Far-right activist Tommy Robinson appointed UKIP’s ‘grooming gangs adviser’
- Party leader Gerard Batten said prison and gangs of men ‘grooming’ girls for sex were ‘two subjects which he has great knowledge’
- Batten has compared Robinson to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela
UKIP leader Gerard Batten has appointed anti-lslam activist Tommy Robinson as an official adviser, further cementing the party’s move towards the far right.
Batten said the founder of the far-right activist group the English Defence League, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, would advise him on grooming gangs and prisons.
The UKIP leader said Robinson, who faces a possible retrial after successfully appealing against a jail term for contempt of court after live-streaming videos to Facebook from outside a grooming gang case, had “great knowledge” about the subjects.
This week UKIP announced that Batten had formally sought to begin the process to allow Robinson to become a member. He is currently not allowed as EDL members are banned under existing UKIP rules to keep out people from the far right. The move was resisted by the party’s national executive, which said any decision on the issue should be postponed until after Brexit day in March.
