Yorkshire activist moves to US to aid Republican hopeful

John Hanson, once a leading light in the region’s textiles industry, described the Republican and Tea Party activist as “the new Margaret Thatcher” at a time when the West is in desperate need of strong leadership.

He told the Yorkshire Post: “America is the last hope for Western capitalism as I believe that Europe has now sunk and cannot be saved in the short term.”

Mr Hanson is the former chairman of Greenwoods Menswear and Parkland Textiles, which once employed 7,000 people. His father-in-law was Denis Greenwood, founder of the retailer and chairman of the Yorkshire Industrialists, a group of Right-wing business leaders.

He has been an active political campaigner for most of his life, working for Lady Thatcher in his early 20s and later running the northern operations of the Referendum Party, the eurosceptic campaign formed by billionaire financier Sir James Goldsmith.

Mr Hanson said he was introduced to contacts in the Republican Party by the Goldsmith family. He is now working on marketing for Ms Bachmann’s campaign to become the party’s presidential candidate.

He said: “There is now a massive fight going on in America between the Republican Party led by Tea Party activists and the Democrats led by President Obama.

“The recent financial crisis, which centres around increasing the debt ceiling, has been a disaster for the US, but a major wake-up call.

“With a decent Republican candidate Obama is now capable of being beaten because of the crisis in the economy and lack of new jobs.”