Is Nigel Farage ‘sounding like the grown up’ in Jimmy Savile row with Labour minister?

Read time: 3 minutes

In brief:

• Peter Kyle, the UK's Science and Technology Secretary, accused Nigel Farage of being "on the side" of predators such as Jimmy Savile after Farage said he would repeal the Online Safety Act, claiming that opposing the legislation means supporting those who harm children.
• Farage called Kyle's comments "disgusting" and demanded an apology, while Kyle doubled down on his accusations, stating again that anyone wanting to overturn the Online Safety Act is "on the side of predators."
• The News Agents argue that Kyle's attack ignores legitimate privacy concerns about the act, and that Labour is trying to “fight populists with the kind of rhetoric that they themselves would use”.

What’s the story?

Nigel Farage is no stranger to harsh criticism from his political rivals, but never before has he been compared to prolific paedophile Jimmy Savile.

That is, until now.

Peter Kyle, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, has accused the leader of Reform UK of being on the side of former BBC presenter and TV personality Savile, a predatory sex offender who abused young children.

“Make no mistake about it, if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today he’d be perpetrating his crimes online - and Nigel Farage is saying he’s on their side, not the side of children,” Kyle told Sky News.

The accusation comes after the Reform UK leader said he would repeal the recently introduced online safety act, which has introduced strict measures to keep children safe from harmful and explicit content online, but received some backlash due to privacy concerns relating to the data it demands from users.

Kyle added: “I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he’s going to overturn these laws. So you know, we have people out there who are extreme pornographers, peddling hate, peddling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side.”

Farage called the comments “disgusting” and demanded the cabinet minister apologise, but Kyle doubled down on his accusations, posting on social media: “If you want to overturn the Online Safety Act, you are on the side of predators. It is as simple as that.”

What’s The News Agents’ take?

Emily Maitlis believes Kyle has brushed over “genuine unease” about parts of the online safety act and the level of personal information it demands in order to access websites previously available freely.

Jon Sopel agrees that many people, over 390,000 of whom signed a petition, have “principled objections” to the act.

“Just because you oppose the Online Safety Act, as Nigel Farage does, it does not make you an enabler, an apologist for a friend of Jimmy Savile and the heinous things that he did,” he says.

The extremity of Kyle’s attack towards Farage felt like a “nervous response,” Emily believes, adding it's one which someone would give when they feel as though they’re losing the battle.

She likens it to “Godwin's Law”, whereby instead of calling ‘Nazi’ when you’re losing an argument, you call ‘Jimmy Savile’ when you’re losing an argument about online safety.

Jon says Labour haven’t yet landed on a successful way to tackle the rise of Reform, and believes should take a more radical approach.

“This is radical, but it's not it. And I’m just left thinking again: Labour don't know what to do,” he says.

“Everyone in the Labour government wants to bring Farage down a peg or two, but you've got to do it artfully, you've got to do it cleverly.”

A smarter approach would have been to ask Farage what the Reform party would themselves do to tackle online safety for young children, something Emily believes he’s not answered properly.

Instead, parts of Labour have decided to “fight populists with the kind of rhetoric that they themselves would use,” she says.

“That's where it's all going wrong, because there is a danger that the scales have tipped.

“When you listen to Nigel Farage giving his press conference, as he did this morning, he's now in danger of sounding like the grown up.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.