Actors, activists and conspiracy theorists – a guide to the British far right
Britain’s splintered far right has been trying to mount a resurgence by exploiting shock and anger at last week’s killings of three young girls in Southport.
Groups, individuals and influencers have been pumping out misinformation across numerous social media platforms, along with promoting protests that have frequently descended into violence.
In many cases, they include groups that have otherwise been at odds with each other on issues such as Israel or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While they operate at another level to Reform UK, that party’s leader, Nigel Farage, and other MPs also stand accused of stirring up online conspiracy theories about Southport. Farage said he was asking legitimate questions about the Southport tragedy.
Below is a brief guide to Britain’s current far-right landscape – one that has left behind more traditional party political structures and become what some commentators have described as “post-organisational”, with a myriad of individuals playing varying roles.
‘Tommy Robinson’ and allies
Britain’s most high-profile far-right activist is currently in Cyprus but is among those being looked at by police for their alleged role in disseminating disinformation.
Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – first gained prominence in 2009 as the leader of the now defunct English Defence League (EDL), the Islamophobic street movement around which groups of football hooligans united. But while it splintered into groups such as the Yorkshire Patriots, the ties and connections formed during that time continue to provide the foot soldiers at the events Robinson promotes.
Lieutenants include people such as Daniel Thomas, who was once jailed for an attempted armed kidnapping and tweeted an early video urging followers to “get prepared”. Other figures include Rikki Doolan, a Christian evangelist who says Robinson is not to blame for the riots, has been part of an increasing push to inject Christian nationalism into the movement.
Laurence Fox
The scion of an acting dynasty who has embraced a new identity as a political activist, Fox has said that he was “totally radicalised” by YouTube to take up a crusade against supposed “woke culture and political correctness”.
In 2021, Fox’s Reclaim party received almost as much money in donations as the Liberal Democrats in the first quarter of 2021, all of it coming from the Brexit-supporting investment manager and Tory donor Jeremy Hosking.
The party also managed to have an MP before Reform, when it was joined by Andrew Bridgen, the former Conservative MP who lost the Tory whip after comparing the use of Covid vaccines to the Holocaust.
Sacked last year from the TV channel GB News, Fox has increasingly moved to the right, appearing on platforms with Robinson, whom he describes as a friend. He has shared false information about Southport with his 535,000 followers on X and told them: “We need to permanently remove Islam from Great Britain.”
Patriotic Alternative
Formed in 2019 by the former British National party (BNP) activist Mark Collett, it enjoyed early success in unifying the fractured far-right scene, as digitally savvy younger members presented themselves as a “white pride” organisation blending concern for the environment with anti-migrant campaigns.
However, a damaging split last year has left the organisation reeling, while a key leader, Sam Melia, was jailed in March after being found guilty of inciting racial hatred.
The group has kept a relatively low profile in the context of the riots – perhaps due to fears that persistent calls for it to be proscribed will be realised.
Nevertheless, members have staged Southport-related actions and sought to use events as a means of publicising Melia’s imprisonment – a campaign that has attracted the attention of X’s owner, Elon Musk, on his own platform.
Britain First
Now largely in the shadow of Patriotic Alternative, Britain First had sought to emerge as a successor to the BNP by blending a mixture of more traditional far-right street protests with stunts such as mosque “invasions” and social media campaigns.
Its successes included getting Donald Trump, while president, to retweet some of its inflammatory videos. Its momentum has faltered – although just as Robinson benefited from Elon Musk’s takeover of X (then Twitter) by getting his account back, a shake-up of the platform’s verification system has allowed Britain First get a gold tick.
Attempts by the party’s leader, Paul Golding – a former BNP activist and figure of ridicule even among others on the far right – to exploit tensions after Southport have been confined to the internet.
Turning Point UK
Launched in 2019 as a spin-off from a pro-Trump US youth campaign that advocates free markets and small government, TPUK pivoted towards a focus on so-called “culture war” issues.
More recently, however, the group has had a crossover with Ukip, whose interim leader, Nick Tenconi, is also TPUK’s head of operations. It also sought to mobilise supporters to turn up in central London on Armistice Day to oppose the pro-Palestine march ahead of unrest in November.
Tenconi was outside Downing Street during for a protest on 1 August that turned violent, and appeared again in Plymouth on Monday evening, wielding a loudspeaker as far-right protesters clashed with the police.
Conspiracy theorist websites
The radicalisation of some people during the period of Covid-19 lockdown has acted for some as a bridge to the far right.
Among the organisations which boosted their following during that period is Resistance GB – a self-styled journalism platform which has disseminated conspiracy theories, set up by a former north London Tory councillor, William Coleshill.
Coleshill has sought to ride on the coat-tails of rallies for both Robinson and Farage.
In a similar self-styled media category is the Unity News Network (UNN), a conspiracy theory website run by a former Tory and Labour councillor, David Clews.
It has been one of the most prolific spreaders of misinformation, via a Facebook page with more than 100,000 followers. On its Telegram channel, which has 20,000 subscribers, commenters rejoiced in violence outside Downing Street and issued death threats against Keir Starmer.
