Leader of anti-lockdown Heritage Party visits Louth

Rebecca Robb, 26, is standing for the Heritage Party in Louth South ward in the Lincolnshire County Council elections in May.

She said: “[I’m standing] because there isn’t a party currently that reflects my views and I didn’t see anyone standing for an alternative party. I want to be the person to stand up for people who do have different ideas.”

Nationally, the party said it stands for liberty, low immigration, and preserving the environment.

It calls for the end to lockdown, politically-correct policing, divisive identity politics such as Black Lives Matter and radical feminism, and “cancel culture”.

The murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin in America last year sparked riots and demonstrations all over the world including calls for reforms and accusations of institutional racism. Chauvin was this week found guilty on three charges: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter, which BLM campaigners have claimed as a victory in their fight for equality.

The Heritage Party claims to promote freedom of speech, the rejection of vaccine passports, and “traditional family values” including being pro-life.

Marriage, they say, is between a man and a woman and LGBT relationship and sex education shouldn’t be taught in schools.

Gay marriage has been legal since 2014, while from September 2020, all secondary schools in England have been required to teach LGBT-inclusive RSE.

There are 30 Heritage Party candidates across the country in this year’s local elections, and party leader David Kurten is in the running to be London Mayor.

Visiting Louth on Wednesday, Mr Kurten said: “Political correctness has grown and grown, and it’s become suffocating.

“You have people being no-platformed because they have the wrong opinions, not politically correct opinions.

“People are actually being thrown out of their jobs, some people are getting pursued by the police for having the wrong opinions or making a joke on the internet.

“We think that’s absolutely wrong and we need to restore free speech and a bit of sanity in that area.”

He said terms such as racist or homophobic speech were “trigger words”.

“If someone tells a joke or something, and it’s not harassing or abusing a specific individual person, they should be allowed to tell that joke.”

Rebecca is originally from Mablethorpe and moved to Louth three years ago in order to access schools for her children.

She said: “Louth’s a nice quiet little town to bring up our children, and that’s why I’d like to keep it a nice area not just for us but for our children so they have a good future.”

Her aims as a candidate will be to get businesses to re-open following the last year and fight a further lockdown, to get the council to take more responsibility over tackling litter and fly-tipping in the town, including increasing bin collections, rather than relying on volunteers.

She has also suggested a net for Louth Canal to keep it clean, moving a zebra crossing on St Bernard’s Avenue further up to increase safety, turning streetlights back on, and more community policing. She said she would lobby the government for the reinstatement of the East Lincolnshire railway.

She agreed with her party boss though: “Political correctness has just gone too far, we don’t need these radical groups to bring us together.

“I think, actually, if we focused on treating each other based on character rather than our skin colour or our background, you would get along much better.”

Rebecca will be running against incumbent Independent Sarah Parkin, who in 2017 ran won under the Labour banner, taking 40.8 per cent of the vote.

Jill Makinson-Sanders (Independent) was second place last time round with 27.9 per cent of the vote, while Terry Taylor (Conservative) will be hoping to do better than his predecessor Chris Green’s 26.4 per cent tally. Protest parties UKIP and the BNP came last in 2017, with 3.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.

• The full list of candidates running in Louth South are:

Jackson, Ros (Labour)

Makinson-Sanders, Jill (Independent)

Parkin, Sarah (Independent)

Robb, Rebecca (Heritage Party)

Taylor, Terry (Conservative)