UKIP will not join Steve Bannon's anti-EU movement, Gerard Batten says
BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - The United Kingdom Independence Party has no intention of joining an anti-European Union campaign masterminded by U.S. President Donald Trump’s former political strategist Steve Bannon, the leader of UKIP told Reuters.
FILE PHOTO: Gerard Batten MEP, speaks at the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) spring conference in Bolton, Britain, February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Yates
“I’ve never met Steve Bannon. As far as I’m concerned he’s an interesting character obviously because of what he did in America,” UKIP leader Gerard Batten said in the central English city of Birmingham.
UKIP leader Gerard Batten speaks during a Reuters interview in Birmingham, Britain September 21, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples
“I’m not quite sure what he is proposing across Europe but UKIP doesn’t fit into that. UKIP is a British party that is going to pursue aims for the British people.”
Batten said “If he phoned me up and said he’d like to have a coffee and a chat I’d say ‘fine that’s great’ but I have no agenda to do anything with Steve Bannon.”
Bannon, a former chairman of the right-wing Breitbart.com website and an architect of Trump’s 2016 election win, has launched a project to coordinate and bolster the anti-EU vote across the European Union.
Asked if he expected a national election in the near future, Batten said he had put the party on “red alert” but that it was difficult to predict what would happen to Prime Minister Theresa May’s government.
Reporting by William James, editing by Guy Faulconbridge
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