Nigel Farage's viral census rant is 'simply not true', ONS confirms

Nigel Farage's latest rant about new census data is "simply not true," the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has confirmed.

Sitting in the back of a car with a Union flag emblazoned cushion behind him (for some reason) the washed up Brexiteer gave a rundown of the recently published census' findings and said that London, Manchester and Birmingham becoming "minority white cities" represented "massive demographic changes" happening in the country.

Speaking about the decline of Christianity in the UK, Farage also said: "There's a massive change in the identity of this country that is taking place through immigration. You may think it's a good thing, you may think it's a bad thing."

Then he delivered some information that was utter hogwash, saying: "The ONS now say in future they will not ask of the nationality or birthplace of those taking part in this census. One in six in England and Wales are already born outside the UK.

"In future, they want to hide the true figures from you."

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"It's a scandal," he frothed.

Is it? Maybe not...

In a statement to indy100, an ONS spokesperson suggested Farage was confusing the census (which takes place every 10 years) with regular population statistics. They said: “These claims are simply not true. We published the latest country of birth statistics from the census earlier this month and our latest migration estimates last week.

“We are reviewing the best methods to produce estimates of the UK population as part of our transformation of population and migration statistics making the best use of all available data. Using new methods, we intend to produce our next estimates of the non-UK born population in 2023.”

Well, there you go then.

As for things that ARE true, the new data has revealed the proportion of people identifying as has declined to 46.2 per cent, down from 59.3 per cent in the last census in 2011.

And when people were asked about their ethnic group, 81.7 per cent of residents in England and Wales identified as White, down from 86 per cent a decade earlier.

The next most common ethnic group was Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh accounting for 9.3 per cent of the overall population.

The white British population of London made up 37 per cent of the capital, down from 45 per cent in 2011.

Former minister Javid simply replied to the rant by saying: "so what?"

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