Science Secretary Peter Kyle has said Nigel Farage is on the side of modern-day equivalents of Jimmy Savile, over his opposition to the Online Safety Act.
One of the most contentious parts of the law, introducing age verification to websites hosting porn and other ‘adult content’, came into effect on Friday.
The changes have generated backlash from internet users, and Farage used a Reform UK press conference yesterday to pledge his party would repeal the act if elected to government.
In an appearance on Sky News this morning, Kyle said the move would stop ‘strange adults getting in touch with children’.
He said: ‘We have people out there who are extreme pornographers peddling hate, peddling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side.
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.’
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Asked twice to clarify if he was claiming the Reform leader was on the side of Savile, one of the worst sexual predators in British history, the Science Secretary did not backtrack.
Kyle added: ‘Nigel Farage is on the side of turning the clock back to the time when strange adults, strangers can get in touch via messaging apps with children.’
In a post on X following the broadcast, Farage called the minister’s comments ‘disgusting’, writing: ‘He should do the right thing and apologise.’
Kyle responded by quoting the post and adding: ‘If you want to overturn the Online Safety Act you are on the side of predators. It is as simple as that.’
Speaking on Sky News later in the morning, former Reform chairman Zia Yusuf said the comments were ‘one of the most outrageous and disgusting things a politician has said in the political arena that I can remember’.
He continued: ‘Levelling that allegation, talking about Jimmy Savile in that way, does nothing other than denigrate the victims of Jimmy Savile.’
Yusuf previously suggested the Online Safety Act was turning the UK in a ‘dystopian Chinese surveillance state’.
A petition calling on the government to repeal the act has gathered more than 380,000 signatures online, meaning Parliament will consider it for a debate.
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