The manager of Southampton pub The View, at Southampton Sports Centre, has said that a booking made by UKIP for their interim leader Nick Tenconi to give a speech at the venue tonight (10/12/24) was made as ‘after work drinks’ in the name of Nick, and that they had no idea about what was planned.
The booking has now been cancelled by the pub. Co-manager James Wilson says he has been unable to speak directly to the person who made the booking but has left a number of messages stating that it is cancelled.
In addition, the decision has been made to close the pub for the day, to keep customers and staff safe. James explained that at this time of year and in the current financial climate it is a significant blow to both the pub and its staff.
Mr Wilson said that it’s not unusual to take bookings for work drinks or similar at this time of year and they didn’t think anything of it when the booking was made.
He said: “If they had told us what the booking was for, we wouldn’t have made it.”
He added that the pub has been contacted by the police as well as a handful members of the public calling for the event to be cancelled and stating that they would boycott the pub and would be protesting outside.
Mr Wilson added: “We have no political stance and have a diverse crew – for example I’m gay.
“I’m quite upset about what has happened. It’s very frustrating. Staff have had to be told not to come to work today. On a Tuesday we have a lot of people from sports clubs come in – we’ve had to call them to tell them we’re closed and we’ve had to cancel evening meal bookings. So it’s really not ideal!”
Staff at the pub hope the message will get out that they are not hosting the event and were not aware that it was set to take place at their venue.
Southampton Stand Up To Racism had been organising a counter protest against the event, the planned location of which wasn’t known until last night.
The UKIP press office and Southampton Stand Up To Racism have been contacted to give a response.
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