What is Antifa? Reform says Labour inviting group to 'take up arms against Farage'
Richard Tice says Sir Keir Starmer is inviting anti-fascists to take up arms
Sir Keir Starmer has been accused by Richard Tice of "inviting Antifa to take up arms and come after Nigel Farage”.
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Reform’s deputy leader last week accused the prime minister of whipping up a storm among left-wing insurgents.
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It came after Sir Keir, and subsequently other Labour members, called the far-right party’s deportation policy “racist”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves had said: "This is a racist policy. It's bad. And it's bad for our country and we need to call that out.”
Speaking to LBC's Tom Swarbrick at Drive, Mr Tice accused the PM of going "down the gutter of British politics".
"He's essentially given licence to people like Antifa to arm and come after Reform people, and it's a disgrace," he said.
The Home Office has been approached for a response.
What is Antifa?
Antifa is an anti-fascist group (as the name somewhat spells out) and has origins in Europe dating back to the 1920s but established under this name in the US in the 1980s.
The group was largely dormant in the 2000s but has come back into the fray in the past decade alongside the rise of Donald Trump to the summit of politics.
Members dress in black, a reference to Cold War era West German anarchists, and look to disrupt right-wing and far right events or expose members on social media.
Unlike other left-wing groups, members have been seen to physically confront their opponents.
Does Antifa exist in the UK?
No, or at least not visibly.
The Home Office has a list of proscribed terrorist groups or organisations and Antifa does not feature, while there is not a web presence for a British branch.
A group had existed in the UK in the 2000s, and were said to be behind the assault of two neo-Nazis at a train station in 2009. That group folded later that year.