Nigel Farage: ‘You have my word, UKIP will not oppose shechita’

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has pledged to safeguard shechita, just weeks after his party voted to outlaw the practice.

Last month UKIP’s national executive committee voted to outlaw slaughter without pre-stunning, despite previous statements of support for the practises of Jews and Muslims by senior party figures.

But speaking on LBC on Friday morning in response to the concerns of a Jewish UKIP supporter named Ariel Cohen, Farage said: “One of our MEPs who is a farmer, went to visit a Jewish slaughterhouse to see how it was conducted and he said he was highly impressed with how all of this works.

“I have said, and I don’t break my promises, that I would defend the Jewish community’s right to use the shechita method, and I will do so.”

He added: “What happened [at the recent vote] was that in a wider debate about animal welfare and animal issues at a national executive meeting of UKIP, there was a majority in that room that agreed we should go down the route of pre-stunning. Animal issues are very emotive. But you absolutely have my word that we are not going to be banning the traditional shechita method.”

Shneur Odze, the head of UKIP Friends of Israel and a candidate in last year’s European elections, told the Jewish News at the time he was “surprised and disappointed” by the national executive committee’s move.