Former UKIP candidate Jeff Wyatt makes Holocaust comparisons and wears yellow star at Piers Corbyn’s anti-vaccination rally
Former UKIP candidate Jeff Wyatt spoke at an anti-vaccination rally held by Piers Corbyn on Saturday, where Mr Wyatt made comparisons to the Holocaust whilst wearing the yellow star that was forced upon Jews during the Holocaust.
Mr Wyatt is the former Deputy Leader of the For Britain Movement who stood as a UKIP candidate in Milton Keynes. The For Britain Movement has been described as a “far-right UKIP splinter group” and has been accused of antisemitism and racism.
At Saturday’s rally, Mr Wyatt stood atop a podium whilst wearing a yellow star on his right arm and said: “The Nazi Germans perpetrated this against the people of Germany. They perpetrated the control and the fascism that we are experiencing now.”
He continued: “It’s nothing short of a re-run of the Nazi playbook.”
Mr Wyatt reportedly claimed in August that wearing the yellow star was the “ultimate tribute” to Holocaust victims. Mr Wyatt wore a similar yellow star armband with the words “Not Vaccinated” written below, as well as the German translation of “Nicht Geimpft”. “It’s the ultimate tribute – because where we are heading is where the Jews went,” Mr Wyatt reportedly said.
He added: “Bear in mind in the 1930s, the Nazis didn’t just suddenly become the tyrants they were – they slowly had their evil way over the public of Germany. And the Jews, for years and years, said ‘just do what they say’ – and eventually they gassed them.”
On a video uploaded to the official YouTube account for UKIP Cambridge & SE Cambs, Mr Wyatt can be seen talking to the camera at an anti-lockdown rally from last year whilst holding a sign that reads “No Gestapo Policing”.
This is not the first time that the yellow star or comparisons to the Nazis have been used by anti-vaccination demonstrators.
In April, protesters at an anti-vaccination rally held in London were pictured wearing the yellow star. Comedian David Baddiel took to Twitter to share a photo of a woman wearing the yellow star, accompanying it with the caption: “Take. That. Off.”
Footage taken on 13th July showed Piers Corbyn comparing vaccinations to Nazi policy outside the Houses of Parliament, despite being arrested after a similar incident in February. The video shows Mr Corbyn and another man standing in front of a sign which reads “No Nazi forced jab” and yelling “arrest Matt Hancock” through a megaphone.
The inflammatory and misleading comparison has also been used among international anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown circles.
Earlier this year, Joseph Szwarc, a Holocaust survivor, spoke out against wearing the yellow star in protests, saying: “You can’t imagine how much that upset me. This comparison is hateful. We must all rise up against this ignominy.” With tears in his eyes, Mr Szwarc added: “I wore the star, I know what that is, I still have it in my flesh. It is everyone’s duty to not allow this outrageous, antisemitic, racist wave to pass over us.”
The comparison has been made across the world, including in the United States, Canada, Ukraine and elsewhere.
Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
