Politics

Nigel Farage blames ‘vindictive cancel culture’ after rugby club dinner gets binned

Nigel Farage has said the “vindictiveness of the cancel culture mob knows no limits” after a rugby club that was meant to host him for a charity dinner cancelled his appearance due to backlash.

Preston Grasshoppers RFC axed the event “An evening with Nigel Farage: The man not the myth,” after supporters and members of the club expressed their anger, with some cutting up their season tickets.

The now-deleted advert had said the event would offer a “fascinating look at the life, times, background and career of a truly groundbreaking politician,” but insisted: “This is not about his politics, it’s about his journey, taking on the establishment, cheating death three times, his love of sport, his insight and friendship.”

Packages in tables of ten were available, offering three-course dinners for £750 while V.I.P pre-event drinks with Farage and a table of ten were on offer for £1,000.

“An entirely non-political affair”

In his Daily Mail column, Farage described how he was “due to give a speech and then take questions about my life and career” at the event and described the appearance as “an entirely non-political affair.”

Farage then went on to say that two “politically-active” members of the rugby club “took offence” to the event, calling one of them out – surgeon Hussein Khambalia.

Khambalia had responded to a tweet from the rugby club about the event, asking how they could “justify giving this bigot a platform at what is supposed to be an inclusive community rugby club.”

“You are supposed to be helping to increase participation in rugby from all communities and backgrounds, not inviting racists to lecture us,” he added.

This clearly riled up Farage who then accused Khambalia of “putting politics above end-of-life care.”

In response to Farage, Khambalia reaffirmed his stance on the matter: “If by “woke” you mean inclusive, anti-racist and sensitive to the views of the local community, then I’m proud to be woke and support ⁦@RugbyHoppers⁩ for this decision.”

“Hate-fest from hard-Left trolls”

After detailing how the hospice and rugby clubs were abused by trolls which led to the event being cancelled, Farage said the “wellbeing of a hospice with a catchment area of 380,000 people had been sacrificed,” because of “the hate-fest from hard-Left trolls.”

The former politician then gave an even more extreme take on those responsible for cancelling the event, by casually mentioning murder: “I would like to think they would not commit murder to achieve their aims. You never know, though.”

“Watch out. You could be cancelled next,” Farage warned.

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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Tags: Nigel Farage