I'm Lancashire TV star Nicola Thorp’s & my fiancé actor Nikesh Patel was accosted at the riots in Blackpool

Columnist and former Coronation Street actor, Nicola Thorp, 35, appeared on The Jeremy Vine Show this morning alongside the Deputy Leader of Reform UK Richard Tice to discuss ‘UK Riots: What should Starmer do?’ 

Nicola was in her hometown of Blackpool at the weekend and she told Jeremy Vine how her fiancé Nikesh Patel, best known for his roles on BBC comedy 'Starstruck', Channel 4 drama 'Indian Summers' and Amazon Prime thriller 'The Devil's Hour', was accosted in his car by a group of men.  

Nicola, who gave birth to her and Nikesh’s first child in January said : “At the weekend, he dropped me off at the protests and he’s British Indian so I thought perhaps it wasn’t necessarily a safe environment for him to be in, so he dropped me off and drove off. And I was right because as he drove off a group of men accosted his car and demanded that he get out and hand them his car keys.

“Islamophobia, racism is absolutely at the centre of this.” 

Presenter Jeremy went on to ask Richard what he made of what happened to Nikesh and in response the Reform UK politician called it “Horrific. Absolutely horrific.” 

Former Arnold School pupil Nicola then asked “Do you accepted that it’s rooted in racism and Islamophobia?”

Richard answered: “That clearly is exactly that. Racism and Islamophobic is utterly horrific and as you say, Nicola, we have to separate, that from a rational, grown-up debate about what’s the right level of positive immigration that can work for the United Kingdom.”

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Various riots have broken out across the UK over the past few days in the wake of a knife attack in Southport last week which left three girls dead.

Lancashire saw three separate protests over the weeekend in Preston, Blackburn and Blackpool.

22 people were arrested across the county: 20 of those people were arrested in Blackpool, one person was arrested in Blackburn and one person was arrested in Preston.