“Thank you, Morrissey. I hope to meet you one day”

NME, 21 May 2019:

For Britain leader Anne Marie Waters has posted a message thanking Morrissey for his support of the controversial nationalist party.

The former Smiths frontman has made headlines recently after he was seen sporting a For Britain badge while on tour in the US, before also wearing one while performing on Jimmy Fallon on US TV.

The nationalist party was founded by the anti-Islam activist Anne Marie Waters after she was defeated in the 2017 UKIP leadership election. The controversy and association for Morrissey began when he discussed accusations of racism and alleged connections between Halal meat and ISIS. He also said that London Mayor Sadiq Khan “can not talk properly”. He later issued a new statement in which he said he “despised racism and fascism” and voiced his support for Muslims, while also advocating For Britain.

Now, Waters has shared a new message of gratitude for the singer on Youtube: “Thank you so much for your support since the UKIP leadership election,” she said. “Thank you for giving us so much publicity.”

She continued: “I can tell you that the traffic to our website exploded with the story breaking of you wearing the For Britain button badge, which you have been wearing everywhere from what I can see. We have sold out of those, but the good news is we have more, and they have been selling like hot cakes, so thank you very much for doing that.”

Waters added: “Thank you, Morrissey. I hope to meet you one day. Thank you, Daily Mail. Keep up the hysterical smearing. It’s having the opposite effect. You are driving people to us.”

Explaining his support of For Britain last year, Morrissey said that he followed them as they were an upset to the status quo of Conservative and Labour governments. He strongly denied accusations of racism.

“I have been following a new party called For Britain which is led by Anne Marie Waters,” said Morrissey. “It is the first time in my life that I will vote for a political party.

Finally I have hope. I find the Tory-Labour-Tory-Labour constant switching to be pointless.

“For Britain has received no media support and have even been dismissed with the usual childish ‘racist’ accusation. I don’t think the word ‘racist’ has any meaning any more, other than to say “you don’t agree with me, so you’re a racist.” People can be utterly, utterly stupid.”

Calling for more free speech in the political realm, Morrissey continued: “Anne Marie Waters seeks open discussion about all aspects of modern Britain, whereas other parties will not allow diverse opinion. She is like a humane version of Thatcher … if such a concept could be. She is absolute leadership, she doesn’t read from a script, she believes in British heritage, freedom of speech, and she wants everyone in the UK to live under the same law.

He added: “I know the media don’t want Anne Marie Waters and they try to smear her, but they are wrong and they should give her a chance, and they should stop accusing people who want open debate as being ‘racist’. As I said previously, the left has become right-wing and the right-wing has become left – a complete switch, and this is a very unhappy modern Britain.”

Many took to Twitter to criticise Morrissey’s support of For Britain after he was seen wearing their badge.

“My former friend sporting a For Britain badge, a party violently anti-Islam, filled with ex-BNP and ex-EDL, pro-privatisation, far right and prone to exploiting tragedies to disseminate divisive anti-immigrant rhetoric online,” wrote journalist Dave Haslam on Twitter, sharing the image. “What happened to ‘It takes guts to be gentle and kind’?”

Morrissey will release his new covers album ‘California Son‘ on Friday May 25.

Read more at https://www.nme.com/news/music/anne-marie-waters-thanks-morrissey-support-britain-2490645#qviOiVD3E9PQC1F7.99