The hotel has cancelled the booking after people complained about the venue hosting “racist cronies”
Reform UK has had the venue for a London Christmas dinner fundraiser cancelled just days before the event was due to take place.
Members of the local community in Croydon, London protested against the Grand Sapphire Hotel hosting the event tomorrow (Thursday 4 December), leading to its cancellation yesterday.
Last week, Inside Croydon reported that members of the Croydon Muslim community were “deeply offended” that the hotel, which is owned by Pakistani-born millionaire Suleman Raza, would host a Reform UK event.
In one post on a South London Facebook group, a user wrote: “Grand Sapphire Croydon is scheduled for hosting Farage and his band of racist cronies on December 4. This needs to be stopped!”
Another comment online suggested boycotting Raza’s other businesses, including the Spice Village, a small restaurant chain in South London.
Another comment in the group stated: “Grand Sapphire, Spice Village and many more enterprises of the owner Suleman Raza need to be boycotted unless he cancels entertaining Nigel Farage and his ilk.”
A member of staff at the Grand Sapphire Hotel told Left Foot Forward that one of the reasons that the event was cancelled was due to comments online criticising the hotel for hosting Farage.
It has been suggested that the Grand Sapphire originally said it would consider cancelling the booking, but only if it received compensation for the lost business.
In a statement on X last night, Grand Sapphire Hotel said Reform’s booking for Thursday 4 December has been cancelled and that the business acted “responsibly despite incurring financial loss due to this cancellation”.
Tickets for the Croydon Reform Christmas Party this Thursday cost up to £350 per head for the privilege of sitting at a “VIP-hosted” table.
Those hosting the VIP table were listed as Lee Anderson MP, former Tory Assembly Member Keith Prince and deputy leader of Reform, Richard Tice.
On GB News, presenter Martin Daubney claimed Stand Up to Racism had “hounded Reform out of town”.
Tice claimed that Stand Up to Racism and another group who he did not name had “bullied” Raza into cancelling the event.
Tice said that over 200 tickets were sold and the contract with the hotel was worth well over £20,000. The Reform deputy leader called it “an attack on free speech” and said they will sue the venue owner and any other venue owners that cancel its bookings in future.
Grand Sapphire’s statement said “the decision has been taken in accordance with our legal duty to safeguard our staff, hotel residents and attendees of the event at this time.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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