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DOSSIER – In the archive photo of Wednesday, October 16, 2013, Tommy Robinson, former head of the far-right EDL group "English Defense League", arrives for an appearance before the Westminster Magistrates Court in London. On Friday, November 23, Gerard Batten, leader of the UK Independence Party, designated the right-wing activist Robinson as party advisor on "gangs of rape and prison reform". ". lessDOSSIER – In the archive photo of Wednesday, October 16, 2013, Tommy Robinson, former head of the far-right EDL group "English Defense League", arrives for an appearance before the Westminster Magistrates Court in London. UK … more
Photo: Matt Dunham, AP
Photo: Matt Dunham, AP
LONDON (AP) – Nigel Farage, former leader of the UK Independence Party, on Friday called for the removal of the current party leader for appointing right-wing activist Tommy Robinson as adviser.
UKIP chief Gerard Batten has appointed the founder of the English Defense League, Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, his special adviser on "gangs of rape and penitentiary reform". .
Under Farage, the euroskeptic party played a major role in the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union. He resigned after contributing to the victory of the referendum on EU membership in 2016, on the side of the "parties".
Since then, the party has turned to the far right, supporting street protests against the alleged pernicious influence of Islam in Britain.
Batten has appointed Robinson his personal adviser after UKIP has postponed to next year a decision on whether to let the far-right activist join the party.
"I'm siding in a new direction, it's that I want to make it a mass move," Batten told the BBC on Friday.
Farage said Batten was directing the UKIP in a "shameful" direction.
"This goes against everything that I have done as a leader, who says we will talk about immigration, we will talk about extreme forms of Islam, but we will will be a non-racist and non-sectarian party, "said Farage.
He said that he would urge the party's executive to "vote uncensored on Gerard Batten as a leader".
Robinson is a street protester and online commentator who claims to expose "Muslim rape gangs" ignored by the media. He built an extensive network of online follow-ups with links to white nationalist and far-right international movements.
He has been the subject of several criminal convictions and is currently challenging a contempt conviction for broadcasting live on Facebook outside the trial of men accused of sexually abusing teenage girls. , in violation of the reporting restrictions imposed by the judges.
