Nigel Farage sparks fury after falsely claiming that 12 migrants who arrived in UK all had Covid

Nigel Farage shared false information on Twitter on Saturday after claiming a migrant boat that recently arrived in the UK which he claimed had 12 people aboard who had Covid-19.

The leader of the Reform Party and prominent Brexiteer shared a tweet on Saturday morning where he claimed that 12 asylum seekers who had arrived on a boat in Dover that morning had all tested positive for Covid-19. Farage also tagged home secretary Priti Patel in the post telling her to ‘get a grip.’

Farage’s claim was swiftly debunked by the official Home Office account which denied that any of the 12 adults that had arrived that morning had Covid-19 and had all been tested for the virus.

A spokesperson for the Home Office is quoted as saying by Kent Online, that only one individual had tested positive on Saturday. They said, “Border Force has dealt with a number of small boat incidents today. Contrary to reports claiming multiple arrivals tested positive for coronavirus, just one person has tested positive and will be dealt with in line with public health guidance.”

However, despite Farage’s claim already being flagged as incorrect, his tweet has been shared more than 7,000 times and received more than 22,000 likes.

Farage’s latest attempt to make an example of migrants y spreading misleading information has provoked fury on social media with some calling for his tweets to be deleted in a similar way the website used to delete Donald Trump’s tweets.

Despite this, Farage, who has made trips to the United States during the pandemic, hasn’t been deterred after being corrected by the Home Office and later went on talkRadio to say that the UK is paying the French Navy to escort migrants with Covid to this country. Farage also highlighted the high Covid-rate in Dunkirk, France which the Telegraph has attributed to trucker drivers arriving into the city from the UK.

More: What it’s really like parenting during a pandemic