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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
David Maddox

Rightwing Dutch activist banned from UK

A rightwing activist and commentator from the Netherlands who has spoken at events with Tommy Robinson has been banned from entering the UK, The Independent understands.

Eva Vlaardingerbroek announced on X that she had received an email from the UK government telling her that her right to enter the UK had been withdrawn.

In a screenshot posted on her social media of what appears to be the email, it said that her presence in the UK “is not considered to be conducive to the public good”.

It comes days after Ms Vlaardingerbroek posted on 9 January that Sir Keir Starmer had allowed “the ongoing rape and killing of British girls by migrant rape gangs”.

She had also attacked the prime minister over his threats to block X in the UK over the outrage caused by the platform’s Grok AI tool allowing the sexualisation of children and women.

A Home Office source confirmed that her electronic travel authorisation (ETA) has been withdrawn but not given a reason.

Ms Vlaardingerbroek told The Independent that she had not planned to return to the UK until after the local and devolved elections in May.

But she had received an email “out of the blue” withdrawing her ETA because her “presence in the UK is not considered to be conductive to the public good."

On her X account, she shared a screenshot of what appeared to be an email from the Home Office, which showed that her ETA had been revoked.

Ms Vlaardingerbroek, who was last in the UK speaking at the massive Unite the Kingdom rally led by the far right activist Tommy Robinson, had sided with Mr Musk in the row after he accused the UK government of acting like “fascists.”

The rightwing Dutch political campaigner made her name as a strident voice questioning vaccines and lockdowns during the Covid pandemic and has strong links with the MAGA movement in the UK and Trump administration.

She has been dubbed by critics as “far right” over her language on issues like immigration.

The ban looks set to exacerbate “free speech” issues between the UK and Donald Trump’s administration with Ms Vlaardingerbroek , who remains a popular figure with the MAGA movement and allies of the US president.

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer is pushing Ofcom to take actions against X after its Grok AI tool was used to sexualise women and children on the social media platform.

She linked her ban to an online attack she made about the prime minister regarding him standing up to Mr Musk over Grok.

She had referenced the issues over grooming gangs in the UK of Asian men targeting white girls which have also been highlighted by Mr Musk where the prime minister was initially reluctant to hold a national inquiry into the scandal before U-turning.

She said: “It was about that he's saying that he wanted to ban X because of the Grok edits and women's safety as a pretext as to why he thought that the ban would be a good idea.

“I said that that was really rich, given the fact that he has a really bad track record when it comes to fighting the migrant gangs who are raping British girls.

“So it's kind of interesting that this man now seems to care about women's safety, all of a sudden, really doesn't have his priorities straight. So I said he's a despicable, evil man.”

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