Three popular members of the alt-right movement have been denied entry to the UK in the past week, it has emerged.
American activist and podcast host Brittany Pettibone and her boyfriend, Austrian far-right leader Martin Sellner, were denied entry on Friday. Canadian YouTube blogger Lauren Southern was prevented from entering the country on Monday.
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Pettibone and Sellner were detained at Luton Airport and deported from the UK on Sunday, on the grounds that their proposed visits posed a “serious threat to the fundamental interests of society and are likely to incite tensions between local communities in the United Kingdom”, according to the Home Office notice of refusal of entry.
Sellner was planning to speak at an anti-immigrant event at Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park on Sunday, while Pettibone was due to interview Tommy Robinson, the founder of the far-right English Defence League.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Border Force has the power to refuse entry to an individual if it is considered that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.”
In a Twitter video posted on Monday, Pettibone said: “It felt like they were saying, ‘You’re right-wing. That’s not allowed.’”
Southern was denied entry to the UK at Coquelles, near Calais, in France - where the Channel Tunnel joins the European mainland with the British Isles - on the same grounds as the other two activists.
The Canadian said she was prevented from entering Britain after displaying posters that said “Allah is gay” on a rainbow background, during a visit to Luton last month. She claims that she distributed the “LGBT for Islam UK” posters as part of a social experiment.
Fox News says the decision to deny her entry risks creating the impression that Islam is given “unique protection” by UK authorities.
But Joe Mulhall, a senior researcher with anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate, said: "We’ve been watching Lauren Southern for some time, and she has gradually become more and more extreme in her outbursts and associations.”