These are the kind of people Reform employs.
The mask just keeps slipping when it comes to Reform UK. While the party continues to insist it isn’t far-right, its candidates, members and MPs continue to have their links to the far-right exposed.
It’s now been revealed that Reform MP Lee Anderson’s head of office, has posted content in support of far-right thug Tommy Robinson (Stephen Lennon).
Anderson, who himself has a history of espousing bigoted and Islamophobic remarks, previously ruled out Robinson joining Reform when asked about it on GB News, saying that his presence in the party would be a ‘distraction’.
Now Hope not Hate, the anti-extremist group, has revealed that Anderson’s head of office, Ethan Thoburn, has reposted Robinson on a now deleted Twitter account and also posted comments in support of the former head of the EDL.
It reports: “On a now deleted X/Twitter account, Thoburn regularly promoted Lennon’s (Tommy Robinson’s) content and endorsed his politics.
“In 2017, Thoburn retweeted Lennon 91 times and also promoted posts supportive of him, such as one claiming that an anti-Muslim demonstration in Manchester was “full of passionate people” and another which simply read: “I support Tommy Robinson.”
“Thoburn also shared a post by far-right politician and then UKIP leader Gerard Batten in 2018 which harrumphed that “the MSM lie about Tommy Robinson, and others, being ‘far right’”.
Thoburn also posted comments in support of Robinson, posting in July 2017: “He’s not a bigot… If you actually listen to him you’ll understand.”
Hope not Hate also adds: “In another (post), the same month, he said he had “just met” Lennon and that he was a “really nice bloke”. Shortly after that, he tweeted: “Brilliant meeting you Tommy… No surrender.”
These are the kind of people Reform employs.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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