Fact Check: Nigel Farage’s Claim That Migrants Are Killing and Eating Swans in Royal Parks is Dismissed by Authorities
A claim made by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage that migrants are illegally killing and eating protected swans from London’s Royal Parks has been comprehensively rejected by the relevant authorities, with evidence showing he relied on a heavily misleading, 15-year-old video clip.
The rebuttal from The Royal Parks and the RSPCA adds to a growing list of factually inaccurate statements made by Mr Farage during the current election campaign.
The False Claim
During an interview on LBC, Mr Farage asserted that swans and carp were being taken from ponds in Britain’s Royal Parks and killed for food.
“If I said to you that swans were being eaten in Royal Parks in this country, that carp were being taken out of ponds and eaten in this country by people who come from cultures that have a different… would you agree it happened, is happening here?” he asked.
When pressed on who he believed was responsible, Mr Farage stated it was “people who come from countries where it’s quite acceptable to do so.” He specifically confirmed he was referring to eastern Europeans.
Authorities Pour Cold Water on the Story
Shortly after the comments were made, a spokesperson for The Royal Parks issued a firm denial.
“We’ve not had any incidents reported to us of people killing or eating swans in London’s eight Royal Parks,” the spokesperson said. “Our wildlife officers work closely with the Swan Sanctuary to ensure the welfare of the swans across the parks.”
The RSPCA also intervened, revealing that a video circulating on social media—which appears to be the basis for Mr Farage’s claim—was wildly out of context. The clip, described as “RSPCA worker catches migrants eating swans,” is actually from a television show broadcast in 2010.
An RSPCA spokesperson confirmed the clip “featured in an episode of Animal Squad, previously broadcast in the UK as Emergency Animal Rescue, from 15 years ago – in 2010.” The clip shows an RSPCA officer finding a cooking pot with the meat and bones of an unidentified bird and white feathers in a bin.
The spokesperson reiterated that all wild birds, including swans, are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, making it illegal to kill or injure them.
A Pattern of Inaccurate Claims
This incident is not an isolated one. Below is a list of recent claims made by Nigel Farage that have been challenged by fact-checkers and official sources:
- Eating Swans: As above, the claim that migrants are currently killing and eating swans in Royal Parks is unsupported by the authorities responsible for those parks and based on a 15-year-old video.
- The NHS “Waiting List Lie”: Farage has repeatedly claimed that the NHS waiting list has grown by 7 million since the last election. The UK Statistics Authority has criticised this, stating it is “unlikely to represent the full picture” as the list was artificially shorter during the pandemic when millions of referrals were not made. The increase is more accurately around 3 million since the 2019 election.
- £40bn Cost of Net Zero: Farage has stated that the cost of achieving Net Zero by 2050 is £40 billion a year. This figure is misleading. The government’s own independent adviser, the Climate Change Committee, estimates the cost of the transition to be less than 1% of GDP annually—roughly £20-25 billion—and that this will be largely offset by the benefits, such as reduced fossil fuel imports.
- “We’re the Third Largest Contributor to NATO”: While Reform UK’s manifesto claimed this, it is incorrect. Based on NATO’s own data for 2023, the UK is the second-largest contributor to NATO’s common budget, after the US, but when measuring defence spending as a percentage of GDP—the primary metric NATO uses—the UK ranks behind the US, Poland, and Greece.
Echoes of Trump
Mr Farage’s claims bear a striking resemblance to a conspiracy theory promoted by his ally, former US President Donald Trump. During a debate last year, Trump claimed without evidence that migrants in the US were eating residents’ pets.
“In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They’re eating – they are eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said. The claim was dismissed as a “dangerous conspiracy theory” by the US National Security Council.
