Latest news with #TommyRobinson
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Reform says councillor ‘should be sacked for supporting Tommy Robinson'
Reform UK called for the sacking of a Labour councillor who resigned over his apparent support for Tommy Robinson. Nigel Farage's party accused Ben Westwick, who sits on Basildon council in Essex, of posting tweets in support of the far-Right activist more than a decade ago. He has now been suspended by the leader of the council, but remains as an independent member. A spokesman for the local Reform UK party called for Mr Westwick's 'immediate resignation' based on what it called his 'numerous offensive... and deeply inappropriate comments made across his social media accounts'. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, founded the English Defence League (EDL) and has recently been released from prison, having served a sentence for contempt of court. Mr Farage has long tried to distance himself from the EDL founder in a bid to make his party more respectable. In 2018, he resigned from Ukip over his party's obsession with the far-Right activist, and earlier this year he dismissed Elon Musk's call for him to work with Robinson. A Twitter account apparently belonging to Mr Westwick posted back in 2012: '@EDLTrobinson tommy Robinson for prime minister'. The account has not tweeted anything since 2014. Gavin Callaghan, council leader, said he suspended Mr Westwick 'after I was made aware of social media posts made... before he was elected in 2024'. 'Whilst I accept that Ben was a young man when he posted these comments and that he has changed his views on a number of issues, I do not believe it is right for him to represent the Labour Party on the council at this time,' he added. Having the whip removed means a politician is no longer obliged to vote with his party at council meetings. It also usually means an individual is suspended from the political party they are a member of. Mr Westwick now sits as an independent councillor for Pitsea South East. There are two by-elections for Baslidon council due to take place over the next month. One is in Wickford Park ward next Thursday, following the death of Wickford Independents' Dave Harrison, and one in St Martins ward after Labour's Maryam Yaqub stood down.
BBC News
6 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Man faces prison for encouraging asylum hotel violence
A man who called for hotels housing asylum seekers to be burned down amid unrest at an anti-immigration demonstration is likely to face imprisonment, a judge has said. Joseph Haythorne, 26, posted on X on 4 August just as a protest outside the Holiday Inn Express, in Manvers, Rotherham, began to descend into Crown Court heard on Friday that Haythorne's post, from an anonymised account, was viewed by 1,100 people before he deleted an engineer from Ashford, Surrey, admitted publishing material intended to stir up racial hatred at a previous hearing and will be sentenced on Tuesday. Laura Marshall, prosecuting, said the post had included a link to a now-deleted post by the "perhaps divisive figure" Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy said the defendant's full post read: "Go on Rotherham. Burn any hotels [with asylum seekers]." 'Momentary lapse' Ms Marshall said the case had some similarities with the case of Lucy Connolly, who was jailed last year for calling for "mass deportation now", adding "set fire to all the... hotels [housing asylum seekers]... for all I care".The barrister also referenced the cases of Jordan Parlour and Tyler Kay, who both encouraged people on social media to attack Brasoveanu, defending Haythorne, said he posted the comment in a "momentary lapse of judgement which he regrets every day".She said there was no evidence he had deeply rooted views about immigration issues and was "more interested in football than politics".The barrister said a medical report concluded that his struggle with depression could have exacerbated his reaction to social media content about the murder of three girls in Southport and posts by the controversial influencer Andrew Tate. However, the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, told the court: "Somebody who is looking at Andrew Tate's social media posts, and then taking these actions, is not suffering from a momentary lapse of judgement."He called Haythorne's post "vile" and "dreadful racist nonsense", saying it "inflamed the situation - almost literally" at the hotel."He's tweeted this racist rubbish, 1,100 people see it in 17 minutes before he realised it was dreadful and then he takes it down."And, unfortunately, the damage is done."Judge Richardson told Haythorne: "I am reasonably confident that you will be going to prison."It is, however, very important that I calibrate this sentence with great care."Additional reporting by PA Media. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
BBC News
9 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Councillor suspended from Labour over 'offensive' social media
A Labour councillor has been suspended by his local party over social media posts he made more than a decade ago that were deemed racist and supportive of far-right activist Tommy UK highlighted "offensive" posts that they claimed had been made by Ben Westwick - a councillor at Basildon Council in leader Gavin Callaghan said he took the action against Westwick "after I was made aware of social media posts made... before he was elected in 2024".Westwick, who now sits as an independent councillor for Pitsea South East, has been contacted for comment by the BBC. A Twitter/X account belonging to Ben Westwick, which has not had any new posts since 2014, included posts such as one with a sexually explicit image and another that was racist against black people and that included a monkey 2012, his account tweeted "@EDLTrobinson tommy Robinson for prime minister". Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is a far-right activist who founded the English Defence League (EDL) and has just been released from prison having served a sentence for contempt of said in a statement: "Whilst I accept that Ben was a young man when he posted these comments and that he has changed his views on a number of issues, I do not believe it is right for him to represent the Labour Party on the council at this time."The local Reform UK party has called for Westwick's "immediate resignation" based on what they call his "numerous offensive, racist, and deeply inappropriate comments made across his social media accounts".Having the whip removed means a politician is no longer obliged to vote with his party at council meetings. It also usually means an individual is suspended from the political party they are a member has been contacted by the BBC about Westwick's party there are two by-elections for Basildon Council due to take place over the next is in Wickford Park ward next Thursday, following the death of Wickford Independents' Dave Harrison, and one in St Martins ward on 17 July after Labour's Maryam Yaqub stood down earlier this month. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
'If I go back...': Pakistani-origin activist Shoaib Sohail says UK will deport him as he supports Tommy Robinson
Pakistani-origin activist Shoaib Sohail said he was sacked from Swansea Council because of his support for Tommy Robinson and he was threatened by the council to delete his X account and YouTube. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now In an interview with GB News, Sohail said the UK has been his country since 2008 and he does not like the people of his own community who just illegally enter the UK. Sohail said his community tried to silence him through threats, intimidation and lies. When all of these failed, they sent the police after him and he was arrested on false accusations. In a long X post in which he announced that his journey in UK has been forced to come to an end, Sohail wrote that the final blow came to him when he lost his job with Swansea Council. With no job in the UK, now he has no other option to stay in the country. "What many don't know is that I am not entitled to any benefits in the UK. I never needed them, I always had good jobs and took pride in standing on my own two feet. In fact, I once wrote to the Home Office declining benefits because I saw how many illegal immigrants were taking advantage of the system. That email is also attached below," Sohail wrote. "I haven't yet decided where I will go. I hold a Pakistani passport, and sadly, that alone has closed doors. Many companies in Dubai and Saudi Arabia have effectively shadow-banned Pakistani applicants, making it incredibly hard to get a job. That leaves only Pakistan not out of desire, but out of necessity," he wrote. Sohail said in Pakistan, he is a known voice against religion extremist and he receive numerous death threats from Pakistanis, Afghans, Bengalis and Muslims after my interview outside Tommy Robinson's court case in London went viral. "If I go back, I know there are people who would love nothing more than to silence me permanently," Sohail said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Keir Starmer makes U-turn mid-air over grooming gangs inquiry
The news emerged in a notably low-key way: a speculative question to Keir Starmer during his Q&A with reporters on the way to the G7 summit in Canada. Yes, he said, speaking carefully while wedged in the aisle of the cramped jet, there would be a full statutory inquiry into grooming gangs. This was, it should be remembered, not just one of the most toxic debates in British politics during 2025, but one where Starmer and his ministers had continually pushed back against demands for such an action. So why now? At first sight this might seem similar to the recent U-turn over eligibility for pensioners' winter fuel allowance – a belated acknowledgment that the original decision had been mistaken, masked by words about circumstances changing. But in this instance things are arguably more nuanced, despite the notably furious reactions from Kemi Badenoch and the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, who were swift to accuse the prime minister of delay without reason. It is worth remembering that the scandal and the official response to it is not a new issue, and that demands for a new inquiry coincided squarely with Elon Musk, the billionaire X owner, taking a sudden interest in the subject. By the time Musk started posting furiously and often misleadingly about the subject, leaning heavily into the ideas of the British far right anti-Islam agitator Tommy Robinson, ministers were still pondering how to implement the recommendations of an existing inquiry completed by Prof Alexis Jay in 2022. The government found itself buffeted by a suddenly brutal media and political landscape, punctuated by grim vignettes like Musk calling Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister who has perhaps done more to combat violence against women than any other serving Westminster MP, a 'rape genocide apologist'. The Conservatives and Reform UK then demanded a fuller national investigation into the phenomenon of the sexual abuse gangs that sprung up around the night-time economies of a series of towns, with many of the offenders being of Pakistani heritage. No 10's initial instinct was to hunker down and argue that the best action was to act on Jay's recommendations. But within a few weeks this began to shift and the government announced that the crossbench peer and safeguarding expert Louise Casey would conduct a review of the grooming gang evidence based on smaller local inquiries, without the statutory abilities to compel witnesses to give evidence. Casey has now completed her review and, as Starmer set out on the plane, recommended a full national inquiry, which will be set up. So this is perhaps less a U-turn than the consequences of January's earlier U-turn, and in truth given Casey had called for a national inquiry, it would have been extremely difficult for the government to push back against this. This will not, however, completely quell the political anger over the subject. The formal Home Office announcement of the inquiry implicitly acknowledges this, also setting out plans for the National Crime Agency to work with local police forces to try to prosecute grooming gang cases that happened years ago. Some critics of Starmer, Philp among them, also remain angry that, as they claim, he described supporters of a new inquiry as 'far right' when the PM hit out against Musk in January. This is an over-interpretation of Starmer's actual comments, who went no further than saying they were 'amplifying' some far-right demands. But, as shown by the court verdict last week in which seven men who groomed two vulnerable teenage girls in Rochdale from 2001 and 2006 were belatedly convicted, this is not an issue that is about to go away. The hope must be that, at the very least, the new inquiry helps replace some of the invective with facts.
