Comedian Jason Manford became embroiled in an online spat with political party Britain First after he described their far-right videos as racist.
Britain First is a far-right British political party with over 750,000 followers on Facebook. The page regularly shares pro-military memes and posts that encourage Islamophobia.
On Monday, Manford told his 1.1 million Facebook followers that he had deleted old friends for sharing racist videos by Britain First.
While many of his Facebook fans praised the comedian for deleting his racist friends, some were less than impressed. So Manford decided to shut down criticism in the comments.
Some people told Manford to do his comedy in "their country", and he had this to say in response:
Then when others told Manford they'd block him from Facebook, he bid them farewell.
Manford even began replying to comments left on his page.
A few hours later, the Britain First Facebook page questioned if Manford supported "Islamic extremism" and shared a photo of him in front of a Nazi flag and said Manford thought Nazism was "funny".
But Manford stated that he did not support extremism of any kind, and that the Nazi flag he stood in front of was part of the set of The Producers, a comedy musical.
This was what Manford had to say to Britain First:
Oh dear. Looks like I'm about to become one of their victims! Not like Britain First to take a photo out of context and then use it to popularise their bigoted views! No, Naziism isn't funny, but Mel Brooks' ' The Producers Musical' is. As you know (because I'm, you know, a human being) I am very much against extremists of all belief systems. I also like to put Britain first (note the lack of capital letter). But my Britain is very different to their idea of Britain. If you don't want to follow this page because I think Britain First are bigoted, then that's your choice. I wish you well. If this page keeps popping up because your friends are liking it then please post 'block me' belle and I'll be happy to take you out. As for everyone else. Normal silliness and jokes will start again very soon! Jason
Later, after some people criticised Manford for not being "patriotic", he shared a photo of himself performing to the British Army in Afghanistan.
