Mylor Councillor, Peter Lawrence, was caught on film yesterday (24th May) delivering a blatantly antisemitic, holocaust denying rant at the far-right Great British Strike event in Truro, Cornwall. Lawrence represents the British Democrats on Mylor Council after he took the seat unopposed earlier this year.

Video footage shows Lawrence answering “technically no” when asked whether antisemitism exists. It then captures him saying: “World Jewry declared war on Germany in the Second World War. They were bankrupting them from the Treaty of Versailles, they were blockading the food and everything. They were  starving them. The Jews, who are communist, were responsible for a lot of  problems in the Weimar Republic, were frustrating the efforts of the restoration of the German people to have self-determination…Hitler didn’t have a beef with the Jews. He just didn’t want them to disrupt what was going on.”

When asked whether “Hitler was right to kill so many Jews”, Lawrence replied: “I – and from what I’ve read and the revisionist historians I have read cannot find a single order from Adolf Hitler calling for the execution of the Jews”. Lawrence was then asked whether he believed in the Holocaust. He replied: “The Holocaust has been massively over-exaggerated”.

While Lawrence himself represents the British Democrats, the crowd was chanting “Reform UK” just moments before. An unannounced counter demo, co-ordinated by Cornwall Resists, faced off against the far-right for several hours, standing their ground and outlasting the fascist presence in Truro, whilst doing successful outreach with shoppers out in town. 

The Great British Strike participants, meanwhile, did nothing other than shout at counter protesters. They didn’t have any placards, any leaflets, they didn’t make any speeches and they didn’t march. Had they not draped themselves in Union Jacks, no-one in Truro would have known why they were there.

A spokesperson for Cornwall Resists said: “The mask is off. This is the true face of Reform supporters. This is the ugly and dangerous racist hatred that was on display in Truro today. No-one in the crowd challenged or disagreed with Lawrence’s antisemitism. It was truly sickening and it was particularly sickening for the Jewish members of our group.  This is fascism on our streets. The Great British Strike has tried to co-opt the language of working class solidarity for a racist, far-right agenda”.