The Labour Party in Blackpool: Anti-fascists plan Tory protest

An anti-fascist group backed by several Labour MPs said yesterday that it would demonstrate at next week's Conservative Party conference, although a fringe meeting in Brighton featuring two of Europe's leading far-right politicians appears to have been called off.

Organisers hope the protest and rally, which will take place next Tuesday, will deter future visits to Britain by the French right-winger Jean Marie le Pen and Alessandra Mussolini, the grand-daughter of the Italian fascist leader.

The two neo-fascists had been invited to a fringe meeting by the far-right Western Goals Institute which has been denounced by the Conservative Party chairman, Sir Norman Fowler. The meeting is not now expected to take place.

At a press conference in Blackpool yesterday, an umbrella anti-fascist group called the They Shall Not Pass Committee, said the Brighton demonstration would still go ahead, arguing that the institute has links with the Conservative Party. The committee is backed by the Anti-Racist Alliance, the Anti-Nazi League and Labour MPs including Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Ken Livingstone and Brian Wilson.