Gerard Batten

Gerard Joseph Batten (born 27 March 1954) is a British politician who served as the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2018 to 2019. He was a founding member of the party in 1993, and served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London from 2004 to 2019.

Gerard Batten in 2009

Quotes

2006

• Successive governments have refused to accept the threat posed to our society by Islamic fundamentalism and extremism and to take the necessary measures to meet it head-on. We should esteem our own values of freedom, free speech and liberal secular democracy and start defending them.
  • Islamic fundamentalism is incompatible with freedom and Western liberal democracy (2006)
• Freedom cannot be expected to tolerate that which would destroy it. Fundamentalist and extremist Islam is incompatible with freedom and Western liberal democracy. The real issue for those wishing to remain free is not an argument about headdress but the threat posed to our freedoms and way of life by a minority of people and how the state chooses to deal with it - if indeed it has the courage to do so at all.
  • Islamic fundamentalism is incompatible with freedom and Western liberal democracy (2006)

2018

• Instead of asking the EU how we may leave we should have been explaining to them how we are going to leave.
  • UKIP facing 'difficult' local elections - Gerard Batten BBC News (27 April 2018)

• We are determined to protect our freedom of speech and the right to speak our minds without fear of the politically correct thought-police knocking on our doors.
  • UKIP aiming to be 'radical, populist' party - Gerard Batten BBC News (21 September 2018)

• [Tommy Robinson is] entitled to speak at rallies organised by people who believe in democracy
  • UKIP aiming to be 'radical, populist' party - Gerard Batten BBC News (21 September 2018)

• The people of Wales voted to leave the European Union and return our United Kingdom to the status of an independent democracy.
  • Plaid Cymru's Adam Price says Brexit must be stopped BBC News (3 October 2018)

• [Having described Tommy Robinson as a "high profile" figure who had been "persecuted by the state because of his views".] I think he's a good person to have on side, a lot of people respect his stand on things and his courage.
  • UKIP leader defends hiring Tommy Robinson BBC News (23 November 2018)

• If Parliament does not take Britain out of the European Union it will be the biggest constitutional crisis since the English Civil War. In 1642 the king put himself in opposition to parliament. Parliament won and the king lost his head.
  • UKIP AM Neil Hamilton's appearance with Tommy Robinson 'shameful' BBC News (11 December 2018)

2019

• What we do know is that if we do not leave the EU it will mark the end of democracy in the UK.
  • Brexit: Protests held at Parliament over delay BBC News (29 March 2019)

• Tommy Robinson is not far-right... and does not have far-right views. He is someone who can give some information and research which is useful to me. We have always been a democratic, non-racist party. That has always been in our constitution and that is exactly the way we are going to keep it. It is very odd in this day and age when you get called far-right, when what you have spent the last 25 years trying to do is to return government to our own democratically elected Parliament.
  • "UKIP: Gerard Batten says Nigel Farage trying to 'discredit' party" BBC News (14 April 2019)

Quotes about Batten

• Mr Batten's obsession with Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (to use Tommy Robinson’s real name) and fixation with the issue of Islam makes Ukip unrecognisable to many of us. While Robinson may hold an appeal to some members of society who feel they are disenfranchised, I believe he is entirely unsuitable to be involved in any political party. The fact is that his entourage includes violent criminals and ex-BNP members. [...] Next to Robinson is a man called Daniel Thomas, a convicted armed kidnapper. There are other pretty unsavoury-looking characters dotted around the room. [...] And so, with a heavy heart, and after all my years of devotion to the party, I am leaving Ukip today.
  • Nigel Farage, "With a heavy heart, I am leaving Ukip. It is not the Brexit party our nation so badly needs", Nigel Farage (7 December 2018)
  • Gerard Batten, then Ukip leader, had appointed Robinson as an advisor. Batten told BBC News: "I think he's [Robinson] a good person to have on side, a lot of people respect his stand on things and his courage."

External links

• Official Website