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Gully Explains…The UTK Rally Bans, and Labour Hypocrisy

Introduction

The Labour Party position on Brexit benefits, is one chock-full of ironies and contradictions. As those who follow my posts on X/Twitter will already know, many of the policies undertaken by the Labour Party since their landslide electoral win in 2024 have relied on Brexit benefits to progress. The changes they have made the most noise about, such as the removal of tax exemption on private school contributions and the nationalisation of UK rail franchises, have been possible either wholly or in part through the flexibilities enjoyed by countries outside of the EU legal control.

So, it is of no surprise to me, though a delicious layer cake of humorous ironies, that we have had yet another example over the weekend – this time in the form of banning EU citizens from entering the UK to attend or speak at the Unite the Kingdom (UTK) march in London on Saturday afternoon.

To provide some background – on Monday 11th it was announced by the Prime Minister that seven people due to attend and speak at the UTK march had been banned by the Home Office from entering the UK, having their travel authorisation revoked by instruction of the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud. By Friday 15th this amount had increased to 11 people, with many of those banned being EU citizens – including a Polish MEP, Dominik Tarczyński.

So what makes this action a delicious irony? Well the powers that the Home Office have used to deny entry to the UK, at least for those who are EU citizens, would not have been able to be utilized were the UK still a member of the EU.

Benefit 65 – The Ability to Deny Entry to EU Citizens

As I have detailed in my book “75 Brexit Benefits”, one of the little-known and rarely-spoken of limitations of EU membership is the negative side effects of the Freedom of Movement policy. In short, the Home Secretary could only ban an EU citizen from entering the UK if there was a credible and immediate risk. The exact wording of the legislation is that an EU citizen must present a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat, affecting one of the fundamental interests of society, in order to restrict their rights to freedom of movement. This rule meant that the UK could not, for example, prevent a murderer or violent offender from entering the UK - as it would do from anywhere else in the world - as to do so would impinge on their EU rights to freely move around the UK to look for victims.

The UK even tried to ban EU politicians from entering the UK in the past while still a member of the EU, and got its wrists slapped for trying to do something it was not allowed to do. In October 2009 a decision to ban Dutch politician Geert Wilders from entering the UK was overturned, as the tribunal found that the reasoning for the ban did not meet the very high bar set by the EU.

Conclusion

I continue to thank the Labour Party for their continued demonstration of the benefits of being in control of your own decision-making, and I only wish that as a party they were a little more consistent and a little less hypocritical.

  • Euronews, 15th May 2026, "MEP and Far-Right Influencers Banned From Entering UK", Click Here to Read
  • The Guardian, 13th October 2009, "Geert Wilders Wins Appeal Against Ban on Travelling to UK", Click Here to Read
  • Home Office news story, 21st October 2020, "Home Office announces tougher criminality rules for EU citizens", Click Here to Read
  • The Guardian, 25th November 2023, "Fivefold rise in number of EU citizens refused entry to UK since Brexit", Click Here to Read

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Gully Foyle
Gully Foyle
May 18, 2026

Gully Foyle is the alter ego and pen name of an anonymous UK social media personality, active primarily through X/Twitter on the topics of EU membership; culture wars; immigration; political commentary and 'Good News'. He is, as opposed to the ad hominem claims that some make to try and discredit him, not a 'Russian Bot' or a 'Far Right Shill'.

When not actively engaging on social media regarding the aforementioned topics, he has a full-time job, a partner, two children and a full and enjoyable life in the South-East of England.

You can buy his first book, "75 Brexit Benefits: Tangible Benefits From The UK Having Left The European Union" from Amazon and all good bookstores.

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