British authorities have refused entry to Finnish member of the European Parliament (MEP) Sebastian Tynkkynen, preventing him from traveling to London to speak at the first CPAC conference in the UK. The Finns Party politician was notified via email that his presence in the United Kingdom would “not serve the public interest,” and he was given no right to appeal the decision. Tynkkynen condemned the move as incomprehensible and a violation of open Western democratic principles.
“I was just banned from entering the UK. Elected politician. Defender of girls and women. Unbelievable,” he wrote on X.
The travel ban was triggered after Tynkkynen disclosed a conviction for “ethnic agitation”—meaning he criticised Islam and Muslim asylum seekers in social media posts—on his Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) application. The UK requires Finnish citizens to obtain an ETA before traveling, a process that strictly mandates the disclosure of criminal records. Tynkkynen stated he provided all requested information during the application, but it ultimately resulted in an outright refusal with no clear path for review.
This high-profile denial follows a remarkably similar case involving Finnish Christian Democrat MP Päivi Räsänen, whose previously approved British travel authorization was abruptly withdrawn. Räsänen had also disclosed that she had been found guilty of agitation against a minority group—in fact, the former interior minister had simply nailed down the biblical position on gender issues in a church pamphlet. She will now likely be unable to travel to Northern Ireland, where she is due to speak at the Assembly in August.
