Reform-backing activist ramps up racist rhetoric

Martin Shipton

A leading far-right activist who is urging people to vote for Reform UK in May’s Senedd election has ramped up his Islamophobic rhetoric by suggesting that 400,000 British Muslims could stage a violent uprising against the British state.

Until recently, Richard Taylor was the leader in Wales of Advance UK, a party founded by Ben Habib, the former deputy leader of Reform, after he fell out with Nigel Farage.

Taylor, a former teenage criminal ‘who found God’ while serving a custodial sentence and later became an evangelical preacher, is also a supporter of the serial criminal who calls himself Tommy Robinson, but whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon.

Together with a female friend known as Rogue, “Richie” Taylor co-presents a talk show on his Facebook page.

In a show discussing the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel, Rogue states: “This can affect us here, because now Iran has been attacked, we have sleeper cells over here, and it is so important that you keep yourself safe and be extra vigilant because there is going to be a war. Not that we’ve induced it, but there’s going to be a war because we’ve allowed it. Labour has allowed it.”

Taylor then states: “I think what many people are concerned about [is] the demographical change in the UK. We’ve seen so many Muslims and Islamists in this country – some are very decent people, but of course their religion comes before anything else and if you attack a nation or a country where Islam is the predominant form of civilisation, then of course they’re living here as well. They can turn on us … There are so many people in this country who will turn on us, British citizens, for the simple reason that their country is being attacked.”

Taylor asks “Rogue” to read out some statistics. She states: “So there are four million Muslims in the UK, not including the illegals. So, if just 10% retaliate, that’s 400,000 Muslims ready to fight. That’s quite serious actually.”

Taylor states: “Absolutely.”

Rogue then reads out some statistics relating to the size of Britain’s armed forces and states: “Look, we could be in trouble.”

Taylor agrees, stating: “Yeah, we could be indeed.”

Attack

Much of the rest of the show is devoted to a verbal attack by Taylor on Pete Prosser, the recently appointed director of Advance UK in Wales. Taylor argues that Prosser and Habib are wrong to contemplate standing Advance UK candidates in Wales, saying they would have no chance of getting elected and would take votes from Reform. He urges Habib to intervene and those who support Advance to vote for Reform instead.

In a subsequent solo video, Taylor engaged in a further shocking racist rant, saying: “Why the fuck hasn’t Keir Starmer resigned yet? The guy’s a disgrace. On the international stage, he’s absolutely useless. He’s a laughing stock. Now he’s ostracised America, pissed off Donald Trump, our greatest ally.

“Now he’s talking about we might have to go to war because some of our bases are being attacked in Greece or in Cyprus, wherever the case might be.

“Look, this guy is fucking useless. Labour MPs, get rid of him. Replace him with anything. Anything’s better. Fucking Jeremy Corbyn would be better right now. Well I wouldn’t go that far. But let’s face it, our country is fucked under this Prime Minister and it’s only going to get worse. We need somebody serious. Somebody who’s going to take on the massive invasion of a foreign civilisation into our country, who think it’s OK to shit on our streets, to rape our women and our children and to turn our country into a third world country.

“This isn’t fucking Pakistan or Bangladesh or India. This is fucking Great Britain. Let’s make it great again and kick these motherfuckers out. Deport the lot of them. I’ve had a fucking gut’s full.”