WATCH: Bill Rammell claims Reform UK are 'far right'

GB News

Former Labour MP Bill Rammell has sparked a fierce free speech row on-air row after labelling commentator Adam Brooks "far right".The pair came to blows as last night's GB News panel discussed Donald Trump's intervention in Britain's free speech crackdown.FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00Where does this leave Sir Keir Starmer? Why would Trump intervene like this, do you think?

00:03And what would the Prime Minister be thinking tonight, having read this front page?

00:06Firstly, let me say I'm a very strong proponent of free speech.

00:10You know, as Higher Education Minister, I defended the right of the Oxford Union to invite Nick Griffin from the BNP.

00:15So I believe in free and open debate.

00:18I also, with respect to Lucy Connolly, I do feel the sentence was disproportionate.

00:23But we have an independent judiciary in this country.

00:26They've reviewed it and stuck with the decision.

00:28But the idea that Donald Trump is a protector of free speech.

00:34Please look at what is happening in the United States, where he's banning journalists from the White House because they criticise him.

00:41Where legitimate green cardholders are being expelled from the country because they protested over Gaza.

00:49Where an academic with a visa turns up at the border and he's turned away because he's made comments critical online of Donald Trump.

00:56Donald Trump supports free speech when it's on his terms, but not if it's not.

01:01I'd like to address those points.

01:02So banning journalists from the White House press briefing isn't constraining free speech.

01:06It's like blocking somebody on Twitter.

01:08You can block them on Twitter.

01:09You can say what you want.

01:10You're just not invited to the press briefing.

01:12Don't say what you want.

01:12I'm sorry, if this government was banning news outlets from the Downing Street lobby, it would rightly be criticised and castigated.

01:19But that's what Trump is doing.

01:21You know, he only invites journalists.

01:24Why is he intervening now?

01:24I know you don't like Donald Trump.

01:25Why is he intervening with the UK, do you think?

01:27Well, one, he shouldn't be.

01:31This is a State Department statement saying they're monitoring the situation.

01:35I think they've had pressure from some of the far-right activists who are supporting this.

01:40Such as Charlie Kirk.

01:42Yeah.

01:42He's not far-right, by the way.

01:43I would say he's not far-right.

01:44All right, but others.

01:46And therefore, they're putting out a holding statement saying we're monitoring the situation.

01:49What makes far-right?

01:49Bill, am I far-right?

01:51Yeah.

01:51Oh, you're absolutely bonkers.

01:54No, no, I'm not.

01:55I'm far-right?

01:56Yeah, if you look at any classical...

01:57What makes me far-right, Bill?

01:58If you look in any classical political terms, the views you espouse, Adam, are far-right.

02:03You've just lost any credibility you ever had with the viewers.

02:06I'm far-right.

02:07Bill, I thank you.

02:08And this is what the Labour Party...

02:09Every week, you claim that you're a sage of public opinion with your finger on the polls.

02:14Because a few people come into your pub.

02:16Bill, you are deluded.

02:18You are utterly deluded.

02:19No, I think you're the one who's deluded.

02:20The audience are probably screaming at the telly right now.

02:23Bill, the reason why the Labour Party are absolutely tanking in the polls at the moment,

02:27because they have this vision that you have,

02:29that the bell curve of opinion is completely out of whack with reality.

02:33They think that if you care about immigration and you want to stop the votes

02:36and you want to bring down both legal and illegal migration,

02:39that makes you far-right.

02:40When actually, it probably puts you in the middle of the bell curve.

02:42Absolutely not true.

02:44Why am I far-right?

02:45Hold on, Adam.

02:46You keep interrupting, please.

02:47Stop, stop, stop.

02:48Why am I far-right?

02:48Stop.

02:49We can conduct this debate without raising voices and getting shouts here, OK?

02:52I've just been looking for being far-right.

02:54No, no, let's have it out.

02:55So tell me why I'm far-right, Bill.

02:57I agree.

02:58Let's have it out on a sensible level, though.

03:00Chloe, you have just said that the Labour Party is not committed to reducing immigration.

03:05That's not what I said.

03:06You get that.

03:07No, I said that the Labour Party think that...

03:10We had an explicit manifesto commitment to reduce immigration.

03:12The government wants to reduce immigration.

03:15I don't think that they genuinely want to make a concerted effort to do so.

03:18They are starting to wake up to the fact that this nation cares about immigration.

03:22But I think many people in the Labour Party still think that people...

03:26Right, the fact that you've had Labour MPs calling Keir Starmer out and calling him Enoch

03:31Powell for addressing concerns about immigration...

03:34A handful of MPs have done that.

03:35...goes to show that there is an issue with people in the Labour Party having a completely

03:40twisted idea of what makes you far-right and what makes you normal.

03:43There have always been a handful of Labour MPs, Labour activists, who will criticise the

03:49language of the Prime Minister about immigration or the policies to reduce immigration.

03:53Bill, can I say...

03:53But the party is committed to it.

03:55Can I say, when you call people like Adam Brooks far-right...

03:57I mean, far-right are people who have been recently nixed by the NCA for plotting to

04:02blow up mosques and so on with Molotovs or whatever.

04:04Those people are far-right.

04:06Name one of the things I've seen that's far-right.

04:08Having concerns about migration, name something that Adam has done that's far-right, please.

04:13Oh, there's all sorts of things that you...

04:14OK, so the other week, you quoted a statistic saying that 70% of the crimes that are committed

04:21in this country are committed by illegal immigrants.

04:24I didn't say that.

04:24Completely untrue.

04:25That is an absolute lie.

04:26Then go back to the coverage and observe it.

04:28That is an absolute lie.

04:29I've corrected you three or four times and made you look silly on this programme with facts.

04:33Well, likewise.

04:34Right?

04:34So...

04:35I've never said 70% of the crimes.

04:36So what proportion did you say?

04:38I didn't say that, Bill.

04:40Bill, what...

04:41Was it the story about sex offenders, illegal migrants are three and a half times more...

04:47Yeah.

04:48I quoted The Telegraph or something like that.

04:50Are they far-right?

04:51Is reform far-right, Bill?

04:52Yes.

04:53Oh, you're mad.

04:54You're absolutely mad.

04:55So, and your distinction...

04:57There's a distinction between extreme rights and far-right on any classical definition of

05:04the political spectrum, Adam...

05:06So, Bill...

05:06You know, I respect your views, but I disagree with them.

05:08Bill...

05:08But in classical terms, you're on the far-right.

05:10You've just labelled tens of millions of people in this country as far-right if you think

05:13I'm far-right.

05:14So, Bill, the latest poll of polls has reform on 30%.

05:17Are you saying that 30% of the country are far-right?

05:20No.

05:20No, because...

05:21Look, we have a fractured political system at the moment, and you keep talking about reform

05:25surging.

05:26Actually, you know, what the local elections demonstrate and what the polls demonstrate...

05:31No, they don't.

05:32Go back to 1981, and the SDP were at 51% of the polls.

05:36This is not surging.

05:37It's a system that is fracturing.

05:40All right, Bill, can I just clarify?

05:41So, you think Reform UK are far-right, but the millions of people who voted for them

05:45are not?

05:46Absolutely, because people were voting in protest.

05:50It was a protest vote.

05:52And look at the detailed polling evidence from More In Common, where they interviewed people

05:57who'd voted for reform, and their key message for voting reform was, we want to send a message

06:01to the government.

06:02Bill.

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