Tag: English Defence League

Thousands of anti-fascists are expected to attend a central London protest on Sunday to counter a march by the far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson and his supporters. A new group within the party, Labour Against Racism and Fascism, has been created and Momentum has been trying to counter a far-right social media effort which some members believed was often more sophisticated than its own web presence. (@PeoplesMomentum) "Did you find any hatespeech"? He said: “A newly energised, well-funded network of hate is emerging, from Steve Bannon in the US to the former EDL [English Defence League] leader Tommy Robinson at home, and it threatens the very fabric of our nation. The Labour movement must be front and centre in opposing them.” Thousands were expected to attend the Robinson event, which involves a march on Whitehall three days before MPs vote on Theresa May’s Brexit package and has been billed as a “Brexit betrayal rally”. Laura Parker, Momentum’s national coordinator, said: “There has been a reluctance at times from some in the mainstream of Labour to engage in events like this in the past. Niroshan Sirisena, a Labour councillor in Croydon and a Momentum organiser, said he and others set up Labour Against Racism and Fascism weeks ago as part of an attempt to develop the party’s anti-racism policies at a constituency level. “Labour is an anti-racist party, but I think it has to do a little more than say that it is one,” said Sirisena, who has also been involved in distributing anti-racism leaflets at Premiership matches as part of a move to counter the far-right focus on football fans. The Metropolitan police have imposed strict conditions on the times and locations those taking part could protest, and warned that anyone who commited acts of violence would be arrested. The deputy assistant commissioner, Laurence Taylor, the Met’s gold commander for the operation, said: “If you want to protest on Sunday we ask that you do so peacefully, no matter what your view.

The intervention of former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon in European politics could help rightwing parties become the biggest bloc in the European parliament next year, according to Nigel Farage. Farage told the Observer that, Eurosceptics could become the largest political grouping on the continent and predicted that anti-EU MEPs could secure between 176 and 235 seats in the European parliament elections next May. With a bit of luck and a following wind it could even be the biggest,” Farage added. Bannon’s foundation, called The Movement, will be based in Brussels and dedicated to campaigning aggressively for a large, anti-EU faction in the European elections next spring. Bannon said last week he had already started raising funds amid speculation that former English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, currently in jail, might be offered a leading role in its UK wing. Robinson, whose imprisonment has made him a cause célèbre among the international far-right, could be released this week following his appeal against a 13-month sentence for contempt of court in May. Farage also revealed that Bannon wanted to offer a rightwing antidote to the centre-right European People’s party (EPP), currently the largest party in the European parliament, and the European Socialists (PES), a social-democratic political grouping that includes the British Labour party, the Italian Democratic party and French Socialist party. Even though Britain is floundering with Brexit, across the rest of Europe, the Eurosceptics are on the march. All three are potential rivals to the prime minister and Bannon believes all of them could help deliver his ambition to undermine and eventually paralyse the EU. “I think shares in Bannon are overvalued.

A Conservative council candidate in Watford, Darren Harrison, has been suspended after it was alleged that he was a supporter of the pan-European white supremacist organisation Generation Identity and associated with the English Defence League’s former leader Tommy Robinson. An investigation is under way.” Harrison was contesting a ward in a Tory-Liberal Democrat marginal. He had campaigned with James Cleverly, a Tory party vice-chairman, and featured on local party social media. His links with Generation Identity, an anti-Islam organisation with strong links to far-right groups across Europe, were alleged in an investigation by Vice News. Sellner was stopped at Stansted airport at the weekend when he planned to address the movement’s first conference in Sevenoaks, Kent. The event broke up early and some attendees were confronted by anti-fascist campaigners. Scuffles broke out and one protester was arrested. The suspension of Harrison comes at the end of a difficult week for the government. It has been dominated by its disastrous handling of the long-settled Windrush generation and the way the Home Office’s hostile environment has operated. In the London mayoral elections in 2016, the Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith’s campaign against Sadiq Khan was widely condemned for its anti-Muslim overtones.