Far-right figures say they were denied entry to Britain

LONDON — Three far-right figures say they have been deported from Britain after being detained when trying to enter the country.

Austrian Martin Sellner of the Generation Identity group, American commentator Brittany Pettibone and Canadian activist and YouTube personality Lauren Southern tweet Monday that they were denied entry into Britain.

Britain’s Home Office says in a statement that the border force “has the power to refuse entry to an individual if it is considered that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.”

Sellner says in a video posted on Twitter that he and Pettibone were detained for three days and deported.

He says on the video that both of them were handcuffed. He says he had planned to give a speech at “Speakers’ Corner” in London’s Hyde Park. He says “that was my crime.”

Pettibone says that she was denied entry because she had plans to interview far-right leader Tommy Robinson.

She says from Austria that “It felt like they were saying, ‘you’re right-wing, that’s not allowed.'”

Southern, who has more than 400,000 subscribers on YouTube, tweets that she was “officially banned from UK for ‘racism'” but was doing fine.

She says “all the cool people are being banned anyway.”

— AP