Wikipedia

Anne Marie Waters

Not to be confused with Anne-Marie Walters.

Anne Marie Dorothy Waters (born 24 August 1977) is a far-right[3] politician and activist in the United Kingdom. She founded and led the anti-Islam party For Britain until its dissolution in 2022.[4][5][6] She is also the director of Sharia Watch UK, an organisation launched in April 2014.[7] In January 2016, Waters launched Pegida UK in conjunction with activist Tommy Robinson and far-right politician Paul Weston.[8]

Anne Marie Waters
Waters in 2016
Leader of For Britain
In office
October 2017 – July 2022
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Personal details
Born
Anne Marie Dorothy Waters[1]

(1977-08-24) 24 August 1977 (age 47)[2]
Dublin, Ireland
Political partyUKIP (2014–2017; 2023–present)
Other political
affiliations		Labour Party (2010–2014)
For Britain (2017–2022)
Alma materNottingham Trent University

Having unsuccessfully attempted to become a Labour Party parliamentary candidate, Waters joined the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and stood in its 2017 leadership election. She came second to Henry Bolton.[9] She subsequently left UKIP to form her own party, For Britain, in October 2017. Following the dissolution of For Britain in 2022, Waters rejoined UKIP in 2023.

Early life

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Waters was born and raised in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, and went to school in Stoneybatter on the Northside of the city.[10] She became an au pair in Germany during her teens. After living in the Netherlands, she studied journalism at Nottingham Trent University in England, graduating in 2003, and gained a law degree in London while working as a secretary in the NHS.[4][11][12] She also belonged to One Law for All, a pressure group that opposed the spread of sharia courts.[13] Waters is a lesbian in a civil partnership,[14] and, although born and raised in the Republic of Ireland, has described herself as "passionately, loyally, resolutely and proudly British".[15]

Political career

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Waters unsuccessfully stood for the Labour Party in the 2010 Lambeth London Borough Council election for Streatham Hill ward.[16] She made two unsuccessful attempts to be selected as a Labour parliamentary candidate, in South Swindon,[17] then, in 2013, she was one of two people shortlisted to stand for Labour in Brighton Pavilion.[18]

After leaving the Labour Party, Waters contested the Clapham Common ward for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the 2014 Lambeth Council election, where she finished in last place. At the 2015 general election, she stood as the UKIP candidate in Lewisham East, finishing in third place with 9.1% of the vote. During the campaign, she called for mass deportations, mosque closures and an end to immigration from majority-Muslim countries.[19][better source needed] She was initially chosen to stand as a UKIP candidate in the 2016 London Assembly election, but was deselected when her role in Pegida UK was announced.[20] She stood for UKIP in the 2017 Essex County Council election, finishing in eighth place.[21] Waters was selected to be the UKIP candidate for Lewisham East again in the 2017 general election, but was removed after party leader Paul Nuttall described her views as "way above and beyond party policy".[22]

Following Nuttall's resignation as party leader, Waters announced her intention to stand in the 2017 UKIP leadership election.[23] She planned to launch her campaign in Rotherham, leading to concerns among local UKIP branch members that the choice to hold it there was political opportunism. Rotherham football club cancelled her planned stadium rally and her launch took place instead at Dalton parish hall.[24][25] UKIP's Rotherham branch released a statement calling for members to boycott the campaign launch with the backing of MEP Jane Collins after their concerns were ignored by Waters's team.[26] UKIP's National Executive Committee urged members to "think very carefully" before participating in her campaign launch. In early July, over a thousand new members had joined the party in two weeks, leading to accusations of far-right infiltration in support of Waters.[23] Jack Buckby, a former member of the British National Party and Liberty GB, described himself as "basically [her] campaign manager".[27] Waters predicted several times she would have difficulties in being allowed to stand, but on 11 August she passed UKIP's vetting procedure and was allowed to stand as a leadership candidate.[11][24][28] Waters said she would not be opposed to Tommy Robinson joining UKIP, and eighteen of the party's twenty MEPs vowed to leave if she won the leadership.[29] On 29 September 2017, it was announced that Henry Bolton had been elected leader, who had said the party risked becoming the "UK Nazi party" if it chose the wrong candidate, which was perceived as a criticism of Waters. Waters came second with 2,755 votes, a 21.3% share.[9] She described the result as a victory of jihad against truth.[30]

Waters later left UKIP to establish a new far-right political party called For Britain.[5][31] Waters stood as a For Britain candidate in the Lewisham East by-election on 14 June 2018. She lost her deposit and finished in seventh place with 1.2% of the vote.[32] The Electoral Commission records that the For Britain Movement was registered by Anna Maria Waters (not Anne Marie Waters) et al.[33] In March 2021, she moved to Hartlepool and stood as a candidate in the 2021 Hartlepool Borough Council election for De Bruce ward.[34] The ward had a For Britain councillor, one of the two elected in 2019. She lost the election, coming in sixth place with 10.7% of the vote. Later in 2021, she stood in the Batley and Spen by-election, with Robinson supporting her campaign;[35] she finished twelfth out of sixteen candidates with 0.3% of the vote.[36][37]

In July 2022, she was in St Helen's Square, York, with supporters from organisations including For Britain and Patriotic Alternative. Her speech was met by counter-protesters organised by York Stand Up To Racism.[38] On 13 July 2022, she announced on the For Britain website that the party was ceasing operations immediately.[39]

In April 2023, it was announced that she was rejoining UKIP as the "Justice spokes[person]",[40] and the following month it was announced that she had been selected as the UKIP candidate for Hartlepool for the general election.[41] She stood for election in the party's 2024 leadership election, though withdrew her candidacy during the campaign.[42]

Political views

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Waters has been criticised for her association with far-right politicians and organisations and has praised Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen.[43] HuffPost has pointed to her membership of the senior management of the anti-Islam group Pegida UK alongside Tommy Robinson, former leader of the English Defence League and Paul Weston, at the time leader of the ultranationalist Liberty GB.[44] She has been described by Hope not Hate as "heavily involved in the counter-jihad scene".[45]

In an ITV documentary broadcast in November 2017, called "Undercover: Inside Britain's New Far Right", Waters advocated the reduction of Muslim birthrates, stopping Muslim immigration and accusing the EU of conspiring to turn Europe into an Islamic state.[46] She later told ITV she opposed "racism, antisemitism, misogyny and the oppression usually associated with the far right".[47] The documentary also revealed that a UKIP member who regularly attended Waters’ events was also a member of the white-nationalist group Generation Identity. Waters has since said that he was not a close associate and would not be welcome at future events.[47] However, in 2019, she spoke at a Generation Identity conference, and claimed in her speech that mass immigration was being used to remove political power from white people.[48] The speech was billed by its supporters as the "first great replacement speech by a UK politician".[49]

Waters says she has been an LGBT activist since her days at university, and she considers herself to be a feminist.[4][50] Waters is also an agnostic, and between November 2011 and June 2014 she was listed as a director of the National Secular Society.[4][51] She had left the NSS by 2017.[11]

She is the author of Beyond Terror: Islam's Slow Erosion of Western Democracy (2018).

Elections contested

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UK Parliament elections

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Date Constituency Party Votes % votes Place Ref
2015 general election Lewisham East UKIP 3,886 9.1 3rd [52]
2018 by-election Lewisham East For Britain 266 1.2 7th [32]
2021 by-election Batley and Spen For Britain 97 0.3 12th [53]

Council elections

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Date Council Ward Party Votes % votes Place Ref
2010 Lambeth London Borough Council Streatham Hill Labour 2,001 11.3 4th [16]
2017 Essex County Council Wickford Crouch UKIP 850 10.0 8th [54]
2021 Hartlepool Borough Council De Bruce For Britain 479 10.7 6th [55]

References

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  1. ^ Waters, Anne Marie (28 June 2017). "Anne Marie Waters on Twitter: "Dorothy."". @AMDWaters. Twitter. Archived from the original on 24 August 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  2. ^ Waters, Anne Marie (24 August 2017). "Anne Marie Waters on Twitter: "Big 4-0. I'll be spending it at a hustings in Yorkshire!"". @AMDWaters. Twitter. Archived from the original on 24 August 2017. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  3. ^ Eve, Carl (25 January 2018). "Police prepare for protest as far-right politician comes to Devon". Devon Live. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
    - Hodgkinson, Will (17 November 2017). "Pop review: Morrissey: Low in High School". The Times. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
    - Smith-Spark, Laura (30 June 2018). "Morrissey postpones tour dates amid dispute over racism claims". CNN. Archived from the original on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d Bloodworth, James (18 August 2017). "Meet Anne Marie Waters – the Ukip politician too extreme for Nigel Farage". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  5. ^ a b Humphries, Will (12 October 2017). "Ukip loser will start far-right party". The Times. p. 11. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 31 May 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  6. ^ "Anne Marie Waters: Irishwoman running to become next UKIP leader accused of 'dividing Britain'". Irish Post. 30 August 2017. Archived from the original on 30 August 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
    - "Far-right extremists preparing for 'war against Islam', report warns after terror plots exposed". The Independent. 12 March 2018. Archived from the original on 12 March 2018.
  7. ^ Wheeler, Brian (30 June 2017). "Anti-Islam campaigner Anne Marie Waters launches UKIP bid". BBC News. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  8. ^ Douglas Murray. "Cologne exposes a crisis in our continent, yet parliament is debating Donald Trump". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 29 November 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
  9. ^ a b Walker, Peter (29 September 2017). "Henry Bolton elected new leader of Ukip". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  10. ^ McKinney, Conor James (29 August 2017). "Irish-born candidate to lead Ukip rejects 'neo-fascist' label". Irish Times. Archived from the original on 1 September 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  11. ^ a b c Fisher, Lucy (10 August 2017). "Is Anne Marie Waters too extreme even for Ukip?". The Times. Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2017.(subscription required)
  12. ^ "About Me". Annemarie. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  13. ^ Cohen, Nick (29 July 2017). "Bigot who would lead Ukip is a product of our times". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 September 2018. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  14. ^ Bartlett, Jamie (2017). Radicals: Outsiders Changing the World. London: William Heinemann. p. 49. ISBN 9781785150371.
  15. ^ "Who is Anne Marie Waters, the Dublin-born woman aiming to become the next leader of Ukip?". DublinLive. 30 August 2017. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  16. ^ a b "Election results for Streatham Hill". Lambeth London Borough Council. 6 May 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  17. ^ Porritt, Richard (7 July 2017). "Brexfactor: Negotiate? Just tear it down". The New European. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  18. ^ Le Duc, Frank (19 July 2013). "Labour poised to choose parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion". Brighton and Hove News. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  19. ^ Wright, Paul. "Who is Anne Marie Waters? Ukip leadership hopeful accused of stoking up anti-Muslim hatred". International Business Times. Archived from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  20. ^ Niall Flynn. "Pegida member says 'there's still time for Ireland'". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 23 December 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
  21. ^ "Statement of Persons Nominated". Basildon Borough Council. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
    - "Election results for Wickford Crouch, 4 May 2017". 4 May 2017. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  22. ^ Proctor, Kate (28 April 2017). "Ukip leader Paul Nuttall to investigate anti-Islam election candidate for Lewisham". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 22 June 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
    - David Lawrence (9 May 2017). "'For Britain' campaign: anti-Muslim activist Anne Marie Waters targets UKIP leader". Hope Not Hate. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  23. ^ a b Walker, Peter (2 July 2017). "Large influx of new Ukip members prompts fears of far-right takeover". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 July 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  24. ^ a b Wheeler, Brian (30 June 2017). "Anti-Islam campaigner Anne Marie Waters launches UKIP bid". BBC News. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  25. ^ "UKIP leadership bid launched in Dalton". Rotherham Advertiser. 5 July 2017. Archived from the original on 5 July 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  26. ^ Wheeler, Brian (30 June 2017). "Anti-Islam campaigner Anne Marie Waters launches UKIP bid". BBC News. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  27. ^ "What I Learned From Spending A Year Infiltrating Britain's Far-Right". HuffPost. 9 November 2017. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017.
    - Walker, Peter (27 July 2017). "Ukip leadership hopeful gets help with campaign from ex-BNP member". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 July 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  28. ^ "Ukip divided over anti-Islam leadership candidate". ITV News. 12 August 2017. Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
    - Walker, Peter (11 August 2017). "Ukip allows anti-Muslim activist to stand in leadership contest". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  29. ^ Roberts, Rachel (5 September 2017). "Ukip leadership hopeful opens door to Tommy Robinson joining party". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  30. ^ Oppenheim, Maya (30 September 2017). "Failed Ukip leadership candidate proclaims 'Jihad 1, Truth 0' after shock defeat". The Independent. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  31. ^ "Former UKIP leadership candidate to launch new far-right party". Politico. 12 October 2017. Archived from the original on 12 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  32. ^ a b "Lewisham East by-election results 2018". Lewisham London Borough Council. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  33. ^ "View registration - The Electoral Commission". search.electoralcommission.org.uk. Archived from the original on 3 February 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  34. ^ Marko, Nic (28 April 2022). "Meet the candidates for Hartlepool Borough Council's De Bruce ward". Hartlepool Mail. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  35. ^ "Batley and Spen by-election: candidate briefing". HOPE not hate. 7 June 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  36. ^ "Far-right candidates lose deposits, win under 2% of vote and 'sink without a trace' in Batley and Spen". The Independent. 2 July 2021. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  37. ^ Gildea, Samantha; Abbiss, Ben (26 June 2021). "Batley anti-racism protest goers on the march with police lining streets". YorkshireLive. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  38. ^ Mike Laycock (2 July 2022). "Huge policing operation staged as political protests erupt in city centre". The Press. York. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
  39. ^ "Announcement from Anne Marie Waters". For Britain. 13 July 2022. Archived from the original on 13 July 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  40. ^ "Anne Marie Waters announces her return to politics & UKIP". UKIP. 18 April 2023.
  41. ^ United Kingdom Independence Party [@UKIP] (25 May 2023). "We're delighted to announce that Anne Marie Waters will be our candidate in #Hartlepool at the next general election. #AnneMarieForHartlepool #VoteUKIP" (Tweet). Retrieved 25 May 2023 – via Twitter.
  42. ^ "2024 UKIP Leadership Election". UKIP. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  43. ^ Walker, Peter (26 October 2017). "Ukip under fire for choosing candidate who called Islam evil". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2017. Anne Marie Waters, an activist from the anti-Islam Pegida movement, has also praised the far-right leaders Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders.
  44. ^ Hopkins, Steven (4 January 2017). "Pegida: Tommy Robinson Reveals New Leaders Paul Weston And Sharia Watch's Anne Marie Waters". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017.
  45. ^ "Who is Anne Marie Waters". Hope not Hate. 30 April 2021.
  46. ^ "Ex-Ukip leadership candidate's extreme views revealed". ITV News. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  47. ^ a b Grierson, Jamie (8 November 2017). "UK far-right activists attend military-style camps with anti-Islam group". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 10 November 2017. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  48. ^ Ben van der Merwe (25 August 2019). "Second speaker: Anne Marie Waters". Twitter. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  49. ^ Townsend, Mark (24 August 2019). "Infiltrator exposes Generation Identity UK's march towards extreme far right". The Observer. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  50. ^ Butterworth, Benjamin (14 June 2017). "Lesbian ally of the EDL's Tommy Robinson standing to be UKIP leader". Pink News. Archived from the original on 19 June 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  51. ^ Mills, Tom (22 June 2015). "Taking racism seriously: Islamophobia, civil liberties and the state". Open Democracy. Archived from the original on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
    - Companies House entry for Anne Marie Waters Archived 16 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  52. ^ "Lewisham East parliamentary constituency". UK Parliament. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  53. ^ Brooke, Sam (3 July 2021). "The far right candidates who flopped in the Batley and Spen by-election". YorkshireLive. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  54. ^ "Anne Marie Waters". Who Can I Vote For?. Democracy Club. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  55. ^ "Local election results in Yorkshire: Every result from the local elections in Yorkshire". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
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