A Muslim multi-millionaire businessman is being sued by Reform UK after his venue cancelled the right-wing party’s Christmas dinner event in Croydon following widespread backlash from the local Muslim community.
The London Christmas dinner and fundraiser by Reform UK was cancelled just days before it was due to take place following protests from local Muslims and other community members in Croydon.
Protests by members of the Croydon Muslim community were reported by Inside Croydon as having taken place last week outside the Grand Sapphire Hotel, including in the days leading up to the event, which was scheduled for December 4.
The local Muslim community said they were “deeply offended” that the hotel, which is owned by Pakistani-born millionaire and businessman Suleman Raza, would host the Reform UK event.
In a post on a South London Facebook group, a user wrote: “Grand Sapphire Croydon is scheduled for hosting Farage and his band of racist cronies on December 4. This needs to be stopped!”
Another comment in the group stated: “Grand Sapphire, Spice Village and many more enterprises of the owner Suleman Raza need to be boycotted unless he cancels entertaining Nigel Farage and his ilk.”
A £20K Christmas party
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Tickets for the Croydon Reform Christmas party cost up to £350 per head for VIP seating on a table with Lee Anderson MP, former Tory Assembly Member Keith Prince and Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader.
The Grand Sapphire ballroom can accommodate up to 1,200 guests for banquet-style dinners and many have pointed out the irony that anti-immigration Reform is choosing to hire a venue owned by a Muslim immigrant.
Calls for boycotting Raza and his chain of restaurants “Spice Village” resulted in Grand Sapphire releasing a statement on X saying that it had decided to cancel the event two days before, adding that the business had acted “responsibly despite incurring financial loss due to this cancellation.”
The contract for the party was said to be well over £20,000 for the venue, Reform Deputy Leader Richard Tice said on GB News.
More comments on the South London Facebook group read: “What’s more upsetting is seeing a Muslim, ethnic migrant business prepared to facilitate the very people who campaign against Muslim, ethnic migrant immigrants.”
Suleman Raza was awarded the MBE by Boris Johnson when he was Prime Minister. He has not issued any personal comments on the situation with Reform UK.
Reform UK threatens to sue
Reform UK reacted to the cancellation, with Richard Tice MP, Deputy Leader of the party, claiming that Stand Up to Racism among others have “bullied the owner of this venue forcing him to renege on a signed contract with Reform worth well over £20,000”.
Tice called the cancellation “appalling”, adding that it was “an attack on free speech,” stating on GB News that Reform will be suing the venue owner along with “any other owner that reneges on a signed contract.”
“This is an absolute outrage. It’s not North Korea. Democracy requires debate and discussion, and political parties are allowed to have Christmas parties,” Tice said.
Tice also claimed that the cancellation may signify “desperate people in desperate positions” due to Reform “leading in over 150 national polls.”
Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party have been hit with a string of controversies in recent weeks, from having its former leader in Wales jailed for 10 years for accepting money to lobby for Russian interests, to the allegations of Farage’s own “antisemitic and racist behaviour” when he was a student at Dulwich College in the early 1980s, which he denies.
