Portsmouth Reform UK leader says he “made an error” on Portsmouth Patriots stance

Reform UK’s Portsmouth leader Joe Standen says he “made an error” after telling students his party had condemned Portsmouth Patriots during a recent college hustings.

As previously reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Joe Standen, the incumbent candidate for Paulsgrove ward, criticised the group at a hustings hosted by the City of Portsmouth College on Friday, April 24.

Portsmouth Patriots is a group that has regularly been seen demonstrating outside the Royal Beach Hotel, which is being used to house asylum seekers.

At the hustings, panellists were asked about the group. Cllr Standen said: “I hate it and I think they’re wrong – that’s it.”

He added that Portsmouth Reform UK had already publicly condemned the group and that “the next time there is a protest outside the Royal Beach Hotel I will happily publicly condemn it”.

Labour candidate Matthew Holland asked whether Cllr Standen would be as confident expressing those views in front of Reform UK voters.

In response, he said: “100 per cent I would”.

However, on Sunday Cllr Standen shared a social media post to “confirm” his position, adding that he “made an error stating that Portsmouth Reform UK Group condemned Portsmouth Patriots. They do not.”

“My personal opinion is not that I condemn the Portsmouth Patriots as a protest group but that I condemned the protests specifically being outside the hotel which is also surrounded by local families, elderly and children.

“Personally I believe protests of this nature should be held outside in areas such as the Guildhall’s Civic Offices or outside Parliament where the decision makers are based.”

The protests have been marred by controversy, including two incidents where attendees, including UKIP leader Nick Tenconi, were seen making gestures widely recognised as Nazi salutes.

In July last year, police deployed CS gas to break up violence between protesters and counter-protestors which resulted in three arrests.

Cllr Standen added: “After making the comments I did the other day I have had a number of people reach out to me and I have learnt that the Portsmouth Patriots group were equally horrified and disgusted by some of the acts committed by external third parties at the protests they organised.

“The Patriots did what they could to marshall the protests and engaged proactively with the local police. It appears a few rogue external infiltrators overstepped the line a few times, however they weren’t directly involved in the Portsmouth Patriots.”

Cllr Standen was contacted but declined to comment further.