EU referendum: Pro-Brexit group banned from meeting at Bilston Town Hall
An anti-EU group fronted by Nigel Farage was banned from holding a meeting at Bilston Town Hall over fears it promotes negative views on immigration and asylum seekers.
The UKIP leader's Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group were due to hold the meeting on March 3 to discuss Britain's future in the European Union.
But organisers said they were left in the lurch after The Gazebo theatre group, which runs Bilston Town on behalf of Wolverhampton council, cancelled the event on Tuesday.
It comes after Walsall Council attempted to block anti-EU campaigners from setting up a stall in Walsall town centre last weekend.
West Midlands MEP Bill Etheridge, who is a member of the European Parliamentary group EFDD, has accused Gazebo of being anti-democratic. He said the late cancellation had left the group in the lurch.
Mr Etheridge said: "Leaving the cancellation so late is an abhorrent way of conducting business. People like this show their complete ignorance of what the EFDD stand for.
"We are not anti-immigration, but anti uncontrolled immigration. We recognise the need to house genuine asylum seekers and are proud of the record this country has of doing so.
"What we ask for is to be in control of that, choosing who has the right to come here and who doesn't. Currently, as a member of the EU, we do not have that right.
"People like Ms Cole-Hudson, whilst preaching welcome to all and sundry are actually destroying community cohesion. Multiculturalism is a failed project.
"The kind of censorship she has just enacted, with her last minute cancellation, reminds me of the thought police in George Orwell's 1984."
More than 200 people were expected to attend the meeting, which was due to feature speeches from Mr Etheridge along with fellow West Midlands MEPs Jane Seymour and James Carver.
An EFDD meeting attended by Mr Farage at Wolverhampton racecourse last month saw more than 600 in attendance.
In a letter to EFDD, Pamela Cole-Hudson, Gazebo's artistic director, wrote: "It has come to our attention that this is part of a 'Say No To Europe' tour hosted by UKIP. As such, we will not be able to go ahead with the booking.
"The nature of the event will contravene the charitable objectives of our charity, which seeks to build community cohesion, and actively seeks to support people within the community, including refugees and asylum seekers, as well as promoting the positive impact of immigration."
The letter apologised for the late notice of the cancellation and offered to reimburse all costs.
