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Nigel Farage breaks with Trump to support anti gay marriage candidate Roy Moore

Nigel Farage has broken with Donald Trump to endorse divisive US political candidate Roy Moore.

The former Ukip leader compared the struggle to push through Brexit with the US President’s chaotic administration, blaming conservative splits as “the enemy within” as he spoke in Alabama on Monday night.

Mr Farage joined ousted White House strategist Steve Bannon to address crowds in support of gay marriage opponent Mr Moore, who once said “homosexual conduct” should be illegal.

Despite Mr Bannon and Mr Farage both casting themselves as long-term Trump supporters, their endorsement of Moore split with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who have campaigned for Senator Luther Strange to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

However, Mr Bannon sought to reframe this, telling crowds: “A vote for Roy Moore is a vote for Donald J Trump. And a vote for Donald J Trump is a vote to make America great again.”

A chequered track record

Roy Moore (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Mr Moore’s track record includes comments in a debate on Thursday that the US’s core has been shaken while “abortion, sodomy, sexual perversion sweep our land”.

And in a speech claiming only God could unify public divisions, he used the historic slurs of “reds and yellows”, the former an outdated term for Native Americans and the latter a derogatory 19th-century term for Asian immigrants.

Mr Moore also said during an interview in 2005 that “homosexual conduct” should be illegal.

Farage endorsing Moore (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Farage endorsing Moore (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Mr Farage told the crowds: “I have absolutely no hesitation in putting my support and my backing behind a man like judge Roy Moore who has shown in his career that he will always put principle before his own career advancement.”

The former judge was twice removed as Alabama’s chief justice by an ethics panel – first for defying an order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from a judicial building and then for allegedly urging colleagues to not grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Mr Bannon may have sought to address possible concerns over Roy Moore’s more controversial statements at one point, telling crowds “Judge Moore is not perfect. Judge Moore does not claim to be perfect.”

Comparisons to Brexit?

Meanwhile, Mr Farage looked to compare the UK and US political climate, telling crowds: “A year on from those great victories we are facing some very considerable problems. The liberal media now hate anybody with conservative values in a way that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before. There are others on the left who are turning increasingly away from democratic protest and towards unpleasant nasty violent protest.”

“We see some on the left who now even want to rewrite history, tear down statues and pretend we are different people to who we are. We see an attempt, through the educational system, through our colleges and universities, to stop teaching that in democracy there are two respectable sides to an argument – they try to shout down and drown out those of us who believe in conservative values. ”

The former Ukip leader failed to mentioned fighting from the far-right, despite Trump receiving criticism from across the political spectrum after he blamed “many sides” for violence at a far-right-led rally supposedly over the planned removal of a statue of Confederate leader Robert E Lee.

A woman, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was killed when a car ploughed into anti-fascist counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Mr Trump took two days to criticise hate groups such as the KKK by name for the 12 August violence.

The ‘enemy within’

Vice President Mike Pence has endorsed Strange in his primary runoff contest against former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. (Photo by Hal Yeager/Getty Images)
Vice President Mike Pence has endorsed Strange in his primary runoff contest against former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. (Photo by Hal Yeager/Getty Images)

Mr Bannon railed against the Republican establishment, telling crowds:  “They think you’re a pack of morons, they think you’re nothing but rubes,” and went on to talk of “economic hate crimes done on the working class of this country.”

He was supported by Mr Farage, who sought to bring it back to Brexit, saying:

“We have a problem with Brexit – so many in the Conservative party, despite being elected on a ticket of delivering Brexit, now seek to delay it, now seek to water it down, now seek to pretend it hasn’t happened. And you in America have exactly the same problem with members of Congress. Elected on a Republican ticket, and yet doing their damnedest to stop the President getting his agenda through. It’s an enemy within” he repeated.

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