UKIP has “ridden on the back of the success of the English Defence League”, Tommy Robinson, the founder of the nationalist street protest movement, claims today.
Mr Robinson, who announced this week that he was quitting the EDL because it had become infiltrated with racist extremists, does not renounce its original aims, which include a five-year moratorium on immigration.
In an interview with The Times today, he says UKIP shares “similarities” with the group he set up. “I’ve had meetings with many middle-class people who are completely supportive of the English Defence League but they’re not on the street.
“I think UKIP has ridden on the back of the success of the English Defence League. The English Defence League has woken up a lot