Reform UK divided as senior figures say Tommy Robinson supporters ‘are our friends’

Senior figures in Reform UK have spoken out against Nigel Farage and Richard Tice’s decision to distance themselves from Tommy Robinson and his supporters, with one saying he refused to throw the English Defence League founder “under a bus”.

Deputy leader Tice sparked a row in the party after saying it wants “nothing to do with” Robinson, who was jailed this week, and ”all of that lot”, while Farage has previously accused Robinson and his supporters of “stirring up hatred”.

But Ben Habib, the party’s recent former deputy leader and general election candidate in Wellingborough, stood up for those who attended a rally in support of Robinson on Saturday.

Speaking to YouTuber Paul Thorpe, Mr Habib said: “Those of us who care about this country, who want to stand against the uniparty of the Tories and Labour, have to stick together. We are one group.

“I don’t know Tommy Robinson, I’m not going to venture an opinion on Tommy Robinson. But certainly, I’m not going to throw him under a bus. What I do know is the thousands, tens of thousands of people who congregated in Whitehall on Saturday, I know many people who told me they were there. They are our friends, they are Reform voters and we need to stand firmly behind them.”

Mr Habib then told the Guardian Mr Farage “carries an interesting balancing act” as someone who appeared a “firebrand rightwinger” but who also had to “curry favour with the mainstream media”.

Meanwhile Howard Cox, Reform’s London mayoral candidate and general election candidate for Dover and Deal, said Mr Tice was wrong to distance the party from Robinson’s supporters.

Speaking to broadcaster Dan Wootton, Mr Cox said Robinson should not be in jail, adding: “This week, unfortunately, Richard … said I want nothing to do with Tommy Robinson or his lot. It’s a bit sad because I’m a good friend of Richard and we are close but that was wrong … I am one of that lot. Nigel actually did contact me privately and he just simply said Richard went over the top,” Cox told Wootton.

He added: “I love him to death, but I think Richard has got to come out and clarify what he really meant. He was actually saying he was against thuggery and violence. Most of the people there, 99 per cent of the people at all of these things, are just concerned about getting our country back.”

On Saturday, thousands of Robinson’s supporters gathered in central London for a protest which the political activist missed after he was remanded. He has since been jailed for 18 months for contempt of court after he admitted breaching an injunction preventing him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee.

The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was accused of “thumbing his nose at the court” in front of millions of people by breaching the 2021 High Court order on multiple occasions, including airing a documentary at a rally in Trafalgar Square in July.

Reform UK was asked to comment.