last few months counterterrorism have launched a massive investigation into Iranian nationals living in this country, worried that something like the Fairford plot would come along.

“I have warned repeatedly over years that the IRGC should be a proscribed organisation. Over the course of this year I had intelligence that told me that the Iranian regime was using the boats crossing the Channel to get their operatives into Britain. That literally we were allowing people to come in that may very well end up killing many of our own people.

Suggested Reading

Castrate all male asylum seekers, says GB News guest

Rats in a Sack

“I’ve made these pleas again and again and again for there to be a national emergency. But nothing like that’s happened and frankly I think Fairford will become the wake-up call for all of us.”

Now the police have announced that the five men are all UK nationals from London, which not only makes them not Iranian nationals, it also means it is exceptionally unlikely they entered Britain on a small boat. Farage has yet to say anything more, and the since-discredited video remains atop his X account.