A Reform election candidate said the UK should not have fought Hitler and Nazi Germany in World War Two and blasted the ‘abysmal’ leadership of Winston Churchill in a series of online rants.
Ian Gribbin, who is standing for Nigel Farage’s party in Bexhill and Battle, said that Britain would be better off today if it had taken up the German fascist dictator’s ‘offer of neutrality’.
In comments made in 2022, unearthed shortly after the 80th anniversary of D-Day, he criticised Britain for prioritising ‘weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people’ by staying out of the conflict.
In remarks made on the conservative Unherd website and unearthed by the BBC he said the UK had to ‘exorcise the cult of Churchill and recognize that in both policy and military strategy, he was abysmal’.
Mr Gribbin had previously written on the site that women were the ‘sponging gender’ who ‘only take from society’.
He tonight apologised for his comments, telling the BBC: ‘I apologise for these old comments and withdraw them unreservedly and the upset that they have caused.’
Mr Gribbin said that he himself had been ‘upset at the way these comments were taken out of context especially when my mother was the daughter of Russian Jews fleeing persecution.’
A Reform spokesman had earlier accused the BBC of undertaking ‘offence archeology’ and said Mr Gribbin’s comments ‘were written with an eye to inconvenient perspectives and truths’.
The spokesman added: ‘His historical perspective of what the UK could have done in the 30s was shared by the vast majority of the British establishment including the BBC of its day, and is probably true.’
But Johnny Mercer, the Conservative Veterans’ Minister, said: ‘The suggestion from a Reform spokesman that Britain would have been better off accepting the Nazis’ squalid offer of neutrality instead of standing against them is shameful and shows a shocking lack of judgement.
‘These comments ignore the millions murdered by the Nazis in their bid for European domination and the ultimate sacrifice paid by the men and women who stood up to Hitler in our darkest hour.
‘Misusing appeasement to justify Nazi apologism is disgraceful and comments like this are deeply troubling coming from a political party.’
Asked at a press conference this afternoon if Reform had a problem with its candidates, party leader Mr Farage said: ‘Not as big a problem as the Green Party, who have had to suspend 20 of their candidates for putting out really nasty anti-Semitic tweets
‘I think every party will suffer, because it was a snap election. We have put in place … a big vetting programme, but we ran out of time.’
Former leader Richard Tice added: ‘We made it clear to all candidates… people do inappropriate things, say daft things, and of course we will look at it and investigate it. That is what we’ll do.’
Mr Gribbin declined to comment to the BBC, the broadcaster reported. On the Reform website his profiled states that he is ‘a passionate observer of the decline of British culture and the economy’.
It said that he wrote on Unherd: ‘Britain would be in a far better state today had we taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality…. but oh no Britain’s warped mindset values weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people.’
Writing separately about women he said: ‘Do you think you could actually work and pay for it all too like good citizens?
‘Men pay 80% of tax – women spend 80% of tax revenue. On aggregate as a group you only take from society.
‘Less complaining please from the ”sponging gender” … subsidised by men to merely breath (sic)’.
A Reform UK spokesman told the BBC: ‘Through offence archaeology the BBC has found that Mr Gribbin has made a series of comments about a number of subjects.
‘They were written with an eye to inconvenient perspectives and truths. That doesn’t make them endorsements, just arguing points in long distance debates.
‘His historical perspective of what the UK could have done in the 30s was shared by the vast majority of the British establishment including the BBC of its day, and is probably true.
‘Again no endorsement, just pointing out conveniently forgotten truths.
‘As for the feminism point, his tongue is so firmly in his cheek one should be able to spot it from 100 yards.’
It came as Mr Farage was at the centre of a row over comments he made at the weekend about Rishi Sunak. He claimed the British-Asian Prime Minister does not ‘care’ about UK history in an attack over his decision to leave D-Day commemoration events early last week.
Shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood branded the comments ‘dog whistle’ politics, while Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said they made him ‘very uncomfortable’.
Asked for his response to the remarks during a huddle with journalists at a garden centre in Horsham on Monday, Mr Sunak said: ‘You can ask him, I can’t speak for him and what he meant by those comments.
‘I’m not going to get involved in that because I don’t think it’s good for our politics or indeed our country.’