A Vote Leave board member has resigned after it emerged that she promoted anti-Muslim material on social media, including an image of a white girl in the middle of a group of people wearing burqas saying: “Britain 2050: why didn’t you stop them Grandad?”
Arabella Arkwright, a businesswoman who sat on the board and finance committee of Vote Leave, stepped down after the Guardian asked her about a series of tweets and retweets from her account.
Other retweets included a link from Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League, suggesting UK Muslims were trying to build an Islamic state in Britain.
Another retweet came in response to a Twitter user saying they would never eat tikka masala again if it “got seventh-century barbaric savagery” out of Britain. A reply from Arkwright’s account said: “No to sharia law. By by [sic] tikka masala .”
A further retweeted picture has a “Stop Islam” badge in the corner and asks people to compare photographs of Yazidi women and Syrian men fleeing Isis.
Labour MP Emma Reynolds said some of the material was racist and the Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, called on Vote Leave to take action to stop stoking divisions.
According to her biography for Vote Leave, Arkwright is a businesswoman who runs health clinics. She is also the partner in a visitor attraction and pub in Warwickshire. Her name has already been removed from the Vote Leave website.
After being approached by the Guardian, Arkwright denied the retweets represented her view and said she abhorred racism in every form. She has apologised for any offence caused and said she was stepping down so as not to affect the last three days of the Vote Leave campaign led by leading Tory Brexiters Boris Johnson and Michael Gove.
She said her retweets did not imply that she was endorsing the content of the tweets. “I am absolutely appalled that there should be any underlying suggestion that I have any racist tendencies,” she said.
“I would like to make it absolutely clear that my RTs and forwarding do not mean that I endorse in any way the content of them. I RT a wide variety of different views on issues related to the referendum with which I do not agree in order that others can see the breadth of opinion on these matters. Is there anything wrong in that?
“You will note that my RTs are seldom accompanied by comments from me except Syrian Christians, who it was being widely reported at the time were being tortured for their faith. I am not a political animal and maybe am guilty of being naive, but I reject all prejudice and am deeply sorry for any offence that may have been caused. Moreover, perhaps I can be clear, I ABHOR ANY FORM OF RACISM.”
Reynolds, a member of the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign to remain in the EU, said xenophobia and nasty divisiveness from members of the leave campaign should not be tolerated.
“The fact that a member of their board has tweeted and retweeted racist material, including from the founder of the English Defence League, demonstrates the levels to which the leave campaign has stooped,” she said.
“Vote Leave have already lost the economic argument, and are now focusing solely on running a nasty campaign scaremongering about immigration.”
A Vote Leave spokesperson said: “As soon as we were made aware of these tweets we asked Arabella to hand in her resignation, which she has done with immediate effect. These tweets do not reflect the views of the Vote Leave campaign.”
Farron said it was “deeply worrying” and called on the leave campaign to stop “stoking division in our society and start responding to the overwhelming evidence showing we’re better off in the EU”.
Meanwhile, Vote Leave has been trying to distance itself from a Ukip poster that has been compared to Nazi propaganda.
Leading Vote Leave figures have stressed in recent days that they are completely separate from Ukip and strongly pro-immigration, while wanting to take back control of Britain’s borders. Boris Johnson, the former London mayor, even repeated his old call for an amnesty for people who entered the country illegally more than 12 years ago, in an apparent attempt to neutralise accusations the Brexit campaign is anti-immigrant.
The remain campaign has been trying to frame the choice in the referendum as a choice between an open, liberal Britain and the Britain of Farage.
The controversial Ukip poster shows a queue of migrants crossing a border, with the slogan Breaking Point and a call to leave the EU. Politicians from George Osborne to Nicola Sturgeon have called it vile and divisive.
However, Farage has defended it and claimed to be a “victim of hate” himself, while accusing David Cameron and other remain campaigners of exploiting the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox for their own political ends.