Nigel Farage branded a 'repulsive racist' for blaming coronavirus on China

Over the years, it’s become a widely acknowledged truth of British politics that there’s not many situations Nigel Farage won’t manage to use for his own political gain.

The self-proclaimed “Mr Brexit” has been a disturbingly effective political campaigner over the years on issues such as immigration.

But now he’s got a new favourite topic: coronavirus.

Ever since COVID-19 became a global pandemic, Farage has been on TV, radio and Twitter much more than normal. He lambasted the government’s initial response to the virus and even told us to listen to the World Health Organisation (who he once called “a bunch of clever bullies”).

Farage has finally realised who he’s going to blame for the whole crisis: China.

Writing in Newsweek, Farage said that it was “time” we “all said” that “China caused this nightmare”, referring of course to the pandemic.

This line of attack has been growing over the last week. In America, Trump and his high-profile backers have been calling the virus “China flu” and “China virus”.

Farage said that Trump was “right” to blame the disease on China. This is despite the fact that new cases are actually lowering in China compared to the rest of the world. China has also been on lockdown for weeks whereas the UK still isn't (Farage himself accused the UK government of "negligence" over its response).

The Brexit Party leader's remarks come as Asian people report incidents of racism against them as a result of the virus. An NHS nurse was attacked on her way to a hospital shift and a Chinese takeaway owner received a letter blaming him for the pandemic.

On social media, people really weren’t happy with Farage for blaming China for the pandemic.

But, of course, some agreed.

Lots of people are feeling anxious and angry right now amongst all the uncertainty that the virus is bringing to the world. The best thing to do is to avoid blaming people, be kind and follow the latest health advice.