Martin Sellner: Far-right leader plans Hyde Park speech after Ukip event cancelled

The leader of a far-right anti-immigration group has vowed to speak in London after a planned appearance at a Ukip event was cancelled.

Martin Sellner, a member of Generation Identity, a cross-European anti-migrant group, says he will give an address at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park on Sunday.

The pledge comes after a planned “free speech” conference of Ukip’s youth wing, Young Independence, this weekend was cancelled amid alleged “security threats”.

“My speech for the @YIofficial conference was cancelled for the 2nd time, due to security risks caused by left wing threats,” Sellner tweeted.

“But we won’t be silenced. On Sunday the 11th I will give my speech on Speakers Corner and I invite everybody who had a ticket for the conference to come!”

Sellner, a 29-year-old from Austria, led the so-called Defend Europe mission which chartered a boat in a bid to block the arrival of boats carrying refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean.

Anti-fascist campaign group Hope Not Hate has described the Generation Identity group he co-leads in Austria as "racist and extreme".

The organisation, which was founded in France, has been likened to the ‘alt-right’ in America and has grown in prominence in Germany, Austria and Italy.

Sellner has been pictured alongside former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, and uses the hashtag #remigration on Twitter to “encourage” migrants to return to their homelands.

Asked whether Sellner could be blocked from entering the UK, a Home Office spokesman said they do not comment on individual cases, adding: “The Home Secretary may exclude an EEA national on the grounds of public policy or security, if they pose a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat.”

Speakers' Corner, in the north-east of Hyde Park, is historically an area where public speaking and debate is allowed and encouraged.