Union boycotts clubhouse after it hosts former UKIP leader Nigel Farage's GB News show

A postal workers' union has said it will boycott a clubhouse after it hosted former UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

Mr Farage broadcast an episode of his GB News show Farage at Large live from Peterborough's Post Office, Sports and Social Club on 25 May.

In the episode, he discussed the UK's latest net migration figures with guests, including Peterborough's MP Paul Bristow.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said the event was “a bit of a kick in the head” for its members, some of whom will also revoke their memberships to the club.

The union's branch secretary Andy Beeby said: “We won’t be using the Post Office Club for any meetings in the future.

"I’ve been a member for 40 years – since I left school and joined the Royal Mail – but I’ve cancelled my membership because we shouldn’t be associating ourselves with Farage and his politics.”

He added that the Post Office Club is “right in the middle of an area full of people who have come from other countries” and that “to have Farage there, it beggars belief”.

But the Post Office Club said it did not initially know who the booking was for and that it needed money from private bookings to stay viable.

A spokesperson said: “This was a private booking and it was not known until the day before who it was for and who was going to be invited.

“No club can afford to turn down a full day’s bookings; in the current climate we need to hire out the concert room to ensure we stay a viable club. This avoids us closing as other clubs have done.

“The club has no association with Royal Mail except to allow members to have their membership fees deducted from their wages each week/month instead of paying the full fee in January each year."

CWU regional secretary Paul Moffat also criticised the club’s decision to host Mr Farage, saying that it “hasn’t gone down very well at all” with members.

“It’s a bit of a kick in the head for them when you’ve got Nigel Farage turning up and the local MP, who doesn’t do a lot for Peterborough anyway,” he continued.

“He’s very right-wing along with Farage. It’s controversial, right-wing figures [coming] into a club that was born out of postal workers and the Royal Mail.”

Mr Farage himself did not respond to a request for a response, but did say during his show that being in Peterborough on the day the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released its net migration statistics was a coincidence.

He also said at the time it seems “pretty appropriate” to be in the city on the day the figures were released as it has “profound local issues” including a “growing population and a housing crisis”.

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