Great Britain
Britain is experiencing dramatic social changes, accelerated by the decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) following a referendum in 2016, the coronavirus pandemic, and the ongoing cost of living crisis. These changes are taking place when Britain has experienced over a decade of declining living standards following the 2008 financial crisis, partly due to the UK’s post-imperial decline.
Fourteen years of Conservative government have continued more than forty years of neoliberal hegemony over the political and economic systems. Britain’s manufacturing industry has almost disappeared, with the country importing nearly as many goods and services as it exports. Deindustrialisation is so advanced in Britain that it has started to reverse, with some manufacturing jobs returning to the UK.
Current Situation
Introduction
Britain is experiencing dramatic social changes, accelerated by the decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) following a referendum in 2016, the coronavirus pandemic, and the ongoing cost of living crisis. These changes are taking place when Britain has experienced over a decade of declining living standards following the 2008 financial crisis, partly due to the UK’s post-imperial decline.
Fourteen years of Conservative government have continued more than forty years of neoliberal hegemony over the political and economic systems. Britain’s manufacturing industry has almost disappeared, with the country importing nearly as many goods and services as it exports. Deindustrialisation is so advanced in Britain that it has started to reverse, with some manufacturing jobs returning to the UK.
As a result of Britain’s post-war labour shortages, which workers from across its empire filled, Britain has some of the most racially diverse cities in the world. While the number of people in mixed-race relationships continues to grow, public attitudes to immigration are largely hostile and were seen as one of the key factors behind the Brexit vote. Large sections of the population have been led to believe that the loss of jobs, falling wages, and dismantling of the welfare state are because of immigrants. The Conservative government has whipped up anti-immigrant sentiment while allowing record numbers of immigrants to enter the UK.
Britain continues to occupy six counties in the north of Ireland. However, it is believed this occupation will end at some point in the future, following an agreement that will end British rule if a majority votes for it in a referendum. Within Britain, there have been repeated calls for Scottish and Welsh independence, which means the United Kingdom’s breakup is possible, particularly as the economic consequences of leaving the EU have started to hit.
While nationalism, militarism, and hostility to immigrants are rife, Britain is also one of the most socially progressive countries in the world, with many forms of oppressive behaviour criminalised. This tension over cultural attitudes is highlighted by the current arguments over trans rights, with some prominent British feminists adopting transphobic positions in response to a growing number of young people identifying as trans.
The current government’s frequent attacks on human rights are vocally opposed by large sections of the population who do not feel represented by those in power.
Status of the far-right in the country
Britain’s far-right exists in the shadow of a Conservative government that is attempting to deport illegal migrants to Africa. Since the Brexit vote, the British far right has experienced its period of change following the success of, which has led to the “retirement” of Nigel Farage and the demise of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson. There has been somewhat of a resurgence of British fascism led by former British National Party (BNP) officials.
The current risk of far-right violence is relatively low, although lone wolves are capable of deadly force, and football hooligans have carried out attacks on high-profile left-wing figures in recent years. There is a near-constant stream of teenage neo-Nazis who have been radicalised online, being jailed for plotting terrorism offences. Terrorism and hate crime legislation is being used extensively against the far-right following the murder of Jo Cox.
Yaxley-Lennon’s experiences as a YouTuber and prominent social media user have helped move the far-right to a ‘network’ model, where collective organisations have started to disappear and individuals’ levels of influence rise and fall.
One organisation bucking this was Patriotic Alternative (PA), an attempt to unite British fascists by former BNP youth leader Mark Collett. Collett has used YouTube to build an audience he has helped radicalise, and he has started getting involved in real-life activities, such as hikes and litter-picking exercises. PA has since split, with the Homeland Party (Homeland) seeing most regional organisers and officers leave to form a new party more committed to electorialism.
There is a split between ‘civic nationalist’ Yaxley-Lennon supporters and Collett’s who are ‘ethno-nationalist.’ Collett’s group is currently experiencing a wave of state repression, with several key organisers serving prison sentences. PA is regularly criticised by former members and opponents on the right, such as former BNP leader Nick Griffin.
PA has led a return to the streets by British fascists through protests against hotels housing asylum seekers and Drag Queen Story Hours. This was the first time since Griffin led the BNP off the streets in the 90s that a hegemonic British fascist organisation regularly organised or attended street protests. Since splitting from PA, Homeland has participated in several anti-migrant protests but appears to be more interested in joining parish councils.
The main target groups for the far-right are asylum seekers, migrants, Muslims, and Jews. Homophobic and transphobic violence is relatively common, although not from the organised far-right.
Status of antifascists in the country
Anti-fascists in Britain have been slow to adapt to changes on the far-right and are predominantly active online or in subcultural niches. The emergence of EDL at the start of the last decade saw a return to mass anti-fascist counter-protests, something which had been largely unnecessary during the preceding decade. Protesting far-right events is now a commonly used tactic, even when not entirely necessary. This has made it difficult for anti-fascists to respond to PA’s growth, where they hold events in secret, which are only advertised to people who have been previously vetted.
Following the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of anti-fascist activity has ceased, with many of the people who would typically have organised protests against far-right groups instead taking to the streets to support Black Lives Matter protests or being active in their communities through ‘mutual aid’ groups. Some anti-fascist groups have attempted to maintain a presence by stickering and postering, but generally, anti-fascism has been put on the back-burner by many on the left.
The past decade has seen the rise of the security state and the growth of counter-extremism lobbying groups who have had the resources to scrutinise the growing far-right online ecosystem. State repression of militant anti-fascists and the prevalence of CCTV cameras in major cities have deterred new generations from the forms of militancy that previous generations have used. The growth of online sleuthing and adoption of ‘doxxing’ as a tactic, primarily imported from the US, has meant that much anti-fascism is now carried out online, where the risks of far-right violence or being repressed by the state are considerably lower.
Historic developments
Fascism was first imported to Britain from Italy, and it became popular with aristocrats who were concerned about the impact the Russian Revolution could have on British society. The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was the first fascist organisation to gain mainstream recognition, attracting the support of the Daily Mail newspaper. The Olympia rally in 1934, which saw BUF stewards attack heckling anti-fascists, alerted the country to the threat of fascist violence. In 1936, the BUF was routed on the streets when they tried to march through East London in the ‘Battle of Cable Street.’ When the Second World War broke out, the BUF was proscribed, and leading members interned. Following the war, efforts to refound the BUF as the Union Movement were severely hindered by the 43 Group, returning Jewish servicemen who had witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust.
Migration to Britain from its colonies to fill post-war labour shortages and the subsequent collapse of the empire helped to revive British fascist organisations, providing them with communities to target and a narrative of imperial decline. But this also laid the foundations for an anti-racist movement that significantly impacted British life. The ‘Battle of Lewisham’ in 1977 saw a march by the National Front (NF). The hegemonic British fascist party, which was responsible for violence towards the left and minorities across the country, was smashed by anti-fascists and Black youth.
The violence of the NF prompted the formation of Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), which subsequently smashed the BNP off the streets, prompting a shift in strategy towards electoralism and away from street protests. This shift in strategy also saw the BNP start to hide their anti-Semitism and shift the focus of their propaganda to demonising asylum seekers and Muslims. They attempted to exploit racial divisions in Northern former mill towns, which had large Asian communities and high levels of unemployment. This strategy led to the BNP gaining nearly a million votes in 2009.
When the BNP collapsed, the English Defence League (EDL) emerged and started to organise protests against Muslims. The fragmentation of the EDL saw groups splinter from it and align themselves with neo-Nazi groups such as National Action and the NF. This coalition of counter-jihad and white nationalist groups organised a series of protests against migrants in the coastal town of Dover, starting in 2015, which turned violent on several occasions, leading to several far-right activists being jailed.
Many saw the 2016 Brexit referendum as a plebiscite on attitudes to immigration. Nearly the entire British far right, except for Yaxley-Lennon, campaigned for ‘Leave’. As Britain started to leave the EU, the subsequent constitutional battles became a focus for far-right activity, with the pro-EU establishment being described as ‘globalists.’
International relationships
Britain has had a significant cultural impact on the global far-right from exporting the neo-Nazi skinhead subculture, football hooliganism and the subsequent crossover of the two with Combat 18. Concerts are held across Europe to mark the anniversary of the death of former Skrewdriver lead singer Ian Stuart Donaldson, and far-right hooligans acknowledge English hooligans as being the progenitors of organised football violence.
The British far-right has extensive connections to far-right and fascist groups in former colonies, particularly those where white people settled. While Britain’s far-right punches above its weight in the Anglosphere because of language, it has stronger connections with the American far-right than with the Canadian or Australian far-right.
Content produced by the British far-right is consumed internationally, with figures like Nigel Farage or Stephen Yaxley-Lennon becoming known in America. Farage was invited to meet with former President Donald Trump while he was in office.
While Yaxley-Lennon has received much support from Americans, including substantial donations from the Middle Eastern Forum, he is also banned from the USA for entering the country with a false passport. For several years, Yaxley-Lennon was employed by Canadian hard right YouTube channel Rebel Media to produce content for them, which saw Yaxley-Lennon jet around Europe, where he promoted several Identitarian projects and befriended Austrian Identitarian leader Martin Sellner.
PA leader Mark Collett has a close relationship with former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and regularly appears on his internet radio show. Collett has also developed relationships with the New York-based The Right Stuff podcast network and appeared extensively on their UK-based podcast to promote PA and its activities.
As one of the two megacities in Western Europe, London is home to several international far-right groups. The French Rassemblement Nationale has a group based in London. There is also a group linked to the Italian CasaPound organisation. Polish neo-Nazis have developed networks across the UK, with multiple groups of Poles attending neo-Nazi protests in the north of England in recent years.
For nearly every tendency within the British far-right, they have developed relationships with equivalent tendencies in European and international movements. The BNP was active in the European Parliament. Leader Nick Griffin was connected to French fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen. Griffin is also a close associate of Italian Forza Nuova leader Roberto Fiore. National Action (NA) was connected to the global neo-Nazi terrorist tendency through the Ironmarch.org forum, which founder Benjamin Raymond administered. While a leading figure in NA, Raymond travelled to Germany and Lithuania but is now in jail for possessing documents linked to terrorism.
Far-right activists from across Europe and North America are regularly invited to address events in the UK. However, the Home Office has banned some of the more prominent, such as Richard Spencer and Martin Sellner, from entering the country.
Political Landscape
Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system has kept far-right and fascist groups on the fringes of the parliamentary political landscape. In the past twenty years, where there have been electoral successes for fascist parties in formal politics, it has been at a local level, where fascist parties have been able to develop sufficient levels of organisation to get elected, or at a European level, where a proportional representation system is used.
Early British fascists included some Lords in Britain’s second unelected chamber, the House of Lords, but an open fascist has never been elected to the House of Commons. The first-past-the-post system meant that the right-wing of the Conservative Party had connections with the British far-right, which go back decades. The Monday Club was linked to the Conservatives until 2001 and was opposed to non-white immigration to Britain and supported apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia. Some former officers of the Monday Club have been associated with the Traditional Britain Group (TBG). This far-right group hosts conferences and dinners attended by fascists and neo-Nazis.
The former leader of the House of Commons, Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg, spoke at a TBG dinner in May 2013 but subsequently disavowed the group’s views. Another leading Conservative politician, Michael Gove, currently serving as a secretary of state, was revealed to own books by French New Right author Guillaume Faye, published by Arktos Media, whose UK operation was headed up by Gregory Lauder-Frost, a former Monday Club officer, who is the founder of TBG. Some far-right groups that engage in the electoral system have a presence on parish councils (the lowest possible level of local government), and there are a handful of former BNP councillors at slightly higher local government levels. The BNP was the most successful British fascist party in electoral terms. Nearly one million people voted for the BNP when they won two seats in the European Parliament in 2009, with 9.8% and 8% of the vote. The BNP is not currently standing candidates in local elections.
One peer in the House of Lords, Lord Pearson, former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), is loosely associated with the far-right. In 2018, Lord Pearson entertained Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) on the parliamentary estate and employed Peter McIlvenna, the national organiser for the far-right group Hearts of Oak.
Media landscape
Mail Online is the biggest UK newspaper website and is run by the Daily Mail, the newspaper which in 1934 published an article by its aristocratic owner headlined ‘Hurrah for the Blackshirts!’. The Mail stopped supporting the British Union of Fascists (BUF) the same year following violence at the BUF’s Olympia rally, but it still publishes articles targeting oppressed and minority groups. Several major newspapers, including the Murdoch-owned The Sun, created a media landscape hostile to migrants and played a part in the BNP’s electoral success in the 2000s.
The Spectator magazine, owned by the Daily Telegraph’s owners and once edited by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has published articles supporting fascist parties and far-right groups. The popularity of right-wing newspapers like the Daily Mail and The Sun and magazines like The Spectator has made it difficult for explicitly far-right or fascist publications to survive, although several exist.
The A.K. Chesterton Trust publishes Candour, although it has only been produced ten times and has no notable circulation. Heritage & Destiny journal is published six times a year and has more of an impact on British fascists, occasionally organising events.
Over the past decade, the British far-right has embraced the internet and self-publishing online videos. Some British fascists currently have YouTube channels with tens of thousands of subscribers. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) has over 450,000 followers on X (formerly known as Twitter). Patriotic Alternative leader Mark Collett had over 100,000 subscribers on the platform before he was banned from YouTube.
Much far-right content is now produced and shared on Telegram or alt-tech platforms.
Financial landscape
Far-right and fascist groups in Britain are predominantly self-funded, relying on regular donations from members for income. The leadership of the fascist group PA has adeptly used regular live streams to generate an income, and PA has started to set up small businesses to support their fascist activism, such as a tea reseller or a homemade soap company. This has inspired another far-right group to start selling coffee, and there are other small businesses.
Several far-right activists were early adopters of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and appear to have benefited from their value growth. Bitcoin and speculating on cryptocurrencies have become regular topics of conversation among far-right activists.
At its peak, the BNP put much effort into encouraging members to leave legacies to the party in their wills. There has been speculation this made millions for the party and was one of the reasons it still exists as a largely inactive entity. One former BNP financial backer, Jim Dowson, claims to have been an advisor to 150 companies worldwide and made his money from business services. Dowson claims to have supplied bulletproof vests and communications equipment to Kosovo.
Prominent far-right figures such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) have attracted some foreign funding, such as the American think tank Middle East Forum, which claims to have spent about $60,000 (£47,000) on Yaxley-Lennon’s legal fees and demonstrations in London. American billionaire Robert Shillman financed a fellowship that helped pay for Yaxley-Lennon to be employed by hard-right Canadian YouTube channel Rebel Media on a salary of about £5,000 a month.
Yaxley-Lennon and Britain First leader Paul Golding have both visited Russia in what appear to have been unsuccessful attempts to get Russian funding.
Reports
Quarterly Reports
Quarterly reports give in-depth insights into relevant events and data in each country as they pertain to the local far-right networks and their international allies.
During electoral shift, British fascists face repression
The Homeland Party (Homeland), which split from fascist group Patriotic Alternative (PA) in April 2023, is now registered with the Electoral Commission and able to contest elections in England, Scotland and Wales. Following their registration, Homeland claims to be the “fastest-growing and most vibrant” nationalist party in Britain. This is the first of a new generation of British fascists to successfully register a political party. PA have tried and failed seven times to register themselves and this failure was cited as a reason for the split.
Homeland is employing the “ladder strategy” which was devised for the National Front in 1987 and then employed by the British National Party (BNP) to great success in subsequent decades. By following this strategy the BNP were able to become the most successful British fascist project in electoral terms, winning just short of a million votes in 2009. Homeland encourages members to become parish councillors with a view to contesting council elections in the future. The party recently recruited former BNP South East regional organiser Roger Robertson, who is a sitting parish councillor in Hampshire. Robertson is Homeland’s sole candidate in the upcoming council elections.
PA’s Yorkshire regional organiser Sam Melia was jailed for two years at the start of March for producing racist stickers prior to joining PA. Melia is the husband of PA’s deputy leader Laura and the couple are expecting their second child who will be born while Melia is incarcerated. A crowdfunding drive for the couple has so far raised over £60,000 which they are using to support themselves and some of PA’s other prisoners. PA look set to be labelled as ‘extremists’ by the British government after being named in Parliament. PA could also face legal action over its whites-only Christmas campaign which only helped two families.
PA appears to have started doing monthly ‘flash demos’, where members from across the country gather for unannounced protests. In January, around 20 activists held a protest in Standish, Wigan. Both PA leaders attended the protest and gave speeches. In February, around 30 PA activists from around the UK returned to Cannock in the West Midlands for a protest, where they held speeches and distributed leaflets. In March PA held a protest in Leeds against the imprisonment of Sam Melia. PA described it as their “largest flash demo to date” and claimed it was attended by around 80 supporters.
Both Homeland and PA have had a busy start to the year, with members engaging in a range of activities such as leafleting, hiking and litter picking. Both groups celebrated the end of asylum seekers being housed at the Muthu Hotel in Erskine, Scotland.
At the start of May there are local elections taking place in many places. The British far right are standing only a handful of candidates. The British Democratic Party (British Democrats), which was set up following the demise of the BNP, has seven candidates. A British Democrats councillor, Christopher Bateman, was re-elected to Noakes Parish Council unopposed. Bateman is standing for Basildon Borough Council in May.
Former Generation Identity UK activist Nick Scanlon is far-right party Britain First’s (BF) candidate in London’s mayoral elections in May. Scanlon has previously flirted with involvement with PA. BF hopes to raise £25,000 to support Scanlon’s campaign for Mayor of London. In February BF held its Spring conference in Hinckley, Leicester, with speakers including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson).
A Cardiff man was jailed for four years and eight months for terrorism offences after sharing extreme right-wing propaganda videos in January. Kristen Persen, 22, from Fairwater in Cardiff, had instructional books and manuals for the manufacture of firearms, explosives and detonators as well as white supremacist propaganda.
In March, a member of several violent neo-Nazi Telegram groups, Harry Parris, 22, from Bittaford in Devon, was jailed for two years and nine months after pleading guilty to encouraging terrorism and possessing documents likely to be useful to a person preparing acts of terrorism.
Vincent Charlton, 17, from Birtley, Gateshead, was sentenced to two years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to encouraging terrorism, possessing documents likely to be useful to a person preparing acts of terrorism and making and possessing indecent images of children. Charlton had promoted neo-Nazi Satanist group the Order of Nine Angles and claimed he was planning to blow up a school.
Making race hate crimes pay
The jailing of PA’s Yorkshire regional organiser Sam Melia for producing racist stickers has become a cause célèbre for the international Anglophone far-right and among “free speech” advocates. PA has established a narrative that Melia was jailed for producing stickers with pro-white slogans like “White Lives Matter” and “It’s Okay to Be White”. This has let them portray Melia as a victim and helped to establish international support for the British neo-Nazi. Multibillionaire Elon Musk, who owns social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has expressed his surprise at the jail sentence on a couple of occasions.
The way PA have portrayed Melia’s incarceration has helped them to raise over £60,000 on the American Christian crowdfunding website GiveSendGo. PA has used the website to host financial appeals for some of the other prisoners they are supporting. Melia’s wife Laura has appeared as a guest on Alex Jones’ InfoWars show to promote the case. Melia has received support from the Irish far-right, with Keith O’Brien (aka Keith Woods), Gavin Lowbridge and Philip Dwyer all expressing support for Melia online.
PA leader Mark Collett had a familiar series of guests on his livestreams during the start of 2024. In January, Australian neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell was a guest on Patriotic Weekly Review PWR), the following week Swedish fascist Henrik Palmgren from Red Ice was the guest. Chicago-based fascist ‘Thomas777’ appeared a week later, who was followed by American fascist Warren Balogh and then Syrian Australian conspiracy theorist Maram Susli (aka Syrian Girl). Cottrell, Palmgren, Balogh and Susli have all appeared on PWR before.
Also in January, Collet interviewed KvltGames, far-right video games creators from Germany about their “anti-woke” game The Great Rebellion, which has been banned by Steam. PA’s book club reviewed a recent book by Marcus Follin (aka The Golden One).
Collet used familiar guests in February as well. American neo-Nazi Joseph Jordan (aka Eric Striker), American anti-Semite Kevin MacDonald, American anti-Semitic propagandist Adam Green. Collett was again joined by the Port Film Co-op from Port Adelaide, South Australia for a film review and PA reviewed former KKK leader David Duke’s book, with Duke a guest.
In March, Collett’s PWR guests were Michael Peinovich (aka Mike Enoch) from The Right Stuff and National Justice Party, American anti-Semite Tim Murdock, Canadian far-right activist Jeremy MacKenzie (aka Raging Dissident) and American fascist Warren Balogh.
French far-right party Rassemblement National are encouraging French citizens based in the UK to vote in the upcoming European elections and are calling for volunteers to attend polling stations on behalf of the party. Over 160,000 French citizens live in the UK.
Homeland’s International Relations Officer is Czech-born fascist Martin Kuziel. Kuziel is a former West Midlands regional organiser for PA. Kuzial was pictured attending a Junge Nationalisten (JN) march in Dresden in February 2023.
Former Generation Identity UK activists visited the Identitarian housing project in Chemnitz to give a presentation about their new group Identity England. On the trip was Britain First’s candidate for London mayor Nick Scanlon and Charlie Fox (aka Charlie Roberts).
Spanish neo-Nazi activist, Isabel Peralta, who writes for Heritage & Destiny (H&D) magazine, has been barred from travelling to the UK. In September 2023, Peralta was temporarily detained by the UK Border Force at Manchester Airport before she was eventually permitted to enter the country and speak at H&D‘s annual meeting in Preston. Then Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, was criticised following the decision. In March 2022, Peralta was detained at Frankfurt airport after her luggage was found to contain a swastika flag and a copy of Mein Kampf.
Notorious Holocaust denier David Irving is on his deathbed and requires “round-the-clock care” after falling ill in October last year. A post on X says Irving is “now unable to engage in his life’s work.” Irving is 85 years old and had previously maintained a schedule of speaking engagements to small audiences of anti-Semites. Irving was found by British courts to be a Holocaust denier after losing a libel case in 2000.
Migrant hotel protests continue.
Former footballer turned TV presenter Gary Lineker sparked controversy after comparing government policy towards refugees to Nazi Germany. This led to Lineker being taken off a flagship football show which prompted a walkout by fellow presenters.
Protests against hotels being used to house refugees continued in March, although smaller than in February, with the fascist party Patriotic Alternative (PA) again involved. A protest by PA in the Welsh town of Llantwit Major was heavily outnumbered by anti-fascist counter-protesters, and clashes on the fringes saw PA’s new West Midlands regional organiser Connor Marlow and an associate be punched by militant anti-fascists.
PA’s Scotland region organised another protest in Erskine outside Glasgow, as part of an ongoing campaign against a hotel there. The soap company run by PA’s Claire Ellis has received press attention in Scotland. Ellis is engaged to PA’s national administration officer Kenny Smith, the former head of administration for the British National Party.
There were a series of poorly attended far-right protests across the UK in March, including a protest at a Newquay hotel, protests against drag queen story hours in London, a protest in Wakefield, and a protest in Manchester. These all attracted anti-fascist counter-protests.
One of the biggest issues in the British far-right during March has been the trial of James Allchurch, aka Sven Longshanks from Pembrokeshire. Allchurch is behind Radio Albion, formerly known as Radio Aryan, and is a key activist in the fascist party PA. The trial culminated in Allchurch being found guilty of 10 counts of distributing racist and anti-Semitic content online. PA have been publicly supporting Allchurch, who attended their Welsh protest.
A 20-year-old man in Dunoon, Scotland, was arrested for distributing PA leaflets.
A 16-year-old teen from Yorkshire who idolized the Christchurch killer was found guilty of planning an attack on two mosques. Alan Madden, 65, from Port Sunlight in Wirral, pleaded guilty to posting videos online promoting the banned neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action. James Farrell, 32, from Priesthill, Glasgow, was jailed for two years and eight months for posting a replica machine gun tutorial in a group chat for far-right group Oaken Hearth.
Former private school pupil Oliver Riley, 19, from Watlington, Oxfordshire, who posted neo-Nazi and homophobic videos online, was given a community order avoiding jail.
PA celebrates years of online hate.
In March, PA leader Mark Collett’s weekly livestream Patriotic Weekly Review (PWR) marked 200 episodes with a four-hour long stream involving 30 guests from across the international far-right. Guests included Lana Lokteff and Henrik Palmgren from Red Ice TV, Andreas Johnansonfrom the Nordic Resistance Movement, Québécois white nationalist Jean-François Gariépy, neo-Nazi academic Kevin MacDonald, Australian neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, National Justice Party (NJP) leader Mike Peinovich and several other leading figures from PA and the US-based NJP.
During the stream, British neo-Nazi Ryan Williams aka Nativist Concern, revealed he has been travelling around Eastern Europe making connections with other fascists. Williams was one of the hosts of the British neo-Nazi podcast The Absolute State of Britain, which was published by The Right Stuff, the podcast network which has become the NJP.
When asked what he had been doing, Williams said: “Well, I’ve been in Eastern Europe a lot. Basically wife hunting, sort of gave up on achieving our natal goals in the UK. But yeah, it’s been good just running my Telegram page, making money, doing my training and making a few different friends, meeting some different nationalists.”
The Daily Mirror wrote about PA’s excessive use of Google’s video streaming website YouTube, which learned PA has at least 3,200 subscribers over five YouTube channels. The Sun wrote about YouTube still broadcasting racist songs, which inspired Anders Breivik.
Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan was banned from the UK after threatening to burn the Quran at a protest in Wakefield, Yorkshire.
A study by the UN-backed Tech Against Terrorism project found that the UK far-right launched a wave of transphobic hate following the Nashville shootings.
British anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull aka Posie Parker, went on a controversial Australasian tour. At her event in Melbourne, Keen-Minshull was supported by neo-Nazis.
Far-right news sites have been radicalizing American Republican politicians, according to research from the London School of Economics.
Anti-migrant hatred goes mainstream
Refugees in Britain are living in fear after a spate of protests outside hotels the government is forcing asylum seekers to live in while their claims for asylum are processed by a racist Home Office. In Knowsley, Liverpool, one of these protests turned into a riot in which a police van was set on fire and an angry mob attempted to force their way into the hotel.
Protests against ‘migrant hotels’ are not just being organised by far-right groups. The protest in Knowsley was organised by locals with large Instagram accounts after accusations a school girl had been approached for sex by a migrant had gone viral. With the exception of one notable local fascist, James Costello, from the fascist party Patriotic Alternative (PA), the turnout was largely members of the local community unconnected to any far-right groups.
A Facebook group called ‘Hotels Housing Illegals’ in which such protests were being organized was shut down by Facebook after reaching 14,000 members. Anti-migrant hatred appears to have gone mainstream with a series of protests happening across Britain in February and set to take place in early March. This comes at a time when the Conservative government and Labour Party are stoking such hatred, cheered on by the media, by claiming they will stop migrants from crossing the English Channel ‘illegally’ in small boats.
Fascist party PA was falsely accused of organising the anti-migrant riot in Knowsley and has received substantial amounts of press attention since the riot. PA has attempted to capitalise on this by ramping up its street activity and calling a series of protests. PA leader Collett took responsibility for organising a protest in Skegness, which they claim was their largest protest ever. In Scotland, the PA region attempted to hijack a campaign by locals in Erskine on the outskirts of Glasgow. The West Midlands PA region was active in Cannock.
This has led to an increase in the calls for PA to be prescribed as a terrorist group and comes as PA’s national fitness officer Kristopher Kearney aka Charlie Big Potatoes pled guilty to two counts of disseminating terrorist documents, including the manifestos of several far-right killers. PA has attempted to downplay this. Kearney is awaiting sentencing.
A secretive organisation in the House of Lords called the New Issues Group (NIG) has been exposed by the anti-racist charity Hope Not Hate. For more than a decade, the NIG has been collaborating with far-right activists. The group includes former UKIP leader Malcolm Pearson and the Conservative former deputy speaker of the House of Lords, Baroness Cox.
Anglophone fascist alliances
New British fascist group Vanguard Britannia (VB) claimed to have ‘conducted Activism with [American fascist] Patriot Front Activists in London‘ in the middle of February. On their Telegram channel, VB posted photographs of both groups’ stickers on lamposts and a bollard in the centre of London and a picture of two pints. VB appears to be heavily influenced by Patriot Front.
In mid-February, PA leader Mark Collett had an American fascist called ‘James’ appear on his weekly live-stream as a representative of the White Papers Policy Institute (WPPI). The WPPI is publishing short notes on public policy on Telegram and a Substack page. It has recently published a series of posts reviewing the policies of PA and the National Justice Party (NJP) in the United States. During the stream, Collett revealed WPPI had been working with PA’s deputy leader Laura Melia. WPPI appears to be intending to become a transnational Anglophone fascist think tank and is already closely aligned with PA and NJP.
A week earlier, Collett’s live-stream guest was Joseph Jordan, aka Eric Striker, a founding member of the NJP and key member of The Right Stuff (TRS) podcasting network. The British podcast published by TRS, The Absolutely State of Britain (TASOB), was influential in establishing PA, and Collett was a frequent guest. Several leading figures in PA appeared on TASOB in the years it was being published, and it helped set the tone for PA’s anti-Semitism and extreme neo-Nazism. Kristopher Kearney was a host of TASOB before it stopped.
During the stream with Jordan, Collett claimed he had tried to speak at the NJP’s recent ‘mass meeting’ in Florida on 4 February 2023 but had been denied access to America. Collett claims he had flown to Mexico and spent a week trying to enter the USA from Tijuana.
At the start of February, Collett had American neo-Nazi Emily Youcis appear on the stream alongside PA’s deputy leader Melia. Youcis appeared on Collett’s stream in 2020. Towards the end of the month, Collett released a video on the Russian invasion of Ukraine titled: “UKRAINE – Jews Flee, Whites Die,” in which Collett accused the “Judeo-American state” of wanting to keep fighting “until the last white Ukrainian is dead.”
The NIG in the House of Lords was revealed when Pearson emailed 235 people instead of bcc’ing them. The email was sent to Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and American anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller among others.
The anonymous British fascist known as ‘Morgoth’ spent part of February in Ireland and published a video about his trip on his YouTube channel which has 57k subscribers.
Turning Point UK (TPUK), the British version of the American hard-right campaign group Turning Point USA has started holding protests outside Drag Queen Story Hours. TPUK held a small protest outside a pub in southeast London at the end of February.
Targeting of ‘migrant hotels’ continues.
More people were referred to the British government’s counter-terror programs for far-right extremism than Islamist extremism for the second year running. The figures also revealed there had been a large rise in the number of men referred to such programs over the ‘women-hating incel ideology.’ Police now consider incels to be an ’emerging risk.’
Counter-terrorism police claim to be removing “a large amount” of homemade gun-making guides from the internet amid fears far-right extremists are producing 3D-printed guns.
Elliot Brown, 25, from Bath, has been jailed for three years and three months for sharing bomb-making instructions in a far-right group chat he was in with neo-Nazi terrorist Dean Morrice. Brown shared a video of his Alexa speaker reading out a recipe for the explosive thermite. Three days later, Morrice purchased chemicals that could be used to make thermite. Morrice was jailed for 18 years in June 2021.
Luca Benincasa, 20, from Cardiff, was jailed for nine years and three months after pleading guilty to terrorism offenses and possession of indecent images of children as young as four. Benincasa, who had instructions on bomb-making, was a recruiter and ‘prominent member’ of the banned neo-Nazi group Feuerkrieg Division, describing himself as the ‘UK cell leader.’
Fascist party Patriotic Alternative (PA) is the subject of a counter-terrorism strategy involving the Scottish Government, according to the investigative website The Ferret. PA held events across Britain during January, including one protest where they announced their plans to attend publicly in advance. Previously all PA’s protest appearances had been advertised internally to vetted members who have had to provide proof of identity and address.
In the middle of January, PA held a protest in Hull city center against recently reversed plans to house migrants in former student accommodation. Later in the month, PA attended another protest in Seacroft, Leeds, joined by activists from the North West Infidels, Yorkshire Patriots, and current and former members of the BNP and National Front.
PA has now made protesting against migrants being housed in hotels one of their top national priorities. In Colchester, PA held a protest outside a Holiday Inn Express, and another was held outside a hotel in Snowdonia. PA also continues to protest against Drag Queen Story Hours, an event in Salisbury that was disrupted by a PA protest.
PA has been distributing leaflets in areas where there are such hotels. In Bishop’s Stortford, this has promoted a police investigation into the leaflets distributed by PA. Plans to protest outside a hotel in Erskine, Glasgow, were announced by PA.
The leader of the Scottish Family Party has been criticized after being interviewed by PA’s Scotland regional organizer Simon Crane.
Eleanor Wiliams, 22, from Walney, Barrow-in-Furness, was found to have lied about being trafficked by an Asian grooming gang and made false rape allegations against a series of white men. These allegations had been the subject of far-right protests in the town.
Far-right party Britain First (BF) is to contest local elections in Dartford, Kent, in May. BF is set to hold a meeting in Southampton in February. Campaigners have written an open letter asking the venue to cancel the booking.
The British government’s proposed anti-strike laws have been described as ‘fascist’ by a union leader who claims they will ‘damage democracy’.
British fascists look to Ireland for inspiration.
British fascists strengthened their connections with the Irish far-right in January, as anti-immigration protests, which began in November 2022, continue to spread across Ireland. The Far Right Observatory (FRO) criticized the social media companies Meta and YouTube for failing to remove far-right content from their websites. “Instead of bigots shouting on a bar stool, Meta and YouTube are key tools in the ongoing spread of hate propaganda and violence,” FRO told The Times.
In December last year, two of the main organizers of the anti-immigration protests in Ireland, Phillip Dwyer and Mike Connell, appeared on a YouTube channel with PA activists Joe Butler, aka Joe Marsh, and Stephen Thompson, aka Chief Moody, according to The Phoenix magazine. The magazine also revealed that Derek Blighe from Cork has close ties to Collett. In the middle of January, Melissa O’Neill of the Irish Freedom Party appeared on Thompson’s YouTube channel.
During January, prominent Irish fascist Keith O’Brien, aka Keith Woods, appeared once again on PA leader Mark Collett’s weekly live stream. In the past, Collett has appeared on live streams with Limerick-based fascist Karl Cohalan, aka James Collins, Gearóid Murphy, and Philip Dwyer, according to research from Anti-Fascist Action Ireland. Murphy and struggling Irish musician Shane Mason aka Bleeding Holograms, have also appeared on live streams with British neo-Nazi James Owens according to the research.
Daniel Harris, 19, from Derbyshire, was sentenced to 11 and a half years in jail. Videos made by Harris were viewed by two far-right killers who went on to commit attacks in the US last year, Payton Gendron and Anderson Aldrich. Gendron killed ten people in Buffalo, New York. Aldrich is accused of killing five people at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado. One of Harris’ videos referred to Brendan Tarrant as “the Australian saint.”
American neo-Nazi and Atomwaffen founder Brandon Russell, along with his partner Sarah Clendaniel, have been arrested for plotting to wipe out Baltimore’s power grid. Russell was previously associated with British neo-Nazi and National Action founder Benjamin Raymond.
At the end of January, Angel Almeida, from Queens, New York, was charged with sexual exploitation of minors and possession of child porn. Reports claim Almedia is affiliated with the neo-Nazi Satanist cult Order of Nine Angles (O9A).
An investigation for Byline Times by the Citizens and il Fatto Quotidiano revealed how Catholic charity St George Education Trust (SGET) is being run by a former National Front member Michael Fishwick. SGET has promoted conspiracy theories and fundraised for a far-right Italian politician Roberto Fiore, a former trustee of the trust.
An article from Heritage & Destiny magazine, exposing an alleged Spanish anti-fascist spy, reveals that British fascist Michèle Renouf hosted the alleged spy on the weekend of 2-4 December 2022 at a small gathering at her second home in the German countryside, where fellow guests included “some well-known figures on the German national socialist scene.” Renouf previously organized similar events in Schwarzenborn, Hessen.
PA leader Collett is now back on Twitter following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the firm. Collett now has an account with an audience of over 50,000, which he had built up before he was banned. This is now the largest social media account associated with PA.
Through January, Collett was joined on his Patriotic Weekly Review Livestream by Swedish white nationalist YouTuber Marcus Follin, aka “The Golden One,” Californian anti-Semite Jon Minadeo Jr. from the Goyim Defense League, aka “Handsome Truth,” and American fascist Warren Balogh from the US-based National Justice Party.
PA’s national fitness officer Kristofer Kearney, who was extradited from Spain to Britain, has denied disseminating terrorist publications. Kearney’s trial is due to start in June.
Yorkshire PA activist Alek Yerbury, described as a ‘Hitler lookalike’ by a publication in Hull, has been revealed to be a former private schoolboy from Adelaide, Australia.
In early January, at least one PA member supported mass leafleting in Oxford to push conspiracy theories about low-traffic neighborhood proposals. This was covered by Canadian hard-right web broadcaster Rebel News, who was in attendance.
Former Rebel News host and reality TV contestant Katie Hopkins has announced plans to take her one-woman show to Blackpool and Blackburn in Lancashire.
Rasmus Paludan burning a Quran outside a Danish mosque has sparked protests by Muslims around the world. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, went to see one of these protests outside the Danish Embassy in central London.
The Spectator magazine has published a glowing review of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s first 100 days in power, rejecting claims she is a neo-fascist. Far-right parties in Europe tend to be electorally successful when the issue of European integration matters to voters, more so than immigration, according to a new study.
Amazon has removed a handful of the Nazi items it sells, after being accused of ‘monetizing’ hate symbols. The UN has warned that parts of the internet are becoming `toxic waste dumps’ for hate. Former Smiths frontman Morrissey has denied being far right.
Far-right threat on the rise
In December, British MPs warned that the country’s armed forces and police are at risk of infiltration by far-right activists trying to acquire weapons. This comes as the number of self-initiated right-wing extremists in the UK who are being radicalized online is on the rise. The UK’s security services are also conducting a record number of investigations into potential terror threats following an upsurge in right-wing extremism, according to the i.
The rise in British far-right activity has also been reflected in the prison population, with the Home Office reporting an increase in the number of far-right extremist inmates. This trend is also seen in a study that found that most convicted terrorists were radicalized online.
The issue of migration has been a rallying point for far-right groups in the UK, with the use of inflammatory language to describe migrants coming in for criticism. The former counter-terror chief for the Metropolitan Police has described the Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s rhetoric on the topic as ‘incredibly unhelpful’ in tackling far-right extremism.
Despite the rhetoric, Braverman continues to place migrants who have crossed the channel in hotels around the country. Far-right activists have targeted these hotels for years, but we seem to be experiencing an upsurge in protests.
A Tory MP has pleaded with the Home Secretary to reconsider requisitioning a hotel in his constituency to house migrants amid fears it will spark violence from the far right.
Fascist party Patriotic Alternative (PA) held protests in various parts of the country through December, including in Barrow. PA has been joining protests against ‘migrant hotels’ and distributing ‘sickening’ leaflets in areas where there are such hotels, like Kettering.
In Scotland, members of the far-right group UK A Force for Good, which is supported by some former British National Party members, according to the Daily Record, laid flowers at the grave of Kriss Donald. Alleged Nazi sympathizer Darren Hurrel, 20 years old, of Douglasdale Street, Rigside, appeared in court accused of using threatening, abusive, and insulting words or behavior. Hurrel was chased by a mob of angry pupils outside Larkhall Academy in Lanarkshire. Hurrel has been connected to PA and the neo-Nazi group Highland Division.
A gig venue in Bathgate, West Lothian, may have to close after allegations it was set to host a two-day Blood & Honour event, its owners have claimed.
Neo-Nazi music producer Robert Talland and his two children have appeared in court accused of stirring up racial hatred through music. The children are also accused of inciting racial hatred by performing songs at a pub in Leeds.
Smashing the patriarchy
British-American misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, described as the “king of toxic masculinity,” was arrested in Romania on charges of human trafficking and rape. Tate was previously closely associated with former English Defence League leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson). Tate is linked to a number of other far-right figures.
Yaxley Lennon attended a second-division football match in Spain during December.
Alan Leggett, known as ‘Active Patriot’, held a Twitter Space to discuss protesting against migrant hotels, which was joined by British and Irish far-right figures, including Derek Blighe. PA’s Yorkshire regional organizer Sam Melia tried to join the space but couldn’t.
French Holocaust denier Vincent Reynouard was arrested in Fife, Scotland, while on the run. Anti-Semitic singer Alison Chabloz was a close associate of Reynouard.
Notorious far-right Chelsea hooligan Jason Marriner is now living in Thailand, where he has opened an English food shop.
Spanish fascist Isabel Peralta, who writes for the British Heritage and Destiny magazine, has been banned from entering Germany for life due to her extremist views.
During December, PA leader Mark Collett’s guests on his weekly Patriotic Weekly Review show included Michael “Enoch” Peinovich from the US-based fascist National Justice Party and The Right Stuff neo-Nazi podcast network, former Ku Klux Klan leader Dr. David Duke, French Canadian neo-Nazi Jean-François Gariépy and American anti-Semite Tim Murdock.
In Australia, neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell was found guilty of racially assaulting a security guard. Sewell was previously associated with British fascists around PA. Sewell appeared on a now-deleted podcast for PA supporters calling for the mass rape of public workers.
Neo-Nazi Russian militia Task Force Rusich has appealed for intelligence on Nato member states, according to Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.
Former Breitbart UK editor Raheem Kassam attended the New York Young Republican Club’s annual gala, which was attended by what the Southern Poverty Legal Center describes as “a collection of radical right figures including white nationalists and ultranationalist European leaders”.
In London, supporters of the French Rassemblement National party working in finance met at a restaurant in central London on 12 December.
More than 800 pieces of content promoting or celebrating far-right terrorism were found on 34 websites in a Europe-wide crackdown by the crime agency Europol involving 14 countries, including the UK.
A car bomb hoaxer who claims to have been inspired by Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik has become the first prisoner to be barred from release by the Justice Secretary.
Further far-right terror attacks expected
In the wake of last month’s racist firebombing in Dover, the UK expects future terror attacks from far-right extremists.
The head of MI5 warned that far-right extremists are radicalizing themselves online “from the comfort of their bedrooms” and acquiring weapons. The spy chief also said they had seen an increase in far-right attempts to buy “firearms in particular, whether illegally obtained, homemade or 3D-printed”.
The warning came the week after the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism noted that older men are responsible for most successful extreme rightwing terrorist attacks. Security think tank Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) is investigating the British military and police over concerns about far-right radicalization.
Meghan Markle faced multiple threats to her life from the British far-right after marrying into the royal family, according to the Metropolitan Police’s former head of counter-terrorism.
The usage of the encrypted messaging app Telegram by the Scottish neo-Nazi group Highland Division was covered by the Daily Record. This came a week after a member of the group was caught putting up posters around Glasgow’s south side.
A Conservative Party councilor in Kent has resigned after anti-racist charity Hope Not Hate published pictures of them wearing fascist uniforms at far-right events. Andy Weatherhead, who represented Hythe West on Kent County Council, was revealed to have once been a senior officer for the fascist organization New British Union.
Fascist party Patriotic Alternative distributed hundreds of leaflets in North Wales complaining about a hotel being used to house asylum seekers.
Transnational teenage neo-Nazi terrorists
Teenager Daniel Harris from Glossop, Derbyshire, was found guilty of six terrorism offenses. The 19-year-old was found guilty of five counts of encouraging terrorism relating to his creation and uploading material to the internet between February 2021 and March 2022. He was also found guilty of one count of possessing material for terrorist purposes, a 3D printer, which he had tried to use to make parts of a firearm.
Harris now faces extradition to the United States as the material he published inspired Payton Gendron’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. Gendron was a regular player of the American video game Roblox, according to his Discord logs, according to an article about neo-Nazis using the game to recruit children in the Daily Star.
American rapper Kanye West’s promotion of the ‘White Lives Matter’ slogan and anti-Semitic outbursts have significantly increased his popularity among British neo-Nazis. West’s far-right turn was being supported by failed British journalist Milo Yiannopoulos. Yiannopoulos claims to have organized a dinner between former US president Donald Trump, West, and American alt-right livestreamer Nick Fuentes.
In May, PA leader Mark Collett produced a video offering advice to Fuentes, someone Collett has been keen to work with following his rise to prominence. Guests on Collett’s livestreams during November included Joseph Jordan, aka Eric Striker from the National Justice Party in the US, longtime Collett-collaborator Jason Kohne, and Australian neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell. American anti-Semite Kevin MacDonald appeared on a live stream with Collett and some other PA members to discuss his book The Culture of Critique.
Elon Musk’s purchase of the social media platform Twitter has led to numerous neo-Nazis who had been banned, returning to the site. From Britain, these include PA’s Yorkshire regional organizer Sam Melia and Heritage & Destiny (H&D) magazine, among others.
During November, H&D published an article celebrating the birthday of the prominent German Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck. The article included a short report about a banner drop celebrating Haverbeck, which was carried out in Madrid, in which H&D’s European correspondent Isabel Peralta participated.
Former English Defence Leader Stephen Yaxley Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, has been using ex-MI5 informer Peter Keeley, who once infiltrated the IRA, to conduct surveillance on his opponents, according to a book by Hope not Hate’s Nick Lowles.
A two-day far-right festival, set to include pro-Nazi Finnish band Mistreat, was canceled in Bathgate, West Lothian, following police involvement. According to Hope Not Hate this event was organized by the Blood & Honour network.
A 76-year-old letter from Hitler’s minister of foreign affairs, Joachim von Ribbentrop to former King Edward VIII, asking him to give evidence at the Nuremberg war trials in 1946, is going up for auction after being unearthed.
One of Britain’s ‘most prolific sperm donors,’ who has fathered 140 children, is a ‘proud fascist’. Clive Jones is reported to be a leading figure in the New British Union.
Analysis
Victories for the far-right AfD party in eastern Germany
Elections took place in the German federal states of Thuringia and Saxony on September 1, 2024, and in Brandenburg on September 22. The far-right party “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) saw significant gains across all three states.
Elections in Austria: How dangerous is the FPÖ?
On September 29, Austria will hold its national elections, with the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) leading the polls with 30% support. The FPÖ is an openly far-right party—its lead candidate, Herbert Kickl, describes himself, like Adolf Hitler, as
Who are the Reichsbürgers in Germany?
The following text introduces a far-right movement in Germany whose followers believe that the “Deutsche Reich” continues to exist and that the elected government is illegal. Although its rejection of the state makes it seem bizarre, it is dangerous and
Great Friends of the Croatian Far Right
After the Homeland Movement (DP) became part of the ruling coalition, it first attacked the independent media because of its allegedly “anti-Croatian agenda.” The same media exposed the DP leaders as those with questionable asset declarations and finances who cooperate
The Freikorps of Tomorrow
In Russia, right-wing extremists have succeeded in forcing the resignation of the chairman of the State Duma’s Nationalities Committee, Gennadij Semigin. The episode shows how influential Russian fascists have become, especially in the military.
