The far-right group Britain First have shared a picture of Lee Rigby on their Facebook page, going against the wishes of the murdered soldier’s family.
Captioning the image of a uniformed Fusilier Rigby: ‘Lest we forget’, the Facebook post soon attracted comments from users telling the group it is against the family’s wishes, reports the Huffington Post.
One user wrote: “Disgusting that you use this image despite the family repeatedly telling you not to”, while another commented: “You have no respect! If you did you would abide by Lee’s poor grieving mother’s wishes that you don’t use him like this.”
Fusilier Rigby’s family, including his mother, stepfather and wife Rebecca, released a statement through the Ministry of Defence in June of this year, saying they did not want far-right groups using the soldier in their campaigns.
The statement said: “We would like to emphasise that Lee would not want people to use his name as an excuse to carry out attacks against others.”
“We would not wish any other families to go through this harrowing experience and appeal to everyone to keep calm and show their respect in a peaceful manner.”
In April, 2014 the Electoral Commission apologised after signing off Britain First using ‘Remember Lee Rigby’ as a slogan on their voting slips for the European elections that year.
Fusilier Rigby, 25, was murdered by Islamic extremists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale in 2013, a short distance from the Royal Artillery barracks in Woolwich, south east London.
Adebolajo is serving a whole-life sentence, in 2014 Adebowale received a 45-year sentence.
Just this week, Britain First were asked by the British Army’s Royal Anglian Regiment to remove a picture of their soldiers from their Facebook page.
The Independent has contacted Britain First for comment.
