Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage is facing criticism after claiming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose parents are East African Indians who migrated to the UK, does not care about "our culture”.
Mr Sunak was forced to apologise to army veterans after he left the D-Day commemorations in Normandy early on Monday to attend a TV interview in the UK as part of his election campaign, causing widespread backlash.
Labour leader Keir Starmer and influential Conservative Penny Mordaunt were among those who criticised Mr Sunak's decision but some said Mr Farage's comments went too far.
“It shows the man doesn’t understand,” Mr Farage told Sky News. "He is not patriotic. He doesn’t care about our history, our culture."
Some have interpreted the comments as a reference to Mr Sunak’s heritage, by a politician who has put anti-immigration policies at the heart of his party agenda.
Mr Farage tried to distance himself from the allegations on Sunday, referring to soldiers from the Commonwealth who fought in the British Army and claiming his comments were a reference to Mr Sunak’s wealth.
“Forty per cent of our contribution came from the Commonwealth. [Mr Sunak] is utterly disconnected by class, by privilege and from how ordinary people in the country feel,” he said, appearing on the BBC via video link from Clacton, the Essex constituency where he is seeking election on July 4.
The Reform party is running on an anti-immigration ticket, from which it seeks to gain Conservative votes. Recent polling by Savanta shows Labour with a 20 per cent lead over the Tories.
Shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood described Mr Farage's comments as a “dog whistle” intended to incite right-wing voters.
“It’s a classic Nigel Farage trick,” she told the BBC. "Lean just enough to signal a bit of a dog whistle, and lean straight back and sound perfectly reasonable.
“It’s completely unacceptable. This is a man who has a track record of seeking to divide communities. He just wants to do it with a veneer of respectability."
Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, also described the comments as “deeply regrettable … I feel very uncomfortable with that”.
Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Mr Stride said he has been “proud” to work with Mr Sunak in what has been the UK’s most diverse cabinet in history.
“It’s a personal pride … that I’ve sat around a cabinet table that’s the most diverse in history,” he said.
“His [Mr Sunak's] involvement in government has been characterised as outstanding public service and I’m very proud of that."
Mr Farage had a milkshake thrown at him this week in Clacton-on-Sea, soon after the surprise announcement of his political comeback as leader of Reform UK, which he founded as the Brexit Party in 2019.
The former member of the European Parliament and leader of Ukip has never been elected to the House of Commons, despite standing as a parliamentary candidate 7 times since 1997.
Mr Farage on Sunday claimed the ballot on July 4 should be the “migration election”.
“The Conservatives have broken trust with the country, repeated promises in manifesto after manifest to reduce net migration to tens of thousands a year,” he said.
“They’ve opened the door to such a scale ... the numbers are astonishing, the breach of trust is huge.
“This should be the immigration election. The exploding population is impacting on housing, on rents … on the health service. The other two parties don’t want to talk about it.
Rejecting the Savanta data, which showed Reform polling at 11 per cent compared to the Conservatives' 26 per cent, he said other polling companies had revealed Reform UK to be ahead of the Conservatives in the Red Wall – northern constituencies that historically vote Labour where an unexpected shift to the Conservatives took place in 2019.
Mr Farage said "the real question" was who would provide the main opposition to a Labour government led by Keir Starmer. “The Conservatives are incapable of it,” he said.
Former Conservative home secretary Amber Rudd was another who dismissed his comments. “He has no idea how to deliver,” she said.
Mr Farage had made immigration a central issue of Ukip’s Brexit campaign, making promises that did not come to fruition, Ms Rudd added.
“The whole Brexit campaign was about immigration. Vote for Brexit so we can curtail immigration, on and on it went. And actually, immigration has continued to increase eight years after we voted,” she said.
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The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
MATCH INFO
Who: UAE v USA
What: first T20 international
When: Friday, 2pm
Where: ICC Academy in Dubai
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE%20v%20West%20Indies
%3Cp%3EFirst%20ODI%20-%20Sunday%2C%20June%204%20%0D%3Cbr%3ESecond%20ODI%20-%20Tuesday%2C%20June%206%20%0D%3Cbr%3EThird%20ODI%20-%20Friday%2C%20June%209%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EMatches%20at%20Sharjah%20Cricket%20Stadium.%20All%20games%20start%20at%204.30pm%0D%3Cbr%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20squad%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EMuhammad%20Waseem%20(captain)%2C%20Aayan%20Khan%2C%20Adithya%20Shetty%2C%20Ali%20Naseer%2C%20Ansh%20Tandon%2C%20Aryansh%20Sharma%2C%20Asif%20Khan%2C%20Basil%20Hameed%2C%20Ethan%20D%E2%80%99Souza%2C%20Fahad%20Nawaz%2C%20Jonathan%20Figy%2C%20Junaid%20Siddique%2C%20Karthik%20Meiyappan%2C%20Lovepreet%20Singh%2C%20Matiullah%2C%20Mohammed%20Faraazuddin%2C%20Muhammad%20Jawadullah%2C%20Rameez%20Shahzad%2C%20Rohan%20Mustafa%2C%20Sanchit%20Sharma%2C%20Vriitya%20Aravind%2C%20Zahoor%20Khan%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE%20SPECS
%3Cp%3EEngine%3A%203-litre%20V6%20turbo%20(standard%20model%2C%20E-hybrid)%3B%204-litre%20V8%20biturbo%20(S)%0D%3Cbr%3EPower%3A%20350hp%20(standard)%3B%20463hp%20(E-hybrid)%3B%20467hp%20(S)%0D%3Cbr%3ETorque%3A%20500Nm%20(standard)%3B%20650Nm%20(E-hybrid)%3B%20600Nm%20(S)%0D%0D%3Cbr%3EPrice%3A%20From%20Dh368%2C500%0D%3Cbr%3EOn%20sale%3A%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Simran
Director Hansal Mehta
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Soham Shah, Esha Tiwari Pandey
Three stars
ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- Margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars
- Energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- Infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes
- Many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
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