A young Conservative Party activist who left his City job in December to fight with the Kurds against ISIS has claimed David Cameron is failing to tackle terrorism. Macer Gifford, 28, told the MailOnline he was fighting for democracy and would never be taken alive because he carried a grenade in his pocket.
Gifford Says He Won’t Stop Until ISIS Are Defeated
The former public schoolboy did admit that he was risking a “horrific death” by fighting for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Iraq and Syria. However the former Tory candidate claimed he will not leave the front line until ISIS is defeated. He is also using the fake name Baran Amed.
He left the UK two weeks before Christmas claiming he planned to take a low paid job in Istanbul with the Kurds. His move is believed to have come as a surprise to the parents who paid for him to attend a £23,000 a year school.
Gifford said: “I passionately believe in democracy and freedom of speech – all the rights we take for granted in the UK. I have left my family and a comfortable life in Britain to risk suffering the most horrific death at the hands of ISIS.
“But they won’t take me alive. I’ve got a grenade in my pocket and I’ll blow myself up and take them with me. I won’t let my family see me publicly executed.”
He claimed the Kurds were being badly let down: ‘The British government hasn’t done enough. If David Cameron was in the room with me now, I would say that he must stick to the core values of the Conservative Party, which is liberty and justice.
“I’d tell him not to play politics with this and take a stance on principle. If the British government were to help more – even just with non-lethal equipment like night-vision goggles and trainers – the Kurds would win this war much more quickly.”
It is perfectly legal to fight alongside the Kurds in Iraq and Syria and a handful of British fighters have done so. The most famous examples were ex-solders James Hughes from Worcestershire, and Jamie Read, from Lanarkshire. They both joined the fight last year but returned home amidst concerns their families may be attacked in the UK.
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