Alan Mendoza hasn’t always had good things to say about Nigel Farage
Reform’s newest Tory defector, Alan Mendoza, previously said that Nigel Farage’s leadership of UKIP reminded him of a “tinpot dictatorship”.
Mendoza, a founder and the current executive director of right-wing foreign policy and security think tank Henry Jackson Society, has now been appointed Reform’s chief advisor on global affairs.
He will now sit as a Reform councillor on Westminster Council, alongside Laila Cunningham, who defected to the party in June.
Yesterday, Mendoza announced: “Some personal news: I have taken the difficult decision today to resign from the Conservative Party after 30 years. I have joined Reform and will be assisting as Chief Advisor on Global Affairs.
“Britain needs change. And only Reform can deliver what is required.”
Mendoza hasn’t always had good things to say about Farage. In May 2015, after Farage failed to become an MP at the 2015 election, he resigned as UKIP leader.
In a tweet on 11 May 2015, Mendoza wrote: “#Farage’s ‘resignation’ reminds me of a tinpot dictatorship. Next he’ll be crowned Ruler for Life at a specially convened #UKIP congress.”
The party ultimately refused to accept Farage’s resignation, and he quickly U-turned and said he’d remain as leader. He quit as UKIP leader in July 2016, stating that he had achieved his political ambition after Britain narrowly voted to leave the EU.
In July 2019, Mendoza said of Farage: “Nigel Farage’s interest is not simply in achieving No Deal Brexit. It’s also to keep his media circus in operation.
“Like a charity that cures the disease it was set up to fight, the Brexit Party won’t shut down after Brexit but will morph into something else its creator desires.”
Mendoza appointed hard right commentator and associate editor at the Spectator, Douglas Murray, as a director of HJS.
He also employed right-wing ex-Muslim Raheem Kassam as full-time campaigner against Islamic extremists on UK University campuses.
Reports from the HJS present immigration as a security threat and claim that governments’ “lack of transparency” around immigration policy fuels public mistrust.
In several of its research papers, HJS heavily focuses on examples of Islamist terrorism over other types of extremism.
Image caption: HJS
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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