The Home Office has revoked the travel authorisation of a sitting European Parliament member, barring him from entering the United Kingdom days before a high-profile right-wing rally in London — part of a coordinated effort that has seen at least seven foreign speakers refused entry ahead of the same event.
Dominik Tarczyński, who represents Poland’s Law and Justice party in the European Parliament, received official notification on Monday that his Electronic Travel Authorisation had been cancelled. The Home Office told him his presence in the country “is not considered to be conducive to the public good” and that he would require a visa to travel. No right of appeal was offered.
Tarczyński had been due to speak at Tommy Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” rally, scheduled for this Friday in London. The event, which organisers have also referred to as “Unite the West,” is billed as a patriotic, anti-mass-migration gathering. Notably, Tarczyński addressed a similar Unite the Kingdom event in London as recently as September 2025 and was permitted entry without difficulty on that occasion.
The MEP responded with fury, calling the decision “communism in the 21st century” and announcing his intention to bring a personal legal claim against Prime Minister Keir Starmer following the next general election.
His case is one of several. Belgium’s Filip Dewinter, a politician with the Vlaams Belang party, is among those who have also been turned away, along with American journalist Don Keith, US political commentator Joey Mannarino, and Valentina Gomez, a US anti-Islam influencer and former Republican candidate who had previously been blocked from entering Britain. At least two further individuals, whose identities have not been publicly confirmed, are reported to have been refused entry on the same grounds, bringing the total to seven or more. In each case, the Home Office cited the same “not conducive to the public good” reasoning. A number of those affected are said to hold no criminal record in the UK and had travelled here previously without incident.
Prime Minister Starmer made clear on Monday that the government stood fully behind the decisions. “This Labour Government will block far-right agitators from travelling to Britain for that event, because we will not allow people to come to the UK and spread hate on our streets,” he said. The rally, he added, was “designed to intimidate,” and the government would not allow outsiders to “threaten our communities.”
The bans have been carried out under the authority of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. The legal mechanism underpinning them — the “not conducive to the public good” provision — is not new. It has been used by governments of both main parties for many years to bar individuals considered a threat to public order or judged to be promoting extremism.
What has drawn sharper attention this time is the scale of its application and the profile of some of those targeted. Critics contend the power is being deployed to shut out elected officials and mainstream commentators whose views on immigration policy the government finds objectionable. Those defending the decisions argue they are a proportionate response to what they characterise as organised far-right agitation.
The rally itself will go ahead on Friday under significant police presence. Tarczyński and a number of the other barred speakers have said they intend to participate by video link.
