The horrific sight of an immigrant trying to behead a man on a Belfast street will increase the already heightened hostility in Britain towards foreigners, likely strengthening the Reform UK political party, which has risen in popularity in a remarkably similar way to One Nation.
Northern Irish police said the attacker, who was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, was “believed to be Somalian” but later confirmed as Sudanese. He was granted refugee status in 2023 after travelling from Sudan to Paris, then to Dublin and by bus to Belfast, according to the Government.
A video shows the attacker straddling his bloodied victim, waving to bystanders and moving a knife across the victim’s throat in a sawing motion on Monday evening. Three men confront the immigrant, including one who strikes the man’s head with a wooden stick used in the sport of hurling.
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Two police officers then rush in to rescue the victim, who survived but is reported to have been blinded and suffered significant injuries to his face, neck and back. Police said he was in his 40s but did not identify him or explain how the violence began.
As the footage circulated widely on social media, a riot broke out in Belfast Tuesday outside immigrants’ homes. Nigel Farage, the leader of the anti-immigration Reform party, reposted a colleague’s social media post reminding voters the party had already promised a ban on visas for anyone from Sudan, a policy condemned at the time as racist.
“The horror of what you have seen in Belfast is a direct result of treacherous Tory and Labour immigration policy,” the post said.
Man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after ‘brutal’ knife attack in Belfast Credit: Supplied/Supplied
The attack is likely to add to anti-immigration sentiment in Britain, which has already made Reform the most popular party only seven years after being founded by Mr Farage, a Pauline Hanson-type politician and former member of the Conservative Party.
‘Liberating’ homes
Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted a list of 70 protests planned for Tuesday evening across Britain. In a Protestant area of Belfast, cars and a bus were set alight and houses attacked with bricks. One media report said a house was stormed by men who said they were “liberating” it. Graffiti demanded “local homes for local people”.
Like Australia, immigration is a driving force in British politics. Although the net immigration has fallen from 944,000 in 2023 to about 171,000 in last year, Britain’s 6.5 per cent Muslim population has been the focus of racial tension..
Northern Ireland has a much smaller Muslim population, at 0.6 per cent in 2021. But some asylum seekers consider it an easy route into Britain because of the lightly guarded land border with the Republic of Ireland, which remains a part of the European Union.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who polls show 50 per cent of Britons want to resign, endorsed comments by his Minister for Northern Ireland that the post-attack riots were “thuggery” that risked innocent lives.
The Belfast attack came a little after a week when a Sikh man, Vickrum Digwa, was jailed for fatally stabbing 18-year-old accounting student Henry Nowak. Digwa claimed he was racially abused and acted in self defence.
A decision by police officers to initially accept the false story, and handcuff Mr Nowak as he died from stab wounds, triggered an outpouring of anger towards what many people feel are police policies designed to protect minority groups at the expense of fighting crime.
Mr Farage said the initial police response was an example of “anti-white prejudice”. The young man’s family said he was treated by police in a “inhumane and degrading” way.
Many agreed, including hundreds who protested outside the Southampton Police Station, where the police officers were based. Eleven officers were injured when the protest turned violent.
Backlash
The response to the deaths represents a backlash against the Black Lives Matter movement that swept the Western World after police killed American George Floyd in 2020.
On Tuesday the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, who is black, said her party believed in “universalism”, which means every person must be treated as an individual and not a member of a group.
“Differences in outcome are not proof of discrimination,” she said. “Just because men and women, or the young and old, have differences doesn’t mean these are problems of ageism or sexism.
“If you diagnose everything as racism or sexism or ageism, you won’t solve the underlying issue.”
Even before the latest violence, Britons were deeply concerned about immigration. A February poll by the Gallup group ranked Britain above every other country surveyed in citing immigration as the top national problem. Just over one in five people said immigration was their top concern, statistically equal with the economy.
In Australia, immigration is tied with crime in fourth position after inflation, housing and the economy, according to a monthly survey by Ipsos, a polling firm. But immigration’s political impact is greater because of its contribution to the housing shortage.
As One Nation’s popularity has risen, the Labor Albanese government has become more willing to discuss immigration, which has fallen since the post-pandemic surge but is outpacing the building of houses and apartments.
Asked on ABC radio today if it is racist “to say too many people are coming to Australia,” Anthony Albanese said: ”No, it’s not racist to have a discussion about migration.”
