UKIP MEP’s chief of staff posted support for EDL and SDL
Categories: Latest News
Monday December 01 2014
The Daily Mirror covers revelations of Facebook posts by Arthur Thackeray, chief of staff to UKIP MEP David Coburn, in which he expressed support for the English and Scottish Defence Leagues and talked about joining the SDL on a protest in Glasgow in 2012.
In Facebook posts uploaded by Thackeray from 2010, the Daily Mirror relates a series of comments supporting the far right movements and their anti-Muslim activities.
The paper relays that on September 3, 2011, Thackeray wrote: “I personally support the aims and objectives of the Defence Leagues. Ukip has no official party line on this issue.”
A day earlier, the date of an English Defence League protest in London, Thackeray wrote: “To all London-bound patriots… stand proud and stay safe NS (no surrender).”
When another activist urged people to join EDL to stop “Muslim paedophile gangs”, Thackeray replied: “Good post.”
The Daily Mirror also relates the case of Chris Scotton, a UKIP candidate in the 2013 local elections for Leicester City Council who was suspended after ‘liking’ a series of far right organisations on Facebook including the English Defence League. The paper runs an online poll asking readers whether UKIP should suspend Thackeray. Add your view here.
Just a couple of weeks ago, UKIP suspended party member, Malcolm Jackson, after he joined a ‘mega-mosque’ protest in Rotherham organised by another far right organisation, Britain First.
With news of Nick Griffin tweeting his support for UKIP come the next election, the image of the party as a magnet for a medley of far right movements and groups will be hard to shake off.