fbpx
Search Donate

Show results for
  • News
  • Videos
  • Action Alerts
  • Events
  • Resources
  • MEND

Vote Leave board member resigns over anti-Muslim tweets

Vote Leave board member resigns over anti-Muslim tweets

Categories: Latest News

Tuesday June 21 2016

The Guardian reports on the resignation of Arabella Arkwright, a board member from the Vote Leave campaign, who resigned after the paper questioned her about anti-Muslim posts on her Twitter page.

The paper reports that a number of tweets and retweets were discovered on Ms Arkwright’s page. One image shows a blonde haired young white girl amid a group of women in burqas with the caption: “Britain 2050: why didn’t you stop them Grandad?”

A retweeted picture on Ms Arkwright’s page has a “Stop Islam” badge in the top right corner and shows Yazidi women fleeing from IS in the top panel and Syrian men fleeing IS on the bottom panel with the question, “spot the difference?”

The page also contained a link from Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League who recently launched the British chapter of the far right organisation Pegida, suggesting British Muslims were trying to build an Islamic state in Britain.

The paper notes, “Another retweet came in response to a Twitter user saying they would never eat tikka masala again if it “got seventh-century barbaric savagery” out of Britain. A reply from Arkwright’s account said: “No to sharia law. By by [sic] tikka masala”.”

When questioned about the posts on her page Ms Arkwright said her RTs and shared links did not mean she endorsed those views adding,  “I am absolutely appalled that there should be any underlying suggestion that I have any racist tendencies.”

Ms Arkwright apologised for the offence caused and has stepped down from the board of Vote Leave.

A Vote Leave spokesperson said: “As soon as we were made aware of these tweets we asked Arabella to hand in her resignation, which she has done with immediate effect. These tweets do not reflect the views of the Vote Leave campaign.”

The campaign has been hit by several scandals about the way in which it has conducted itself in the EU referendum with Baroness Warsi declaring her defection to Remain because of its “scaremongering” about immigrants and Turkey accession to the EU, and the campaign’s “xenophobic” messages.

Newsletter

Find out more about MEND, sign up to our email newsletter

Get all the latest news from MEND straight to your inbox. Sign up to our email newsletter for regular updates and events information

reCAPTCHA