Real ale fans row over Nigel Farage championing pub campaign | Politics | News

Furious members of Camra, the Campaign for Real Ale, are quitting because pint-loving Nigel Farage posed with one of their posters this week.

The Reform UK leader was among scores of MPs who attended a parliamentary campaigning event ahead of this month’s Budget.

He was photographed with chief executive Tom Stainer, holding a placard saying: “Support pubs and brewers. I’m backing great local beer and pubs.”

Mr Farage then tweeted the picture, saying: “In Parliament to support Camra. Like me, they are worried that a ban on outdoor smoking would finish off British pubs.”

This triggered an angry response from Farage-loathing Camra members with warnings the image would lead to many “destroyed” membership cards.

Mr Farage said: “As one of the most famous beer drinkers in the country, this is a ludicrous, politically motivated, negative reaction from but a handful of people.”

But one Camra member fumed on the group’s internal discussion website: “If Camra is going to align themselves with a person who has caused so much division and hate I will not be a part of it.”

Another said: “I will not be renewing my membership. Camra has lost its way.

“Aligning with Farage is not why I joined. What a joke it has become.”

And a further member warned: “This photo has led to a lot of destroyed Camra membership cards.”

National chairman Ash Corbett-Collins defended Mr Farage’s participation in the event, saying: “We are non-party political. This was an event at Parliament open to all MPs.”

He said Mr Farage was “one of around 60 MPs who came along to the event, where we briefed them on our Budget asks and they got the opportunity to get a picture with one of our campaign cards,” adding: “As a non-party political organisation we treat all elected MPs, from whatever party, in the same way.”

Other Camra members defended Mr Farage’s involvement, saying: “If we open an event to all MPs, that includes him. We can’t say, ‘All MPs except you.’”

Another asked: “Are you really that easily offended? Someone supporting pubs and cask ale you don’t like – leader of a party that got 500,000 more votes than the Lib Dems?

“Sometimes I despair at how pathetic some people can be when a simple process called democracy gets in the way of what they want.”

Yet another said: “I’m here for the beer, not the flag-waving.”

A spokesman for Mr Farage said he was invited to the Camra event at Parliament in his role as a democratically-elected MP, stating: “It is ironic for Nigel to be criticised when over 500 other parliamentarians were too busy to turn up and support real ale.”