‘Organiser’ of Ukip’s anti-Brexit rally is far-Right activist jailed for armed kidnap attempt on man
‘[I] got involved with some stupid people. Everyone deserves a second chance. I came out of prison and turned my life around’
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A FAR-RIGHT activist who claims to be one of the organisers of a Ukip rally and who attended a top-level meeting with the party’s leader Gerard Batten has a conviction for attempted kidnap, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Daniel Thomas, 29, has been instrumental in promoting “The Brexit Betrayal” march, a London demonstration at which the newly appointed Ukip adviser Tommy Robinson is expected to speak next Sunday.
In a picture tweeted by Mr Batten on Friday, Thomas is photographed sitting alongside him and next to Robinson, the English Defence League founder.
Mr Batten tweeted: “Spent the afternoon planning Brexit Betrayal – Brexit Must Mean Exit March & Rally,” adding that the event was a “leaver family day out”.
It can be revealed that Thomas, a father of four, was jailed two years ago for the attempted armed kidnapping of a man in Hampshire.
Last night, Ukip insisted Thomas was there purely as Robinson’s bodyguard, despite the photograph showing him sat at the conference table with notepaper and having a proven record in organising political rallies.
The revelations could prove to be politically damaging because Ukip’s National Executive Committee is under pressure from former leader Nigel Farage to hold a vote of no confidence in Mr Batten’s leadership when it meets in London at lunchtime today.
Last week, Mr Farage wrote a letter to the 15-strong NEC urging it to pass a vote of no confidence in Mr Batten’s leadership over the way he had courted Robinson and pursued an anti-Muslim agenda.
Mr Farage told The Telegraph: “I am absolutely disgusted with the whole thing. I have been warning repeatedly for the past few months that this was a disastrous course of action. And we are now pretty much at the end game.”
Mr Batten insisted he “was aware” of Thomas’s conviction asked to be sent details.
In July 2016 a judge condemned Thomas and two other men for an “extraordinarily frightening incident”, matched only by its “stupidity”, in which they armed themselves with knives and targeted Graham Page at his home on Hayling Island.
Mr Page told Portsmouth Crown Court that Thomas, along with Darren Anscombe, 38, and Leo Smith, 34, burst into the house shouting “you’re coming with us”.
He claimed they wrongly accused him of stealing £10,000 of drugs from them and tried to drag him away. Mr Page resisted and the men fled, shouting “we’ll be back”. Upon arrest Thomas, from Hampshire, admitted the offence. He was jailed for two years. The two others received 30 month sentences.
After his release from prison last year, Thomas adopted the pseudonym Danny Tommo and organised marches throughout the country calling for Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, to be freed from a sentence for contempt of court.
He is now among the inner circle of Robinson’s associates and this year organised two rallies outside the Old Bailey when Robinson was appearing there. Last week, he posted a video to his followers on Facebook promoting the Ukip march as “the beginning of the political revolution”, adding are going to be working together”.
He regularly visits London’s Speakers’ Corner where he films himself arguing with Muslims. On one occasion he was handcuffed and detained by police before being released.
Last night, Thomas said the attempted kidnapping was committed because he “got involved with some stupid people”. “Everyone deserves a second chance,” he added. “I came out of prison and turned my life around.”
He was privately educated and has worked as a bricklayer and sales and marketing manager and also ran a web design company. However, he has now stopped working to “dedicate everything to the cause”.
A Ukip spokesman said Thomas was at Friday’s meeting “in the capacity of Mr Robinson’s personal security”. He added: “Mr Thomas is not part of Ukip’s planning team.” “we