Migrants eating swans: a white-wing myth?

Appearing on LBC on Wednesday morning, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage suggested to presenter Nick Ferrari that swans are ‘being eaten in Royal Parks’ and that carp are ‘being taken out of ponds and eaten’, by ‘people who come from countries where it’s quite acceptable to do so’.

Farage’s comments quickly prompted self-righteous outrage from all the usual suspects. ‘It’s a lie, but that won’t stop some people believing every word he says’, tweeted the account of the The News Agents, a podcast starring smug, right-thinking ex-BBC presenters Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall. Darren Lewis, assistant editor of the Daily Mirror, dismissed Farage’s suggestion as ‘lunacy’, ‘repulsive’ and a part of an ‘ongoing, systematic attempt to dehumanise and vilify’ migrants.

But were Farage’s comments really deserving of the knee-jerk outrage and cries of ‘disinformation’, ‘xenophobia’ and ‘racism’ with which they were greeted? After all, it is not as if similar claims have not been made before. Here’s a Sky News headline from 2013: ‘Queen’s swan found cooked near Windsor Castle’. And here’s a Daily Telegraph story from 2014: ‘Villagers blame migrant workers for stealing all their ducks’. They might sound like excerpts from a Grimms’ fairy tale, but these are real articles from mainstream-media outlets.

In fact, dig a little deeper, and there are plenty more reports of wildfowl eating where those came from. In 2010, an episode of BBC docuseries Animal Squad followed an RSPCA worker entering an immigrant household, after witnesses claimed the family stole a large bird from a nearby park. After discovering a bagged carcass, a bin filled with white feathers, and a pot of stew on the stove containing something decidedly ‘not chicken’, the RSPCA worker seemed in little doubt where the swan had ended its days.

There was quite a run of similar reports in the early 2010s. In 2012, a man believed to be a migrant from eastern Europe was found cooking his evening meal outside his tent, surrounded by ‘the bodies of slaughtered swans’. In the same year, fisheries up and down the country complained that ‘potentially thousands’ of carp had been stolen by migrants from eastern Europe – a region where carp is widely consumed. Reports claimed that some thieves had been ‘using dustbins’ to transport large amounts of stolen carp home.

In one particularly sad 2013 incident, a pair of mated swans in Dorset were discovered barely alive, speared by arrows from a high-powered crossbow. Though the culprits were never found, an RSPCA inspector remarked:

‘It is possible that someone who is non-British may have considered these swans to be food… In Britain swans are revered and are heavily protected. I suspect that this has been carried out by someone who is not aware of their status.’

To suggest that large numbers of immigrants in Britain are ‘eating swans’ would be unfounded and silly. But so too is the accusation that Farage is simply a liar. One doesn’t have to accept that carp-robbing and wildfowl-hunting are major problems to recognise that Farage’s claims had some basis in reality.

When it comes to problems caused by uncontrolled immigration, I’d wager that swan-eating falls rather low down on the list of concerns for most Brits. But to dismiss it entirely reeks of bad faith.

One has to wonder if the BBC filmed an RSPCA worker discovering a pot of ‘swan stew’ on an immigrant’s stove in 2025, would it even be aired? I suspect not. The Beeb wouldn’t want to be accused of spreading a white-wing myth.

Georgina Mumford is a spiked intern.