Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘deeply regrets’ dining with far-right activist recorded in racist rant
Aspiring Tory leader Jacob Rees-Mogg says he “deeply regrets” dining alongside a far-right activist who was caught on tape making racist comments about black and Jewish people.
Rees-Mogg said he found the views of Gregory Lauder-Frost “disgusting,” and that he dissociates himself from them. The MP confessed he received a tip-off about the “unpleasant views” before attending the dinner.
According to an expose by the Mirror, Lauder-Frost was caught on video calling Baroness Doreen Lawrence, a “n*****,” while he branded broadcaster Vanessa Feltz a “fat Jewish slag.”
He reportedly made the comments while speaking to a ‘Hope not Hate’ researcher at a London pub last year. The anti-racist organization’s investigator, Patrik Hermansson, 25, met Lauder-Frost in a bid to collect evidence on the rise of the alt-right in the UK.
Rees-Mogg, who has been tipped as the favorite to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May as Tory leader, was photographed beside Lauder-Frost at a dinner five years ago after accepting an invitation by the Traditional Britain Group.
He said on Wednesday that, despite being warned about the group’s controversial views, he failed to find any supporting evidence and so attended the dinner regardless.
“I regret it. It was unquestionably a mistake to go to this dinner. The views are not my views and I do not think his views have any place in a modern democracy. I think they're really revolting views, I can't be critical enough of them,” he told Sky News.
“And I made a mistake in going to that dinner. I make no bones about it.”
It was not the first time that Lauder-Frost has targetted Baroness Lawrence, whose son, Stephen, died in an attack by a racist gang in 1993. He had previously voiced his opposition to her appointment to the House of Lords back in 2013, when he spoke on Feltz’s BBC London radio show.
“It’s ridiculous. She’s made countless anti-English comments over the last 10 years. She’s no friend of the English people,” he said.
In relation to Feltz, Lauder-Frost said: “She’s a fat Jewish slag, she’s revolting, revolting. She lives with a negro. She’s horrible,” Lauder-Frost said during his meeting with Hermansson.
He also said about non-whites: “We’re saying, ‘You’ve got three years, then go home. Go to your natural homelands… We give you time to go.’ Then we’ll swing into action.
“I think that’s the only way forward, if we want to save our cultures and our nations. Because these people are having children like rabbits.”
As part of his research, Hermansson created a fake profile and starting posting on far-right sites in a bid to get contacts in the field. He was approached by some of Britain’s worst extremists within weeks.
Hermansson, who is racking up footage for Hope not Hate’s £35,000 ($49,600) film ‘Year Undercover in the Alt-right,’ ended up drinking from a Viking hunting horn with Stead Steadman, leader of far-right think tank, London Forum.
It also dragged him to a meeting with Holocaust denier David Irving, who told him: “I’m pretty sure that in Auschwitz not much happened.”
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