Photo: Nigel Farage (right) says Donald Trump trusts him. (Twitter: Nigel Farage)

West will 'lose' if we outlaw Islam, Britain's Nigel Farage says

By Europe correspondent James Glenday

28 Mar 2017,

Outspoken British politician Nigel Farage has distanced himself from controversial comments about Islam made by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.

Mr Farage was a leading figure in the fight for Brexit and is now a confidant of Donald Trump.

He has used the recent London terrorist attack to urge Americans to support Mr Trump's travel ban on six majority Muslim countries and claims it "might stop" the next jihadi attack on a major city.

But when asked if he agreed with Ms Hanson that Islam was a "disease" that nations need to "vaccinate" against, he said if we outlawed the entire religion, we will lose.

"I've long taken the view we should be deeply intolerant of sharia law," he said.

"But I've also long taken the view that if you go down the route of say Geert Wilders in The Netherlands, who says he wants in that country for all the mosques to be closed for the Quran to be banned and for an entire religion to be outlawed, then we will lose.

"We have got to try to get [moderate Muslims] on our side."

Mr Farage said he had been invited to Australia by One Nation but explained he got invitations from "all sorts of people".

He does, however, want an immediate and major overhaul of Britain's immigration policies.

We've got to get rid of this failed doctrine of multiculturalism," he said.

"What that has meant is we have encouraged division within our communities rather than integration and unity."

Britain's exit from the European Union will be formally triggered on Wednesday by Prime Minister Theresa May.

Arguably no person played a greater role in making Brexit happen than Mr Farage and his UK Independence Party.

But even though the campaign was largely fought on reducing immigration, he hoped Brexit would see visa laws relaxed for some Commonwealth citizens and wanted many more Australians to come to the United Kingdom.

"Would I like to see more of our family here? Yes, of course," he said.

"They're not coming to massively increase the population, they're coming for short-term work."

Donald Trump 'trusts me'

Mr Farage has been pictured repeatedly with Mr Trump.

The pair struck up a friendly relationship after Mr Farage agreed to address a Republican rally during last year's election campaign.

Mr Farage refused to disclose what subjects they discussed because "I believe in trust. And you know what? He trusts me".

But when asked if he ever gave an opinion on policy he replied, "it's not beyond the wit of man to think perhaps we do discuss one or two issues that are relevant".

There has been speculation Mr Farage could eventually take on some sort of role in the US.

But he said his focus was currently getting the best Brexit deal possible for Britain.

"I spent 25 years on this project, I've given up everything to pursue this Brexit dream," he said.

"I will spend the next two years leading a group in the European Parliament being at the heart of where these negotiations are going on and after that we'll see."