Dear John,
Nigel Farage has spent the summer claiming that Britain is being terrorised by migrant-driven crime. It’s a powerful story, it plays to people’s fears, and it has gained a lot of traction. But it’s a lie.
The truth is very different. Britain today is safer than it has been for decades.
Here’s what the evidence actually shows:
🔪🔻 Knife assaults are at a 25-year low
🏥🔻 Hospital admissions for violent assault are half what they were 25 years ago
💰🔻 Robbery is down by 60% in the last two decades
🏡🔻 Burglary has fallen by two-thirds
🚗🔻 Car theft has halved
📉🔻Overall violent crime has halved since 2005
And all of this has happened while Britain’s migrant population has risen.
If Farage’s story were true, the numbers would be going in the opposite direction. Instead, they tell us clearly – migration has not driven crime.
So why does the myth stick? Because fear spreads faster than facts.
Social media is designed to reward outrage. Community Facebook groups often whip up hysteria, turning isolated incidents into supposed crime waves. Viral videos strip out context. Platforms profit from clicks, so they push what gets clicks, not what’s accurate. And Farage is only too happy to ride the wave.
The result is that people are told Britain is more dangerous than ever, when in reality our streets are safer than at any time in modern history.
Farage isn’t telling people the truth — and he isn’t a patriot. Patriots don’t drag their country through the gutter to sell a racist lie. He’s stoking disillusionment, selling fear, and exploiting it all to try to win personal power.
Britain doesn’t have a migration crime problem. It has a disinformation problem. And a healthy democracy cannot survive in a toxic politics fuelled by lies and fear.
Crime in the UK is down. Disinformation is going through the roof.
That’s why Open Britain’s mission goes beyond challenging Farage’s falsehoods. A democracy worth the name needs guardrails – rules that check the spread of disinformation, transparency to hold those in power accountable, and a voting system where every voice is heard, not just the loudest, most extreme ones. Without that, politics becomes a race to the bottom, where liars prosper and trust collapses.
We need to build something better. A democracy where truth and fairness win out over cynicism and division, and where politics serves the public interest. That’s the future we’re fighting for.
Thank you so much for your continued support.
All the best,
The Open Britain Team
