Ukip now vindicated on security, says Nuttall

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has said he never doubted that his party would be “vindicated” on immigration and security issues.

During a speech in Westminster three days after eight people lost their lives in the London Bridge attack, he told those gathered that he was “only sorry that this vindication has come too soon and has involved so much blood being shed”.

Mr Nuttall said: “If the terrible events of the spring and early summer 2017 mark a genuine turning-point in political attitudes the moment when moral relativism and political correctness are ushered off the stage and a new muscular nononsense approach takes their place then we will have a better chance of preventing another Manchester or indeed another London Bridge in the future.”

He claimed his party had “set the agenda as before on Brexit and immigration, but we have also marked out new priorities for our country and we’ve been the one party with the guts to tell it how it is on integration and security too”.

Mr Nuttall also hit back against other parties’ comments over Ukip’s approach, and said he “utterly” refuted that their “integration agenda is in any way Islamophobic or divisive”.

“It is about bringing communities together and ensuring that community cohesion is improved.

“And I predict that history will prove that Ukip was ahead of its time in highlighting these issues.”

Mr Nuttall branded the Prime Minister “complacent at best” during her time as Home Secretary, but said his criticisms “pale into complete insignificance in comparison to the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn or a Diane Abbott government”.

Mr Nuttall also said there was a need to open a debate as to whether “we routinely arm our police force” particularly in major cities.

“At the very least we must double the number of armed police officers as soon as possible.”

He added: “Some have said that some of my proposals have been extreme. However, I make no apologies for taking nothing off the table to ensure that our people are kept safe, whether this includes tagging or indeed, in the future, detention orders.”

Mr Nuttall called for “mosques that preach Wahhabism or extreme forms of Islam and poison the minds of young people” to be “shut down”.