The Muslim Council of Britain has formally written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, expressing “deep concern” over the decision to grant American far-right figure Valentina Gomez entry into the UK.
The MCB says the move exposes glaring inconsistency in how the Home Office applies its own rules.
Others have previously been refused entry for inflammatory rhetoric aimed at different faith groups, yet Gomez has been waved straight through.
The MCB is clear this is not a straightforward free speech issue. The organisation acknowledges that freedom of expression is a core British value and that the legal bar for religious hatred offences is deliberately high.
However, it states that “that protection is not absolute, particularly where speech moves into calls for violence, dehumanising group-targeted language, or the undermining of public authorities.”
What Gomez actually said
The MCB’s alarm centres on a speech Gomez delivered at the September 2025 “Unite the Kingdom” rally alongside Tommy Robinson.
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According to the MCB’s letter, she told the crowd “you either fight for this nation,” warned of “rapist Muslims” “taking over”, and demanded Muslims be “sent back to their Sharia nations.”
She then turned directly to police officers present, declaring: “I need you to stop following orders because you know you are being told to look the other way while your country is being raped into submission.”
The MCB warns that those remarks “may engage existing legislation relating to the stirring up of religious hatred, the encouragement or incitement of violence, and public order offences concerning harassment, alarm or distress.”
These are serious legal thresholds, and the MCB is asking why they did not form part of the entry decision.
Broader implications
Beyond the legal questions, the MCB warns of a broader cost to public confidence. The letter states that granting Gomez a UK platform “sends a troubling message about the selective application of Home Office standards” and “risks undermining the safety of all communities.”
The organisation says this damages confidence in the government’s willingness to protect people from incitement, particularly among Muslim communities already concerned about rising hostility.
The MCB is urging the Home Secretary to “clarify how this decision is consistent with existing standards and to ensure that these standards are applied fairly and without bias across all communities.”
The ask is simple: one consistent standard, applied equally regardless of which community is targeted.
