Far-right group Britain First have created an awkward situation for Nigel Farage after claiming Ukip's by-election victory in Rochester yesterday is as a result of their own campaigning in a "triumph for the right wing."
The pseudo-militia organisation, self-described as “a patriotic political party and street defence organisation”, has posted an extraordinary rant claiming "we told everyone to vote Ukip!"
The group claimed they "even refrained from putting Britain First on the ballot papers to avoid taking any votes from Ukip."
A claim this image seems to contradict:
The group also failed to mention they actually only received 56 votes, even less than the poor old Lib Dems.
"Ukip safely won the by-election and Mark reckless faced boo's from the Liberals, Greens and Labour after the result - only Britain First clapped in approval," they added.
Their own candidate, Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First who is known for her role in the group's so called Mosque invasions, "deserves enormous credit for being a fearless candidate and doing a brilliant job when handling a hostile media," the group claimed.
Britain First have already encouraged their followers to support the Eurosceptic party, urging “Ukip at the ballot box, Britain first on the streets" and saying that together, the two political parties are a "winning combination."
Much to his own horror BBC reporter Nick Robinson was also pictured posing with Fransen, but was quick to tweet that he had not known who she was.
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 Fransen in the run-up to the vote.
David Schofield, a former Ukip council candidate for Enfield, was seen smiling next to Fransen ahead of the by-election, but 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.
“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 the far-right group took 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”.
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.
READ MORE:
Britain First Are Hurt The 'Right-Wing' Media Doesn't Support Them
Britain First Protest Against Rotherham Abuse By Trying To Flog Their Merchandise
Watch The Moment Britain First 'Invade' London Mosque In Bizarre Video
Britain First Fail Dismally In Attempt To Get Leader Arrested, Say He's Been Arrested Anyway