Britain First gets ‘hundreds of membership applications’ after Trump retweets
Far-right group’s deputy leader says US president’s posts amounted to an endorsement
Britain First claims it has received hundreds of new membership applications after Donald Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by the far-right group’s deputy leader Jayda Fransen.
Paul Golding, the group’s leader, told The Times that Britain First received hundreds of membership applications in the 24 hours after the US president retweeted the three videos to his 43.6 million followers.
“Its membership was previously estimated at fewer than 1,000,” reports The Times.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The group’s Facebook page “has been gaining supporters at a rate of more than one per minute since the president’s tweets”, adds The Sun.
Golding told The Times that Fransen had also gained more than 25,000 Twitter followers since Trump posted shared her tweets on Wednesday.
Fransen claims that the president’s actions amounted to an endorsement. She has also called on Trump to intervene in her forthcoming trial on charges of using threatening, abusive or insulting words in a speech at a rally in Belfast in August.
Fransen - who is on bail for religiously aggravated harassment over a separate incident earlier this year - said in a video posted online: “On behalf of myself and every citizen of Britain, and for every man and woman who has fought and died for us to have freedom of speech, I am appealing to you for your help.”
Attention has now turned to whether Prime Minister Theresa May will cancel Trump’s planned state visit to the UK. Justice Minister Sam Gyimah is the most senior Conservative politician to voice his opposition to the visit, saying he was “deeply uncomfortable” about the idea.
“Whitehall sources” say plans are being drawn up for Trump “to make a pared-down visit to London in February to mark the opening of the new US embassy”, reports Politico.
“If he still wants to come, there’s really not much we can do to stop him,” one UK official told The Times’s political editor Francis Elliott.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Horror stories of women having to carry nonviable fetuses'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Haiti interim council, prime minister sworn in
Speed Read Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigns amid surging gang violence
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - April 26, 2024
Cartoons Friday's cartoons - teleprompter troubles, presidential immunity, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Justices set to punt on Trump immunity case
Speed Read Conservative justices signaled support for Trump's protection from criminal charges
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'Biden is smart to keep the border-security pressure on'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Arizona grand jury indicts 18 in Trump fake elector plot
Speed Read The state charged Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies in 2020 election interference case
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'Voters know Biden and Trump all too well'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Who will win the 2024 presidential election?
In Depth Election year is here. Who are pollsters and experts predicting to win the White House?
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
National Enquirer helped Trump in 2016, ex-boss says
Speed Read David Pecker says the tabloid published fabricated content to hurt Trump's rivals
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Sitting in judgment on Trump
Opinion Who'd want to be on this jury?
By Susan Caskie Published
-
How could the Supreme Court's Fischer v. US case impact the other Jan 6. trials including Trump's?
Today's Big Question A former Pennsylvania cop might hold the key to a major upheaval in how the courts treat the Capitol riot — and its alleged instigator
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published