'Say what you want about Morrissey...he was right about Islamic terrorism in the UK' - Brendan O'Neill

Critics have called Sir Keir Starmer's clampdown a brazen assault on free speech after people with no prior convictions were handed lengthy sentences for social media posts - an accusation the Prime Minister vehemently denies. Critics have also branded the blanket charge of Islamophobia a fig leaf intended to conceal legitimate concerns.

In an exclusive interview with GB News, Spiked Political Editor Brendan O'Neill unequivocally condemns the actions taken by rioters last month but says it's time to have an honest conversation about the long-standing issues that have turned Britain into a tinderbox: uncontrolled immigration and Islamic terrorism.

There has been a deliberate attempt by the chattering classes to shut down any sensible debate on these topics, Mr O'Neill claims, warning that far-right thugs and other hostile actors will happily tread where others fear to.

"After acts of terrorism, there's always pressure for us to forget about it. To move on," he opined.

This has had a chilling effect on the public consciousness, Mr O'Neill claims.

The Spiked Political Editor tells GB News that Morrissey summed this up perfectly during a gig at the Palladium in London a few years back.

The former lead singer of The Smiths was introducing his new song at the time, ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’, which is about the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017.

Mr O'Neill, who was in the crowd that night, alleged Morrisey looked out at the audience and asked: "How come you know the name Myra Hindley but many of you won’t know the name of the man who bombed the Manchester Arena?"

It's such a good question.

"We all know Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. But if you went out on the streets and asked a hundred people to name Salman Abedi [the Manchester arena bomber] I bet they wouldn't be able to," the Spiked Political Editor said.

It's a striking observation given the asymmetry of the crimes and when they occurred: Abedi killed 22 people at the Ariana Grande concert in 2017 - and Brady and Hindley murdered five children more than 50 years ago.

The Spiked Political Editor cites the recent terror attack in 2020 which saw Libyan refugee Khairi Saadallah shout "Allahu akbar" as he stabbed three friends to death and injured three others in a Reading park.

"How many people remember his name?" Mr O'Neill asks rhetorically.

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"We are constantly instructed by the media class to not focus on these problems. To forget about them and move on - it's not a big deal."

Mr O'Neill fears the same has happened with the asylum seeker who posed as a child before murdering the aspiring marine.

Tom Roberts, 21, was stabbed to death by Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai who had previously shot two migrants with a Kalashnikov rifle in Serbia while travelling to the UK. Abdulrahimzai told Border Force officers he was 14 when he was actually 19.

"It will be swept under the carpet," he lamented, adding: "For too long, ordinary Brits have been crying out for a discussion about the migrant crisis. It's not because they are racist. It's not because they are xenophobic. It's not because they want to completely seal the borders and not let anyone in the country. It's because they want Britain to have meaningful control of its borders, to know who is coming here and to ensure people do not come here illegally and to ask these questions without the fear of being continuously denounced as backward, knuckle-dragging xenophobes.

"At some point, we need to sit down and say: 'Whether you want us to talk about it or not, we are going to.'"

Exclusive polling by GB News suggests the British public overwhelmingly agrees.

More than 80 per cent of 30,000 respondents attributed Britain's current ills to illegal immigration.