Islam is a “death cult” and “the most regressive force on earth”. The prophet Muhammad “was himself a paedophile who kept sex slaves”. Tommy Robinson, the jailed former leader of the English Defence League, is “heroic”. The prime minister’s real name is “Treason May”.

The views of some fringe far-right figure? No: the words of Gerard Batten, the leader of Ukip. At the very moment Westminster politics starts descending into chaos, and opposition to Theresa May’s Chequers deal gives the Kippers the chance of avoiding electoral disaster, the party is joining with forces it once largely shunned to create something not seen in Britain before: a convergence on the hard right.

Eight days ago, in Whitehall, Batten, the “Free Tommy Robinson” movement and British supporters