Boris Hires Far-Right Foreigner

No one appointment shows more starkly the influence of white supremacist Steve Bannon on London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, in going his own way while giving anyone to the left of Genghis Khan the finger, than that of a 10 Downing Street “digital adviser”. It is an appointment that shows when it comes to migrants, some are distinctly more equal than others.

Chloe Westley ...

Although the news was broken by Alex “Billy Liar” Wickham, his connections suggest the news “Boris Johnson set to hire Chloe Westley from the Taxpayers' Alliance as his digital adviser in No10” is genuine. Ms Westley is unapologetically large-C Conservative.

Gone are the days when her TPA predecessor Susie Squire could tell LBC host Nick Ferrari, in response to the suggestion that she was “a secret Conservative”, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I can’t have that – that’s outrageous! That’s just absolutely outrageous! Because we’re totally independent, we talk to everyone ... We talk to everyone who wants to talk to us ... We don’t have a party preference”. They have one now.

And although Ms Westley may be a familiar face to politics watchers, as Wickham has suggested, she is not British. But speaking English and being white goes a long way in covering those tracks. Whether it will cover her far-right sympathies and perceived propensity for dishonesty is another matter entirely.

Whistleblower Shahmir Sanni knew all about the dishonesty part: “Chloe Westley set up the BeLeave MailChimp account and then pretended (along with Johnson, Elliot, Patel and all of Vote Leave) that BeLeave was never a part of Vote Leave. Her emails are PRIME evidence in the Metropolitan Police investigation. I feel fucking sick”. No comment.

Peter Walker of the Guardian, meanwhile, had latched on to the far-right element of Ms Westley’s back story: “Westley is linked to the UK branch of the unsavoury US pro-Trump group Turning Point. She is, incidentally one of about three people I've ever had to block on Twitter (she invited US rightwinger Ben Shapiro to sue me after I called him prejudiced)”. And she’s so good at playing the victim, too.

But it was her endorsement of Anne Marie Waters, the screamingly Islamophobic leader of the For Britain movement, that will have the alarm bells ringing longest and loudest. Ms Westley told her followers, in July 2016, “Please vote for her work to be published. [Anne Marie Waters] is a hero”. One Tweeter picked out some Waters highlights.

These included the assertions “The EU agreed to turn Europe into an Arabian Islamic continent”, “My thinking is we need to reduce their birthrates now” and “The idea that these fuckers can just come along and take it all”. Otto English observed “In 2016 Boris Johnson's new digital adviser Chloe Westley enthusiastically backed renowned racist Anne Marie Waters who had just set up Pegida UK with one Tommy Robinson. I see Westley has been deleting old tweets including this”. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.

... and her kind of endorsement

And Ms Westley will just put it down to more of those imaginary “haters” who bedevil her saintly efforts to spread her mythical gospel of low taxes and more freedom. Meanwhile, the lurch of Government towards the far right is confirmed once more.

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