'I don't want to live in China' - Nigel Farage slams facial recognition cameras at Clacton Airshow

The Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has criticised Essex Police for using live facial recognition technology to scan people at the Clacton Airshow - describing it as like "living in China".

Mr Farage said the innovation was "going in the wrong direction" and would not tackle what he described as "real crime".

But Essex Police rejected the claims, saying that cameras had already led to them make an arrest during the airshow, when a woman from Clacton was detained on suspicion of a dangerous dog offence related to an incident where a girl was bitten.

It had also proved successful in trials, when a suspect wanted for rape was arrested, said the force.

Mr Farage, who was visiting his new Clacton constituency, said: "I don't want to live in China. I don't want to be tracked wherever I go.

"And what's the point of any of it because people get caught doing violent crime, get pitiful jail sentences, and then come out and do it again. No, this is not the right approach."

He said: "I know Essex Police are doing their best but in this case they're going in the wrong direction.

"Real crime is happening on the streets, real crime is young people carrying knives, real crime is people being scared to go out at night and facial recognition isn't going to help with any of that."

Live facial recognition technology uses cameras to scan crowds and matches faces against a database of images of wanted criminals.

It has been used by the Met Police in London and by Bedfordshire Police at the Bedford River Festival, as well as Northamptonshire Police at the British Grand Prix.

The human rights organisation Liberty has raised concerns in the past over what it means for people's freedoms.

But Essex Police said it was a tool to help officers keep the public safe.

They said: "Our trial [of live facial recognition] last year showed that actually this is effective in tackling real crime as we made three arrests for people we wanted, including one for rape and another for robbery.

"We’re already using retrospective facial recognition to great effect – between May and June it helped identify nearly 80 offenders."

Officers said the cameras were only looking for people wanted for serious offences, and images not on their watchlist were deleted.

"It’s an effective way of finding people we want to speak to and keeping the public safe with a view of freeing up officers to focus on other elements of policing, therefore making us more efficient.

"This was highlighted by the successful trial deployments in October 2023 when we had five positive alerts, leading to three arrests including for rape and robbery."

Thousands headed to the annual airshow on the Essex coast, but the weather caused some alterations to the schedule.

Mr Farage he was disappointed that strong winds at the airshow had forced the cancellation of a parachute drop, but added: "We're English - we're making the most of it."

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