LONDON: Anti-Muslim group Britain First is seeing a surge in popularity after US President Donald Trump re-tweeted three of its videos.
The tweets provoked public rebukes from UK Prime Minister Theresa May and condemnation from many in the British establishment.
Britain First leader Paul Golding told The Times newspaper that the far-right group had seen a surge in support with “hundreds of new membership applications.”
He declined to disclose the exact amount of Britain First members paying the annual fee, which is believed to have been around 1,000.
“Our organic Facebook reach (number of unique users) has increased by hundreds of thousands,” he said.
Speaking to reporters in Jordan on the last leg of a visit to the region, Theresa May said Trump was “wrong” to share the videos with his followers, which number almost 44 million.
“Britain First seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions,” she said.
The videos, posted by Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of Britain First, depict purported Muslims assaulting people, with one seeming to show a “Muslim migrant” beating up a “Dutch boy on crutches” and another claiming to depict a Muslim man destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary.
The videos have since been called into question and aspects of their content exposed as fake or misleading.
Trump’s response to Theresa May, which he initially directed toward the wrong Theresa on Twitter before correcting his mistake, said: “Theresa, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!“
Despite calls in the House of Commons on Thursday to cancel Trump’s upcoming state visit to the UK, May said she remained committed to the “special relationship” between the two allies and they had “yet to set a date.”
Arab News calls and emails to Britain First went unanswered.
