A Reform UK member of the Welsh Parliament has been banned from speaking in the Senedd over comments he made acknowledging that Britons are on pace to become a minority in their own homeland as a result of mass migration.
Member of the Senedd (MS) for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party Joe Martin has been accused of spreading “discriminatory” and offensive” messages and was banned from speaking in the local home nation Welsh parliament until he apologises for his comments recognising the ethnic displacement of the native populations of Britain.
On Tuesday, Martin took to the floor of the Senedd in Cardiff and asked: “Can I have a statement from your government on the demographic replacement of white British people taking place in the UK? Because the scale of change has been breath-taking. Mass immigration and differing birth rates mean that, in just 37 years’ time, in 2063, we will be a minority in our own country.
“That change has already taken place in London, Birmingham, Leicester, Slough, Luton and Manchester, and I don’t want it to happen here,” he continued.
“Indeed, at every opportunity, the majority of the electorate have wanted less immigration so that their nation can be preserved. A nation is not an economic zone, it’s not a hotel, and neither is it a charity… It’s a family, which is capable of absorbing people of all races if done at a sensible rate, but not if it’s replaced altogether.”
This was apparently outside of the bounds of acceptable discourse for an elected official, selected by the Welsh people to represent their interests in their parlaiment, according to Presiding Officer Huw Irranca-Davies of the left-wing Labour and Co-operative Party. Irranca-Davies described the comments as “unnecessarily provocative and deliberately offensive” and imposed a speaking ban on the Reform lawmaker until he issues an apology.
In response, Reform UK, the largest opposition party in the Welsh parliament, boycotted most of the proceedings on Wednesday in protest, with party boss Nigel Farage describing the move as “ridiculous and outrageous”.
