Reform election candidate said Britain should NOT have fought Hitler and the Nazis in World War Two and lashed out at ‘abysmal’ Winston Churchill in online rants that also branded women the ‘sponging gender’

A reform election candidate said Britain should not have fought Hitler and the Nazis Germany in World War II and condemned Winston Churchill’s “terrible” leadership in a series of online rants.

Ian Gribbin, standing for Nigel FarageThe German fascist dictator’s party in Bexhill and Battle said Britain would be better off today if it had accepted the German fascist dictator’s ‘offer of neutrality’.

In 2022 comments unearthed shortly after the 80th anniversary of D-Day, he criticized Britain for prioritizing “weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people” by staying out of the conflict .

Comments created on the conservative Unherd website and unearthed by the BBC he said Britain needed to “exorcise the cult of Churchill and recognize that he was terrible in both his policies and military strategy.”

Mr Gribbin had previously written on the site that women were the ‘sponging sex’ that ‘ojust take it out of society’.

He apologized for his comments tonight, telling the BBC: “I apologize for these old comments and unreservedly retract them and the upset they have caused.”

Mr Gribbin said he himself was “appalled at the way these comments were taken out of context, especially when my mother was the daughter of Russian Jews fleeing persecution.”

Ian Gribbin, who represents Nigel Farage’s party in Bexhill and Battle, said Britain would be better off today if it had accepted the German fascist dictator’s ‘offer of neutrality’.

In 2022 comments unearthed shortly after the 80th anniversary of D-Day, he criticized Britain for prioritizing “weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people” by staying out of the conflict .

Commenting on the conservative Unherd website and unearthed by the BBC, he said Britain needed to “exorcise the cult of Churchill and recognize that he was terrible in both his policies and military strategy.”

Asked at a press conference today whether Reform had a problem with its candidates, leader Farage said: ‘Not as big a problem as the Green Party, who have had to suspend 20 of their candidates for posting really nasty anti-Semitic tweets’ I think every party will suffer because it was a snap election. We set up a major vetting program, but we ran out of time.”

A Reform spokesman had previously accused the BBC of undertaking “criminal archaeology” and said Mr Gribbin’s comments were “written with uncomfortable perspectives and truths in mind”.

The spokesman added: ‘His historic view of what Britain could have done in the 1930s was shared by the vast majority of the British establishment, including the BBC of the time, and is probably true.’

But Johnny Mercer, the Conservative Veterans Secretary, said: ‘A reform spokesman’s suggestion that Britain would have been better off accepting the Nazis’ dirty offer of neutrality rather than turning on them is shameful and shows a shocking lack of judgment.

“These comments ignore the millions murdered by the Nazis in their attempt to achieve European domination, and the ultimate sacrifice made by the men and women who rose up against Hitler in our darkest hours.

“The abuse of appeasement to justify Nazi apologisms is shameful and comments like this are deeply disturbing when they come from a political party.”

When asked at a press conference this afternoon whether Reform had a problem with its candidates, party leader Farage said: ‘Not as big a problem as the Green Party, who have had to suspend 20 of their candidates for expressing really nasty anti-Semitic pronunciations. tweets

“I think every party will suffer because it was a snap election. We set up a major vetting program, but we ran out of time.”

Former leader Richard Tice added: “We’ve made it clear to all the candidates… people are doing inappropriate things, saying crazy things, and of course we’ll look into it and investigate. That’s what we will do.’

Mr Gribbin declined to comment on the BBC, the broadcaster reports. On the Reform website, he states in his profile that he is ‘a passionate observer of the decline of British culture and economy’.

It said he wrote of Unherd: ‘Britain would be in a much better state today if we had taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality…’ but oh no, Britain’s warped mentality values ​​strange views on the international morality instead of taking care of our own people.’

Writing separately about women, he said: ‘Do you think you could actually work and pay for it, like good citizens?

‘Men pay 80% of the tax, women spend 80% of the tax revenue. Overall, as a group you only bring something with you from society.

‘Maybe less complaining by ‘sponging’ sex”… subsidized by men just to breathe (sic)’.

A spokesperson for Reform UK told the BBC: ‘Through the archeology of offending, the BBC has discovered that Mr Gribbin has made a series of comments on a number of topics.

“They were written with uncomfortable perspectives and truths in mind. That doesn’t mean they have endorsements, just advocating points in long-distance debates.

‘His historic view of what Britain could have done in the 1930s was shared by the vast majority of the British establishment, including the then BBC, and is probably true.

‘Again, no expression of support, but merely pointing out conveniently forgotten truths.

“As far as feminism goes, his tongue is so firmly in his cheek you should be able to see him from 100 yards.”

It came as Farage was in the middle of a row over comments he made about Rishi Sunak this weekend. He claimed The British-Asian prime minister cares nothing about British history in an attack on his decision to abandon D-Day commemoration events early last week.

Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood branded the comments as “dog-whistle” politics, while Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said they made him “very uncomfortable”.

Asked for his response to the comments during a meeting with journalists at a garden center in Horsham on Monday, Mr Sunak said: ‘You can ask him, I can’t speak for him and what he meant by those comments.

“I’m not going to get involved in that because I don’t think it’s good for our politics or even for our country.”