Ukip welcomes social media activists linked to alt-right into party

Ukip has allowed a trio of social media activists linked to the alt-right to join the party.

The arrival of Paul Joseph Watson, Mark Meechan – better known to YouTube viewers as Count Dankula – and Carl Benjamin, who posts videos as Sargon of Akkad, will alarm some senior Ukip members already concerned at the struggling party’s direction under Gerard Batten.

Batten, who took control of the party in February on an initial one-year basis, has defined himself largely though anti-Islam rhetoric. He has also backed Tommy Robinson, the founder of the anti-Islam English Defence League (EDL) street movement, who was jailed in May for contempt of court.

The party’s rules forbid former members of the EDL or other far-right groups from joining. A Ukip spokesman confirmed that Watson, Meechan and Benjamin had joined, saying he “took issue” with the notion they were from the alt-right.

All three are vocal on social media, with large followings and often controversial views. Watson, who has 875,000 Twitter followers, is a senior editor at Infowars, the US-based website that deals partly in conspiracy theories, such as arguing that the Sandy Hook primary school shooting was a hoax.

Watson describes himself as a “classical liberal”, but mainly offers posts condemning immigration and Islam, and seeking to bait leftwingers.

Meechan, from North Lanarkshire, is best known for being fined £800 by a court earlier this year after he posted an online video of his girlfriend’s pug dog giving Nazi salutes, raising its paw in response to statements such as “Sieg Heil”. He has nearly 250,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel.

Benjamin, who took the name Sargon of Akkad from the ruler of a Mesopotamian empire in the second millennium BC, first became known for his vehement anti-feminist comments, and was then accused of sparking a series of Twitter rape threats by other people against the Labour MP Jess Phillips.

He is now banned from Twitter, but remains on YouTube, where he has 810,000 subscribers.

All three had spoken via social media of their intention to join Ukip, a process seemingly sparked earlier this month when Meechan promised to do so if the pledge was retweeted 10,000 times.

Batten’s sympathy towards such figures is not a surprise. He has spoken alongside Meechan and Benjamin at events connected to Robinson, and was recently photographed alongside Benjamin and Watson.

Their membership was welcomed by Ukip’s London assembly member David Kurten, who tweeted his pleasure at the news.

However, some more traditional members have expressed concern at Batten’s direction for a party that won almost 4m votes in the 2015 general election, but whose support has since plummeted under a series of short-lived leaders. A recent poll gave the party less than 3% support.

A spokesman for the group Hope Not Hate, which monitors alt-right groups among others said: “There are attempts afoot to forge an alliance between extreme figures who have made their names online, those involved in electoral politics, and those out on the streets, around an anti-Muslim and pro- ‘free speech’ agenda.

“In following the path he’s chosen, Batten is leading Ukip down a dangerous route, and the acceptance of figures such as Watson is further evidence of this.”