Ann Widdecombe speaks at a Brexit Party rally. Photo: Reuters/Henry Nicholls.

Three senior figures from Britain’s newly-formed Brexit Party have been exposed by an anti-racist group for their repeat appearances on an online radio show that promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial.

Activist group Hope Not Hate published a special report on Monday detailing the links between the UK-based Richie Allen Show — a favored platform for far-right figures — and three members of the European Parliament from the Brexit Party. Formed in January this year to push for an immediate British withdrawal from the European Union irrespective of a deal with Brussels, the Brexit Party swept to victory in 29 constituencies in May’s European elections, having won the largest share of the vote in the UK.

The most well-known figure named in the report, Ann Widdecombe, is a former Shadow Home Secretary from the Conservative Party who became one of the Brexit Party’s elected European Parliamentarians this year. Widdecombe appeared on Allen’s broadcast three times between Aug. 2017 and Apr. 2019, being introduced in one instance as “an old friend of the show.”

As documented by Hope Not Hate, Richie Allen “is the Manchester-based protégé of conspiracy theorist David Icke, who has frequently engaged in extreme antisemitism. The Richie Allen Show emerged from Icke’s short-lived broadcast ‘The People’s Voice,’ and was for a time hosted on Icke’s website.”

The group noted that “Allen has also hosted numerous antisemites and Holocaust deniers on his show, and has himself questioned the numbers of Jews that died in the Holocaust. Brexit Party figures have appeared on the same episodes as racist and antisemitic guests, such as alt-right white nationalist Lana Lokteff, and antisemitic 9/11 ‘Truther’ Kevin Barrett.”

Allen was also described as “a cheerleader for Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz.” Chabloz was sentenced in June 2018 to a 20 week suspended prison sentence for using her YouTube channel to broadcast content including speeches by Holocaust deniers and Palestinian solidarity videos, alongside a selection of openly antisemitic songs sung by her to the camera.

In one song, “(((Survivors))),” Chabloz mimicked a “Jewish” accent while singing lyrics that defamed the survivors of the Nazi death camps as liars motivated by financial gain. Nonetheless, Allen has hosted Chabloz on his show, calling her a “remarkable woman, extraordinary woman”, and praising her songs as “satirical, they’re very funny, they’re very good I think.”

The two other Brexit Party figures named by Hope Not Hate for their appearances on Allen’s show were David Bull, another member of the Brexit bloc in the European Parliament, and Stuart Waiton, a parliamentary candidate.

Both the Brexit Party and its predecessor, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), have been accused in the past of trafficking in antisemitic tropes. Its leader, Nigel Farage, has been a regular guest on “InfoWars,” a broadcast hosted by US far right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, which features a similar cast of characters to the Richie Allen Show.

Following Farage’s last appearance on Jones’s show, the Board of Deputies, the representative organization of British Jews, called on him “to repudiate these ideas and to commit not to dignify oddball nasties like Alex Jones with his presence again.”

While the Brexit Party has won supporters, like Widdecombe, formerly associated with right-wing of the Conservative Party, it has also appealed successfully to the far left. Prominent among Farage’s backers is the former MP George Galloway, a vocal backer of the Palestinian cause who has been frequently accused of antisemitism.