Key Developments
Former English Defence League leader (EDL) turned far-right YouTuber, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as ‘Tommy Robinson’ announced he would be releasing a documentary called ‘The Rape of Britain’ about child sexual abuse perpetrated by men from Muslim backgrounds in Telford. On Christmas Day Yaxley-Lennon confronted a law firm worker and accused them of grooming children. The worker now claims to be living in fear.
Yaxley-Lennon also revealed he would be holding an event in Telford at the end of January where the documentary would be broadcast and invited supporters to attend. This sounds like it will resemble the showing of his ‘Panodrama’ documentary outside the BBC offices in Manchester in February 2019 where hundreds of supporters gathered to watch the documentary broadcast on a big screen, at an event which resembled an EDL protest.
A new group of anti-lockdown activists calling themselves Alpha Men Assemble (AMA) have emerged, with a large group on the encrypted messaging app Telegram which has nearly 7,000 members. The group have been holding training sessions including boxing drills at various places in the UK and claim to be planning direct action. AMA claim to be anti-racist and not associated with the far-right but say they are anti-communist and appears to have been launched by people associated with the ‘Soverign Citizens’ movement.
Fascist party Patriotic Alternative (PA) have continued to gain publicity in local papers from distributing leaflets advocating their worldview. In mid-December the Barrow-in-Furness’ Member of Parliament condemned a group of PA activists who had leafleted the Cumbrian town. Later in the month the Eastern Daily Press reported on PA leafleting in parts of Norwich. Police said they were unable to do anything about the leafleting.
PA regions were busy again in December, with most holding Christmas gatherings or meals during the month. PA leaflets were distributed in Essex, Cambridgeshire, Durham, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Suffolk, Somerset, Wales and West Yorkshire. Homeless outreach was conducted in Birmingham and Newcastle. PA groups attended anti-lockdown protests in Belfast, Dundee, London, Newcastle and Norwich.
Groups of PA activists went on hikes on Ben Narnian in Argyll, Scafell Pike in the Lake District, Pendle Hill in Lancashire, in the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, on cliffs near Eastbourne, in the Peak District, and in the Black Country.
London and Eastern PA regions visited the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, London, attended by 18 supporters who posed for photographs with PA flags. Seemingly a reference to the occasion where London PA had a ‘White Lives Matter’ banner stolen by anti-fascists.
PA’s West Midlands region announced the formation of a Worcestershire branch. The region’s Staffordshire branch staged a protest outside a hotel housing migrants in a small village near Burton. PA Wales held a protest outside a hotel housing refugees in Swansea.
Britain First (BF) released videos of themselves visiting hotels housing migrants in Leeds, Doncaster, Bradford, London, Bristol, Oldham and Burton-Upon-Trent. BF’s regional organiser (RO) for the north of England, Ashlea Simon is standing in a council election in Manchester, Wales RO Carl Burgess is standing in the Welsh Valleys. BF held a regional meeting in Coventry addressed by leader Paul Golding and a festive social in Manchester.
Barrow-in-Furness’ The Mail newspaper reported on the existence of a small group of Cumbrian neo-Nazis who openly posted photos of themselves saluting Adolf Hitler and with Swastika flags on the messaging app Telegram. The Mail revealed the 49 members of the Telegram group were arranging gatherings in the Lake District and being encouraged to read Mein Kampf but decided not to publish the name of the group in their paper.
Scottish neo-Nazi Sam Imrie, 24, was jailed for seven and a half years for terrorist offences, having planned to set fire to an Islamic Centre in Glenrothes. Imrie had also been glorifying far-right murderers online, including Anders Brevik. Police seized a number of weapons at his home including knives, a hammer, nunchucks, an axe and a rifle scope. Imrie was arrested after the Metropolitan Police infiltrated the “FashWave Artists” group on Telegram.
Anti-Semitic video streamer, Richard Hesketh, 36, from Middleton, Manchester was jailed for four years after admitting seven counts of inciting racial hatred. Hesketh had been posting films of himself as an offensive caricature of a Jewish man to 10,000 subscribers. Hesketh’s films had about two million views at the time of his arrest.
Cavan Medlock, 29, from Harrow denied planning to kill an immigration lawyer after arriving at his office in Harrow, north-west London, armed with a knife and handcuffs while carrying Confederate and Nazi flags. During the alleged incident on 7 September 2020, Medlock is accused of storming into the offices and threatening a receptionist with the knife.
A record number of children were arrested on suspicion of terror offences in Britain during the twelve months to September 2021, the majority connected to far-right ideology. The figures released by the Home Office show there were 25 arrests of under-18s over the period, up from 17 arrests the previous year. Children formed 13% of all terror arrests, an increase from 8%. The increase is claimed to be linked to school closures during lockdowns.
Conspiracy theorist and neo-Nazi Matthew Henegan, 36, from St Neots, Cambridgeshire was found guilty of stirring up racial hatred on the internet and in leaflets posted to neighbours at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. At an early court appearance Henegan was ordered to remove a swastika armband he was wearing by a judge.