Ruling body to discuss whether motion can go forward to a vote at annual conference

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Ukip’s annual conference could debate whether to lift a ban on the anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson becoming a member, a move which, if approved, would further indicate the party’s move to the far right.

Under long-established party rules, former members of the English Defence League, which was formed by Robinson, are banned from joining, along with people who belonged to the British National party.

But Ukip’s leader, Gerard Batten, has strongly backed Robinson, a self-styled freedom-of-speech activist whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, likening him to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

The party’s national executive committee will discuss motions this weekend to be voted on at the conference in Birmingham, one of which will ask whether Robinson should be allowed to join.

A spokesman said: “The NEC always decides what motions will be discussed at the party conference. Any party branch is free to submit a motion to the NEC.”

Even if the motion is discussed, it would then ultimately be up to the NEC to decide whether the rules should be changed. Ukip’s ruling body can often go against the wishes of leaders, and some senior party members are known to greatly dislike Batten’s support for Robinson.

But others are keen to link the party to Robinson, who was freed on bail in August pending a new hearing on whether he was in contempt of court by broadcasting details of a trial subject to reporting restrictions.

He had already been given a suspended sentence for committing contempt during a rape trial in Canterbury after attempting to film the defendants.

Alan Craig, Ukip’s families and children spokesman, told the Kipper Central website that Robinson had become “a global phenomenon representing those who have been excluded and silenced by the globalist liberal elite”.

The submitted motion says Robinson had sought to “expose the authorities’ decades-long silence and inaction over industrial-scale child sexual abuse by rape gangs, and requests the NEC to offer him membership of Ukip”.

The motion comes amid a more general shift in focus for Ukip under Batten, who took over the leadership in February. He has referred to Islam as a “death cult” and has called Muhammad a paedophile.

Batten has also allowed a trio of controversial social media activists into the party, including Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars, a far-right US conspiracy theory website which has argued the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a hoax involving child actors.

Some senior Ukip figures have privately expressed exasperation at Batten’s focus, and are calling on him to capitalise on the government’s woes over Brexit, particularly criticism of the Chequers plan.

The two-day conference begins on 21 September.