Britain First video of Mansfield homeless found 'profane' and 'evil'
The video of deputy leader Jayda Fransen of the party shows members 'confronting a tent' reportedly near Mansfield railway station, and when the group discover the occupant is from Latvia they accuse the 'migrant' of 'taking advantage', saying 'you can't just pitch up anywhere'.
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Hide AdIt's now been described as 'evil', 'heinous propaganda,' 'hypocritical' and making an object of a homeless person to 'scaremonger' the public ahead of the EU referendum by a local community champion and faith leader.
In the video, which shocked the leaders of our local soup kitchen who help homeless people everyday, the far-right party deputy is shown pointing at a tent and saying 'this is the problem' while leader Paul Golding behind the camera touts that Britain needs to retake control of it's borders.
Jayda claims the tent is the reason why we should leave the EU, as the migrant crisis brings people to our shores and 'taking advantage' by not benefiting from our welfare system or taking up social housing space, but instead are pitched up on private land.
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Hide AdThe high-profile face of the right wing group, Ms Fransen is shown in the video to question the Latvian occupant, reportedly named as Avia.
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She said to the occupant of the tent: "Why have you come to this country and pitched up illegally. You think that's okay? It's not okay, this isn't how we do things in Britain."
She later treatised: "So this is the kind of thing we've got going on in our country during the migrant crisis? asked the cameraman, Britain First leader Paul Golding.
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Hide AdThis is the problem. People come here, you can't just pitch up anywhere.
"This is what being in the EU, having open borders is coming to.
"When your borders are open, people can take advantage. This isn't on, there are kids that will be playing on this grass. There's an industrial centre over there there's shops everywhere.
"And here you have a migrant camp," said Golding.
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Hide Ad"This is the problem with the EU. Open borders results in this.
Upon finding a second 'camp' inside a bush she says 'this is just outrageous'. "This is our beautiful country and it's being abused. It's being destroyed."
When police arrive on the scene, Jayda asks them "Are you aware there is a make shift camp in the bushes and another immigrant living in a tent that they've just made a make shift camp right out in the open there?"
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Hide AdWhen an officer investigated the tent they found the tent was locked and the occupants boyfriend had reportedly left her locked inside.
A community support officer was seen arguing with the Britain First members, although the group claimed they were proving their point that you can't control borders while you're in the EU.
The officer said: "If they're from the European community what can you do - they're allowed to come here."
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Hide AdWhen the deputy leader of Britain First addressed her cameraman saying "This is what we can expect if we stay in the EU," the police employee said, 'No, I don't know about that."
Reverend Keith Hebden of St Marks Church Mansfield told the Chad: "The woman in the tent isn't taking anything from this the state, she wouldn't be living in a tent if she was, so to go up to her and verbally attack her and then act like she's trying to save her is just rank hypocrisy.
"Britain First aren't welcome here. The people of Mansfield are better than that.
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Hide Ad"I know people who have worked hard to welcome the Syrian refugee families who have come to this area, and while we need to have a grown up conversation about migration we don't need (Britain First) to help us with that."
"It's profane. They call themselves a Christian organisation but what they're doing is evil and they're not welcome in Mansfield."
The chad has reported previously on the local issues of rough sleeping, which leaves some 30-40 on the streets, often because they can't access local services if they can't prove local connections. Most of these are from within the UK. Issues around access to benefits have resulted in local foodbanks donating camping equipment to rough sleepers, who live in danger of attack with several 'burn-outs' reported over the past few months.
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Hide AdCommunity activist Maria Gibson, who has long been a leader at the Mansfield Soup Kitchen described the video as 'propaganda', strategically released before the EU referendum to 'scaremonger' support for the Leave campaign.
She said: "It's propaganda. The video is heinous, it's there to scaremonger. Why highlight the plight of someone and then walk off and leave them? How is that helping the homeless?
"People in this country don't understand what the referendum means - I'm voting out in the referendum, but that video doesn't prove a point.
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Hide Ad"A tent at the side of a train station does not describe a massive immigration crisis. All it does is say they don't give a damn about the person in that tent, and all they are is a foreign object. It's hideous. These people come from a terrible situation and land in an even worse situation."
Britain First has been approached for comment.