Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has warned that anti-mass migration riots which erupted in Northern Ireland could spread to the rest of the United Kingdom.
Earlier this week, local tensions boiled over in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, after two Romanian-heritage teens were charged with sexually assaulting a local 14-year-old girl in the area.
While protests were initially peaceful, they have since boiled over into five nights of violent confrontations between the native residents and the police, as well as migrant houses being targeted.
While Mr Farage condemned the violence, he warned that such conflicts have become more likely given the mass migration imposed by Westminster elites against the wishes of the native population.
Speaking to The Sun, the Reform UK leader said: “Nobody condones setting fire to houses and hunting down foreigners. But there was a population of people, the Roma people, that were put into Ballymena who cannot possibly integrate with the locals and have a completely different set of standards of life beliefs.”
“The truth of it is that immigration only works if you have integration with it. If you don’t, you have a divide… And where human beings are divided, history teaches us, you get conflict.
“I am very, very deeply worried about what’s happening.”
Starmer Riots Crackdown Is Treating the Symptoms, Not the Cause, Warns Nigel Farage https://t.co/YIwCGZZ32a
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 2, 2024
On Friday evening, the riots appeared to spread to the town of Portadown, about an hour away from where they began earlier this week in Ballymena.
According to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), rioters attacked officers with bricks, bottles, fireworks, masonry, and petrol bombs.
In turn, police, decked out in riot gear, deployed tear gas against the crowds. During the first four evenings of violence, some 63 officers have suffered injuries.
The riots are reminiscent of those which took place nearly one year ago following the mass stabbing at a children’s dance party in Southport, which left three young girls dead and ten others injured.
The heinous attack, committed by second-generation Rwandan migrant Axel Rudakubana, sparked protests and riots throughout the UK, which included attacks on hotels believed to be housing migrants at taxpayer expense. Nearly 1,300 people were arrested amid the riots.
This week, King’s College London Professor of War in the Modern World David Betz warned that Britain, like many other European nations, is at risk of devolving into civil war, particularly in light of the impacts of mass migration.
‘We’re Already Past The Tipping Point’: Academic Sounds ‘Civil War’ Warning For High-Migration Western Nationshttps://t.co/xRTPExhACJ
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 14, 2025