Farage DEFENDS Trump over his Britain First re-tweets

Nigel Farage today defended Donald Trump’s decision to re-tweet Britain First insisting the ‘liberal elite’ had over-reacted.

The ex-Ukip leader used an appearance on the BBC Andrew Marr Show to claim the reaction has been ‘out of all proportion’ to the offence.

The President’s decision to re-tweet three messages from the far right Britain First group has been widely condemned.

The episode has triggered the worst public clashes between US and UK leaders in memory. Prime Minister Theresa May launched a rare direct attack on Mr Trump, branding him ‘wrong’ for his tweets – prompting a bizarre cross-Atlantic spat.

The row took a turn for the bizarre when Mr Trump attempted to reply directly to Mrs May on Twitter – only to send his message to the wrong Theresa May account.  

Other critics even claimed Mr Trump should be arrested when he next visits Britain. 

Nigel Farage today defended Donald Trump’s decision to re-tweet Britain First insisting the ‘liberal elite’ had over-reacted

Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured today in Maidenhead with husband Philip) launched a rare direct attack on Mr Trump, branding him 'wrong' for his tweets - prompting a bizarre cross-Atlantic spat

Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured today in Maidenhead with husband Philip) launched a rare direct attack on Mr Trump, branding him ‘wrong’ for his tweets – prompting a bizarre cross-Atlantic spat

Mr Farage said today: ‘Do I think those tweets were in good taste? Not particularly, no. 

‘But the point is that the level of outrage from the liberal elite in this country is out of all proportion with what happened here.’

He added: ‘Was the story about ISIS throwing people off buildings fake news? No. It wasn’t, it was true.’

Farage also repeated his claim to have ‘done more than anybody in this country to stop the rise of the far-right in Britain,’ by giving BNP voters someone else to vote for. 

And he endorsed the President’s controversial claim that there were ‘extremists’ on ‘both sides’ of a protest in Charlottesville,

The event saw far-right groups marching with torches yelling ‘Jews will not replace us’ and a counter protester was mown down and killed when a car was driven into pedestrians. 

President Trump (pictured last night boarding Air Force One in New York) has been condemned since his decision to re-tweet three messages from the far right Britain First group has been widely condemned.

President Trump (pictured last night boarding Air Force One in New York) has been condemned since his decision to re-tweet three messages from the far right Britain First group has been widely condemned.

The first video President Trump posted depicted 'Muslim migrant' according to Jayda Fransen, beating up a 'Dutch boy on crutches' 

The first video President Trump posted depicted ‘Muslim migrant’ according to Jayda Fransen, beating up a ‘Dutch boy on crutches’ 

Mr Trump has fired back at the PM by saying she should concentrate on 'Radical Islamic Terrorism taking place in the UK' and not his Twitter activity. Twitter users were also quick to point out that the president had tagged the wrong Theresa in his message

Mr Trump has fired back at the PM by saying she should concentrate on ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism taking place in the UK’ and not his Twitter activity. Twitter users were also quick to point out that the president had tagged the wrong Theresa in his message

On the same show, ex-Labour aide Ayesha Hazarika told Mr Farage: ‘Just remember as Jo Cox lay dying, the scumbag who executed her shouted out the words ‘Britain First.’

She added: ‘Donald Trump is a racist, he’s misogynistic and he’s Islamophobic. He peddles in stirring up hate and division. That might be something you agree with, but that is not what British values are in this country.

Farage interrupted, repeatedly saying: ‘You’re out of touch, you’re out of touch.’

The row erupted on Wednesday when the president retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by the Britain First group. 

One claimed to show a ‘Muslim migrant’ beating up a Dutch boy on crutches. Dutch authorities have insisted the alleged migrant was born and raised in the country and his religion is unknown.

Mr Trump also retweeted a video of a Muslim man ‘destroy(ing) a statue of Virgin Mary’, and another where Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen – who has previously been convicted of religiously aggravated harassment – to wrote: ‘Islamist mob pushed teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!’ The provenance of the footage is unknown. 

The ex-Ukip leader used an appearance on the BBC Andrew Marr Show to claim the reaction has been 'out of all proportion' to the offence but was condemned by ex-Labour aide Ayesha Hazarika (second left) 

The ex-Ukip leader used an appearance on the BBC Andrew Marr Show to claim the reaction has been ‘out of all proportion’ to the offence but was condemned by ex-Labour aide Ayesha Hazarika (second left) 

In her attack on the President, Mrs May has insisted she would not be afraid to raise concerns about Mr Trump’s views.

Questioned by journalists during a visit to Jordan, Mrs May said: ‘The fact that we work together does not mean we are afraid to say when we think the United States has got it wrong and to be very clear with them.

‘And I am very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do.’ 

‘I think that we must all take seriously the threat that far-Right groups pose and both in terms of the terrorist threat that is posed by those groups and the necessity of dealing with extremist material which is far-Right as well.’ 

The videos were posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First (pictured)

The videos were posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First (pictured)

And she warned the UK will not be afraid to rebuke America, despite the so-called special relationship, when she feels Mr Trump has got something wrong. 

The UK's ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, lodged a formal protest with the White House over the retweets

The UK’s ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, lodged a formal protest with the White House over the retweets

Last year, Ms Fransen was found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment after accosting a Muslim woman. 

The charge stemmed from a January 2016 incident in which Fransen, wearing a political uniform and during a so-called ‘Christian patrol,’ accosted a Muslim woman named Sumayyah Sharpe in Luton, England. 

Ms Fransen admitted that she told Sharpe, who was wearing hijab, that Muslim men force women to cover up to avoid rape ‘because they cannot control their sexual urges.’ 

‘That’s why they are coming into my country raping women across the continent,’ Fransen told Sharpe, according to the Independent. Ms Sharpe was in front of her four children at the time. 

Ms Fransen, and Britain First leader Paul Golding, 35, also of Penge, are due to appear at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court today for a pre-trial review over allegations of religiously aggravated abuse in Canterbury and Ramsgate, Kent.

A trial is scheduled for January 29, the Crown Prosecution Service said. 

She will also appear in court in Northern Ireland in December charged with using threatening and abusive language in connection with a speech she made at an anti-terrorism demonstration in Belfast on August 6. 

Britain First previously denied any involvement in the attack on Mrs Cox, and there is no suggestion that Mair was influenced by or in any way involved with the group.

Britain First leader gleefully boasts she now has a ‘special relationship’ with Donald Trump after the US President ‘endorsed’ the group on Twitter 

A leader of the far-Right British group ‘endorsed’ by Donald Trump gleefully boasted yesterday that she now has a ‘special relationship’ with the US President.

Jayda Fransen achieved international notoriety last week when Mr Trump shared her inflammatory anti-Muslim videos with his 44 million followers.

But it sparked a war of words between the President and Theresa May and led to plans for a ‘working visit’ to the UK next month to be ‘kicked into the long grass’.

Fransen speaking at a rally at Belfast City Hall. She claimed she now enjoys a 'special relationship with Donald Trump'

Fransen speaking at a rally at Belfast City Hall. She claimed she now enjoys a ‘special relationship with Donald Trump’

Fransen, 31, deputy leader of Britain First, said: ‘I think the special relationship may have broken down between May and Trump.’ Asked if she – not the Prime Minister – now enjoys a special relationship with the President, she beamed: ‘Exactly.’

Fransen, who has claimed that Trump’s re-tweeting of her videos amounts to an endorsement of Britain First by the US President, was speaking to an undercover Mail on Sunday reporter who infiltrated the extremist organisation’s secret annual conference yesterday.

One delegate, Paul Rimmer, who is due to stand as a Britain First candidate in local elections next year, told the meeting that Trump’s re-tweeting of Ms Fransen’s videos was ‘absolutely mind-blowing’. 

He said the President had ‘found an ally’ in Fransen, adding: ‘You couldn’t get a Hollywood director to put that together. You couldn’t get a novelist to write that.’

Britain First members outside the annual general meeting. One delegates said Muslims have come to 'take what is ours'

Britain First members outside the annual general meeting. One delegates said Muslims have come to ‘take what is ours’

He added: ‘We have got the President of the United States on our side. What an ally that is.’

In a rant-filled speech, he said Muslims ‘have come here to take what is ours… they have come here to take over our cities, city by city, town by town’.

Before Mr Trump re-tweeted Fransen’s videos, Britain First was a marginal group with about 800 members. But his intervention catapulted the extremists into the public spotlight and they boasted of a massive injection of support.

However, only 70 ‘patriots’ answered the call to attend the AGM at the Wyboston Lakes leisure centre complex in Little Barford, Bedfordshire, yesterday.

In addition to praising Mr Trump, delegates applauded as Mrs May was accused of encouraging the Islamic takeover of the UK. One speaker denounced Islam as an ‘evil’ religion.

 



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