UKIP invite Defend Europe organiser to speak at youth conference in Sheffield

UKIP's youth wing, Young Independence (YI), have invited one of the organisers of the Defend Europe network to speak at their annual conference in Sheffield on Saturday September 2nd.

Martin Sellner, 28-years old, is the leader of the Austrian part of the Generation Identitaire (GI) network which has been taking direct action against migrants and refugees.

Sellner is due to talk for just under half an hour, starting at 12:40pm, at the UKIP event which is taking place at the Hilton Sheffield Hotel on Victoria Quays.

Before Defend Europe, GI’s Austrian group was known internationally for disrupting a play in Vienna starring migrants. The French part of the network set up anti-migrant blockades around Calais last year which had to be broken up by riot police.

Also speaking at the event is former-Pegida UK leader Anne Marie Waters who is mounting a bid for the UKIP leadership. Her campaign is being worked on by ex-BNP member Jack Buckby who is barred from joining UKIP due to his fascist past.

Waters is being supported by former-EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, who is using his large social media following to encourage his supporters to join UKIP and vote for Waters.

By inviting Sellner and Waters to speak at the event, YI are exposing young members of their party to speakers who advocate direct action and street protests. This is particularly risky as YI has been an entry point to far-right organising for neo-Nazi youths.

Founder of the now banned neo-Nazi terrorist organisation National Action, Benjamin Raymond, was once a member of YI and revealed on a podcast last year that he had spent a drunken weekend in Strasbourg with former UKIP leader Paul Nuttall on a YI trip.