Reform UK supporters chant ‘Free Tommy Robinson’ at party conference
Reform members were heard chanting for Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, to be released from prison during a regional party conference in Leicester last Friday.
While discussing grooming gang scandals in areas like Rotherham, some audience members began chanting pro-Tommy Robinson messages.
During Lee Anderson MP’s speech, one member of the crowd shouted “Listen to Tommy Robinson”.
When a second crowd member shouted a pro-Tommy Robinson chant, Anderson told the man “to shut up or get out”.
He said: “Are you going to shut up or just get out? Do you want to come up here and speak? Do you want to come up?”.
This comes after Elon Musk published a pinned post on X which said: “Free Tommy Robinson” and claimed he was sent to prison for exposing truth about grooming gangs.
Robinson was instead jailed for contempt of court after repeating false allegations about a young Syrian refugee.
By telling members of the crowd shouting messages in support of Tommy Robinson to “shut up”, Anderson again signalled that Reform UK is trying to distance itself from the far-right figurehead, who is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence.
In an interview on LBC yesterday, Reform MP Richard Tice said of Robinson: “He’s in jail, he’s nothing to do with us and never will be.”
He added: “It is as clear and as simple as that, we’re a serious political party”.
Anderson was the first big speaker at Reform UK’s East Midlands party conference on Friday.
In his speech, the Ashfield MP said: “We’re not far-right protestors, we’re just decent, hard-working Brits that want to leave our country in a better state than when we arrived”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
‘Are you going to shut up or just go out?’
Reform members were heard chanting for Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, to be released from prison during a regional party conference in Leicester last Friday.
While discussing grooming gang scandals in areas like Rotherham, some audience members began chanting pro-Tommy Robinson messages.
During Lee Anderson MP’s speech, one member of the crowd shouted “Listen to Tommy Robinson”.
When a second crowd member shouted a pro-Tommy Robinson chant, Anderson told the man “to shut up or get out”.
He said: “Are you going to shut up or just get out? Do you want to come up here and speak? Do you want to come up?”.
This comes after Elon Musk published a pinned post on X which said: “Free Tommy Robinson” and claimed he was sent to prison for exposing truth about grooming gangs.
Robinson was instead jailed for contempt of court after repeating false allegations about a young Syrian refugee.
By telling members of the crowd shouting messages in support of Tommy Robinson to “shut up”, Anderson again signalled that Reform UK is trying to distance itself from the far-right figurehead, who is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence.
In an interview on LBC yesterday, Reform MP Richard Tice said of Robinson: “He’s in jail, he’s nothing to do with us and never will be.”
He added: “It is as clear and as simple as that, we’re a serious political party”.
Anderson was the first big speaker at Reform UK’s East Midlands party conference on Friday.
In his speech, the Ashfield MP said: “We’re not far-right protestors, we’re just decent, hard-working Brits that want to leave our country in a better state than when we arrived”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Over 200 anti-racists protested outside the Reform UK East Midlands conference as speakers scapegoating migrants inside
Supporters of Stand Up To Racism outside the Reform UK
regional conference in Leicester
By Thomas Foster
Friday 03 January 2025
SOCIALIST WORKER
Reform UK’s regional conference in Leicester on Friday gave a taste of the party’s plans for 2025—spreading vicious racism and building a mass far right party.
But the conference didn’t go unopposed as over 200 supporters of Stand Up To Racism Leicester protested outside (see below).
Racist scapegoating of migrants and refugees for problems caused by bankers, bosses and billionaires took centre stage at the conference.
“We’re going to need bigger venues in the future,” crowed Nigel Farage as he pitched Reform UK as the only party that will clamp down on immigration.
Farage railed against the “37,000 young men who crossed the English Channel last year” and painted a picture of migrants overwhelming Britain’s borders. “It’s not just people coming on the back of lorries—it’s people coming on visas and overstaying,” he claimed.
In reality, Britain has a below average number of people applying for asylum compared to other European countries.
But attacking refugees, who are fleeing war, poverty and dictatorship, was just the thin end of the wedge for Farage. He continued, “The population explosion of ten million—more than ten million—over the past 20 years is the biggest contributor to our diminishing quality of life.”
“We cannot get access to health care, our children and grandchildren cannot get onto the housing ladder, the traffic is impossible—nothing works anymore.”
In reality, it’s public school boy and former stockbroker Farage’s mates in big business who are to blame. The rich amassed vast wealth and backed politicians who slashed and privatised the NHS, allowed landlords to jack up rents and left services to crumble.
Farage seized on the far right weaponising child sexual exploitation (CSE) scandals, which saw police and local authorities fail victims due to sexism (see below). But the far right claims it was due to race and political correctness.
“The police have failed in all of these towns and cities, they dare not say anything for fear of being called racist,” he said.
Farage welcomed onto the stage former Tory MP Marco Longhi, the latest Tory politician to defect to Reform UK.
Longhi said the Tory party had “lost its soul”—“it has changed, I have not”. “I stopped an asylum hotel in my then constituency of Dudley,” he said. “I wanted to put Dudley people first—I wanted to put our people first.
“What does it mean to be British anymore? Our heart and identity have been ripped apart at the altar of political correctness and wokery.”
Reform UK’s growth is occurring amid increasingly vocal support from billionaire and Donald Trump supporter Elon Musk. On Wednesday, he posted on X to his 210 million followers, “Vote Reform. It’s the only hope.”
Musk has taken to sharing posts from Reform UK MPs such as Tice and Rupert Lowe, as well as fascist Tommy Robinson.
Farage was careful to distance himself from Robinson, who is trying to build a fascist street movement. “We’re a political party aiming to win the next general election. He’s not what we need,” he said.
But when broadcaster Matthew Goodwin pushed the far right’s narrative about child abuse, one member of the crowd called out, “You going to support Tommy Robinson?” The Nazi, who was jailed for contempt of court, has weaponised CSE scandals to push racist myths about “Muslim grooming gangs”.
How sexual violence is racialised
Read More
The conference came as Reform UK’s membership grew to over 166,000—surpassing the Tory party’s membership of around 131,000 over Christmas.
The new membership base has little real influence, with Farage and Tice remaining firmly in control of Reform UK. Members have little to no say in candidate selection, leadership selection or party policy.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice boasted this week that the new members will help to ramp up the party’s “ground game”. “We’ve consistently been saying that we’ve got to open lots of branches and build a ground game,” he said.
Reform UK’s key target is success in the May local council and mayoral contests. The party isn’t just a threat to the Tories—it’s been taking votes from the Labour Party too in by-elections.
Reform UK feeds off the sense of disillusionment with the Labour government, which is failing working class people. At the conference, Tice attacked Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves’s cuts to winter fuel payments and described her as “a nightmare on socialist street”.
But the central mobiliser is racism towards migrants, refugees and Muslims. This isn’t an accident—Labour’s torrent of racist scapegoating towards migrants and refugees has laid the ground for voters switching to Reform UK.
Prime minister Keir Starmer and home secretary Yvette Cooper’s language of crackdowns, small boats and secure borders plays up the lie that immigration is a problem. And then Reform UK presents itself as the only party that will do anything about it.
At the anti-racist protest, SUTR supporter Jackie told Socialist Worker, “Reform UK is growing because of the failure of mainstream parties.
“The mainstream media has courted racism, saying that all the problems are caused by mass immigration—and Labour hasn’t challenged that.
Reform UK is hoovering up “floating voters who feel disenfranchised, fed up and that no solutions for them are being offered,” Jackie argued. “We need to build a genuine anti-racist movement capable of taking on what’s ahead.
“We invite anyone who stands up for unity and against division to join us in that endeavour.”
Anti-racists have to campaign against Reform UK in the local election—and the Labour government’s scapegoating of migrants that fuels the party’s rise.
Anti-racists say Reform UK not welcome in Leicester
Over 200 anti-racists protested against Reform UK’s East Midlands conference in Leicester on Friday.
The demonstration was organised and built at short notice over the Christmas period by the Leicester branch of Stand Up To Racism (SUTR).
Nigel Farage’s party has two MPs across the East Midlands, Richard Tice in Boston & Skegness and Lee Anderson in Ashfield.
The Reform UK supporters were mostly male and white—in a striking contrast to the diverse crowd of anti-racists there to greet them.
As Reform supporters entered the Athena conference centre, protesters could be heard celebrating Leicester’s multiculturalism. They chanted, “Whose Leicester? Our Leicester! Whose streets? Our streets!” and, “We are many, you are few. We are Leicester, who are you?”.
Speakers at the SUTR rally included Jenny Day from the NEU education union, Imam Shafi Chowdhury from City Retreat community organisation and Sharmen Rahman from the Green Party.
They condemned Farage for posing as a “man of the people” while pushing policies that would harm the working class—and challenged his racism rhetoric.
Unite union and Green Party member Dane told Socialist Worker, “It was great to see a unity of the left.
“People from anarchists and socialist groups, trade unions, Green Party, Labour Party and faith groups all stood together in unity to stop the populist hard right Farage supporters.”
Beth, a student from Nottingham, added, “It was a very obvious political choice. This isn’t the biggest city in the East Midlands. But it is the most multicultural city in Britain and I think they came to stir up trouble but it ended up biting them in the ass.”
Earlier in the day Shockat Adam, the independent MP for Leicester South, released a statement condemning Reform’s “dog whistles on race”. He acknowledged the concerns expressed by some of his constituents, but did not attend the protest or call on supporters to.
As Reform UK plans further regional conferences this month, anti-racists should take inspiration from Leicester and take to the streets.
Petra on behalf of Leicester SWP
Demand justice for the victims, don’t let the racists divide us
The far right has seized on horrific child sexual exploitation (CSE) scandals to push a racist agenda.
Home Office minister Jess Phillips rejected Oldham council’s call for a government-led inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation.
Right wing channel GB News reported the decision, which Labour took last October, on Wednesday.
Billionaire X owner Elon Musk—who supports Donald Trump and Reform UK—and senior Tory politicians then picked it up. He also demanded that Nazi Tommy Robinson be freed from prison.
The far right and racists are continuing a long history of racialising sexual violence.
Home Office research from 2020 said, “There is no credible evidence that any one ethnic group is over-represented in cases of child sexual exploitation.”
The cops and councils failed victims because of sexism, not because of race or “political correctness”.
The far right’s narrative only further harms victims of abuse and exploitation.
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