Far-right group Britain First have created an awkward situation for Nigel Farage after publicly backing Ukip and saying that together, the two political parties are a "winning combination."
The pseudo-militia organisation, self-described as “a patriotic political party and street defence organisation”, has posted an extraordinary rant encouraging their followers to support the Eurosceptic party, urging “Ukip at the ballot box, Britain first on the streets.”
The statement, posted on Facebook, comes as Farage's party were forced to deny any association with the BNP spin-off group after Ukip campaigners were snapped posing with Britain First’s Rochester candidate Jayda Fransen at the weekend.
David Schofield, a former Ukip council candidate for Enfield, was seen smiling next to Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, who is known for her role in the group's so called "Mosque invasions".
The picture, taken ahead of next month’s by-election, was dismissed by Ukip, who told the Huffington Post UK their campaigners had been tricked and that they reject any association with Britain First.
“A handful of our 200 campaigners on Saturday were photographed by Britain First without understanding the nature of the group and regret that very much," a spokesman said.
Members of the right-wing group Britain First
“They were identified, contacted, advised, and accepted all the sensible undertakings we asked for. A mistake of this nature will not happen again.”
"As we have discovered, this is a typical technique of Britain First, a form of political photobomb, to pretend that they have support elsewhere. They do not."
But now, the far-right group has taken its support for Farage's party one step further, claiming Ukip is just playing a "political game" and their denial of association is a “bluster for the media’s sake”.
Ukip's spokesperson told the Huffington Post UK they will not be commenting further, but the news is sure to troublesome for Farage who is keen to distance his party from more extreme right-wing organisations.
A Ukip source in Rochester told the Huffington Post UK that Britain First's claims they were Ukip's ground troops was "nonsense."
Britain First, who claim they work to counteract the "Islamification" of the UK, is the most active far-right group to emerge from the collapse of the BNP and EDL over the last year.
The group's Facebook page has more than 500,000 “likes” - making it more popular than the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats, and arguably making it the UK's biggest political Facebook site.
But campaign group Hope Not Hate alleges that, behind the social media facade, the group has links to far-right protestant extremism.
A report released earlier this year by Vice News showed that over the last year, a quasi-religious turf war has sprung up on the streets of London between young radicalised Muslim patrols and Britain First's, far right Christian Patrols, available to watch below.
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