Protest as Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage arrives in Hartlepool ahead of General Election

Mr Farage met with party members at the Staincliffe Hotel in Seaton Carew today, Wednesday, December 11, before going out canvassing door-to-door.

Party chairman Richard Tice is hoping to overturn Labour’s 7,650 majority from the 2017 ballot.

It is the third time Mr Farage has been in the town in recent months.

Hartlepool was one of the stops on the March for Brexit in March, while Mr Farage has been campaigning with Mr Tice on Armistice weekend and then again later in November.

Today’s visit comes just days after a Brexit Party councillor in the town was suspended and resigned his post over highly offensive comments made to an undercover television reporter.

Manor House councillor David Mincher stood down from Hartlepool Borough Council and been suspended from the Brexit Party following comments in footage which aired on Channel 4 News on Monday, December 9.

Mr Mincher was seen to say that Muslim people were ‘outbreeding us’ and that they ‘live like animals’ and talking about a failed plan to bury a pig’s head in the grounds of a mosque that was being built in the town.

His comments were condemned by council leader Shane Moore and members of Hartlepool’s Muslim community.

Mr Mincher was elected in May 2019 as a UKIP councillor and joined the Brexit Party-led coalition on Hartlepool Borough Council in September.

The party says it has referred him to Hartlepool Borough Council’s solicitor for a potential breach of the rules of conduct of councillors.

Anti-racism protestors staged a demonstration outside the Staincliffe Hotel as Mr Farage arrived.

Bettie Hope, of Poolies Against Racism, said: “It is extremely important to be here. Our town has been shown in a light that is not true at all.

“We need to show people racism is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable.”

*Candidates in Hartlepool are Joe Bousfield (Independent); Kevin Cranney (Socialist Labour Party); Andy Hagon (Liberal Democrats); Mike Hill (Labour); Stefan Richard Houghton (Conservative); Richard Tice (The Brexit Party).