Steve Bannon, the far-right’s favourite former White House aide, has said Tommy Robinson is “the backbone” of the UK and that middle England must “fight to take your country back, every day”.
He added: “This is war.”
The doom-laden interview was conducted by Bannon’s close friend and political ally, Nigel Farage during his show on LBC on Sunday.
The broadcaster’s political editor, Theo Usherwood, was also present and tweeted of an expletive-laden off-air exchange made after the programme.
Bannon appears to have severely misjudged the mood of the nation as the recent protests against Donald Trump suggest most people in the UK don’t agree with the brand of politics Bannon was instrumental in installing in the White House.
In contrast to the hundreds of thousands present at anti-Trump demos, only around 2-3,000 took to the streets to protest the recent jailing of Tommy Robinson.
But Bannon said that he didn’t think Tommy Robinson was “a bad guy” and he thinks “he’s got to be released from prison”.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, was locked up in May after he filmed people involved in a criminal trial and broadcast the footage on social media.
The footage, lasting around an hour, was watched 250,000 times within hours of being posted on Facebook.
The far-right activist was given 10 months for contempt of court, which he admitted, and a further three months for breaching a previous suspended sentence.
Farage’s interview with Bannon prompted may to complain to LBC, accusing it of “normalising fascism”.
Fellow LBC journalist, James O’Brien, also tweeted his displeasure at Farage’s continued employment.
In a similar vein, last week fellow-Trump pal Piers Morgan was heavily criticised for his interview with Bannon.
Piers – who doesn’t usually appear on ‘GMB’ on Fridays, but made a special exception – sat down with Steve Bannon, and as you can see from this clip, allowed him to speak for a full 40 seconds about Brexit, Trump and “elitism”.
This was in stark contrast to an interview with journalist Ash Sarkar earlier in the week to talk about the anti-Trump demonstrations taking place during the POTUS’s first UK visit.
In a clip posted on the official ‘GMB’ Twitter page, Piers waited just six seconds before interrupting his guest.