Welsh UKIP general election candidate calls Angela Rayner a ‘slag from Bolton’

Martin Shipton

A foul-mouthed fascist who will be UKIP’s Westminster candidate for Llanelli at the next general election has been condemned for referring to Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner as a “common oik” and a “slag from Bolton”.

Stan Robinson made the comments during a vlog he presented with his fellow “Voice of Wales” activist Dan Morgan, a convicted fraudster who was given a suspended prison sentence for his role in a multi-million-pound insurance scam that saw people duped into paying up-front fees with the promise of refunds that never materialised.

During a rant about Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, which is polling far higher than UKIP, Robinson refers to former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson, who recently defected to Reform, saying: “They’re so inextricably tied together, it’s like Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner, a common oik. In order to personify [sic – presumably he means pacify] the working class, they have to have the slag from Bolton on.”

Ineptitude

Robinson’s rudeness is matched by his geographical ineptitude. Ms Rayner doesn’t come from Bolton. She was born in Stockport, on the other side of Manchester, and is the MP for nearby Ashton-under-Lyne.

In the vlog, Robinson also makes a fool of himself by confusing the Sussex constituency of Lewes with the Scottish island of Lewis.

Both Morgan and Robinson have been prominent far right activists in Wales for several years. In 2021 YouTube removed two channels jointly run by him and fellow far-right activist Stan Robinson because of their racist content. Welsh politicians and race equality groups condemned the Voice of Wales channel for airing interviews with The Proud Boys, an American far-right group that has been outlawed in Canada, and controversial figures such as former English Defence League leader “Tommy Robinson”, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Holocaust denier

Robinson’s comments about Ms Rayner follow a recent incident when he and Morgan showcased a notorious Holocaust denier on their vlog.

Ironically, Alistair McConnachie was expelled by UKIP in 2001 for telling blatant lies about the Holocaust. He stated that he does not believe the Nazis killed any Jewish people in gas chambers and that eyewitness testimony to the contrary was “false”.

Asked recently if he stood by his denial of the Holocaust, McConnachie presented an incoherent position. He insisted he was not a Holocaust denier, but stood by his assertion that “gas chambers [were not] used to execute Jews” – and that eyewitness accounts of it happening had been “revealed as false or exaggerated”.

After initially saying he had “never” denied the Holocaust, he subsequently admitted that quotes attributed to him in the Guardian in 2001, in which he denied the murder of Jews in gas chambers, still represented his position.

He said: “I’m not a Holocaust denier. That’s not Holocaust denial … that’s a different matter I think. I’ve been very clear on that. I’ve been very clear on my position on that.”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition says that Holocaust denial encompasses “publicly denying or calling into doubt the use of principal mechanisms of destruction (such as gas chambers…)”.

McConnachie is also known for founding A Force for Good, a pro-Union campaign group. He also set up a political party named Independent Green Voice that, while it failed to win any MSPs at the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, was credited by some with robbing the Greens of extra seats due to its presentation on the ballot.

In his discussion with Morgan and Robinson, Mr McConnachie criticised Scotland’s Hate Crime Act, which came into force on April 1.

‘New low’

A Llanelli Labour source, who asked for anonymity because of their fear of reprisals, said: “By giving credibility to an unashamed Holocaust denier like McConnachie, Morgan and Robinson have sunk to a new low and exposed how far to the right UKIP has travelled. I have no doubt the people of Llanelli will reject their divisive politics when the general election comes.”

In a social media message addressed to UKIP, the anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate’s Llanelli branch said: “Hey UKIP Wales still no comment in your candidate in #Llanelli hosting a holocaust denier?

“Maybe you could also ask Stan Robinson – UK Independence Party Llanelli why he thinks it was ok to refer to Angela Rayner as a “slag from Bolton” (VoW broadcast 7.4.24)

“Surely there has to be some level of morality and decency in your campaign?”