A councillor in Cornwall has been caught on film delivering an antisemitic, Holocaust-denying rant. The footage was captured at the far-right Great British Strike in Truro on 24 May.
Councillor Peter Lawrence represents the British Democrats on Mylor Council after he took the seat unopposed earlier this year.
British Democrats councillor Peter Lawrence goes off on antisemitic rant
Video footage showed Lawrence answering “technically no” when asked whether antisemitism exists. It then captured him saying:
World Jewry declared war on Germany in the Second World War. They were bankrupting them from the Treaty of Versailles, they were blockading the food and everything. They were starving them. The Jews, who are communist, were responsible for a lot of problems in the Weimar Republic, were frustrating the efforts of the restoration of the German people to have self-determination…Hitler didn’t have a beef with the Jews. He just didn’t want them to disrupt what was going on.
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When asked whether “Hitler was right to kill so many Jews”, Lawrence replied:
I – and from what I’ve read and the revisionist historians I have read cannot find a single order from Adolf Hitler calling for the execution of the Jews.
Lawrence was then asked whether he believed in the Holocaust. He replied:
The Holocaust has been massively over-exaggerated.
While Lawrence himself represents the British Democrats, the crowd was chanting “Reform UK” just moments before. An unannounced counter demo that campaign group Cornwall Resists co-ordinated, faced off against the far-right for several hours. They stood their ground and outlasted the fascist presence in Truro, whilst doing successful outreach with shoppers out in the city.
The mask is off: ‘the true face of Reform supporters’ at the Great British Strike
The Great British Strike, meanwhile, did nothing other than shout at counter protesters. They didn’t have any placards, any leaflets, they didn’t make any speeches and they didn’t march. Other than draping themselves in Union Jacks, no-one in Truro would have known why they were there.
A spokesperson for Cornwall Resists said:
The mask is off. This is the true face of Reform supporters. This is the ugly and dangerous racist hatred that was on display in Truro today. No-one in the crowd challenged or disagreed with Lawrence’s antisemitism. It was truly sickening and it was particularly sickening for the Jewish members of our group.
This is fascism on our streets. The Great British Strike has tried to co-opt the language of working class solidarity for a racist, far-right agenda.
We stand with refugees and migrants. We stand with the working class. We recognise that Cornwall is broken. But we know that it is wealthy second home owners, treating our home as their playground, that is causing our housing crisis. We know that Britain is broken. But we know that this is the fault of successive governments imposing savage austerity cuts and attacks on the most vulnerable people in society while the rich just get richer.
We will not allow the devastating mess our country is in to be co-opted by hatred. We will hold the government to account for its actions. We will stand with our unions in genuine strikes and working class solidarity. Each and every time fascists mobilise on our streets, we will be there resisting them. Cornwall is antifascist!
Featured image via the Canary
