Victoria Derbyshire: Tonight, an investigation by BBC News Night has found that groups described as far-Right have organised or attended 50 protests since the start of the year. Mostly focused on hotel accommodation for asylum seekers. The groups who operate across the country have been accused of infiltrating legitimate community organised protests in a bid to spread what has been described as their “extreme ideology”.

Their members include individuals who’ve engaged in openly racist behaviour and who’ve expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler.

Just to warn you, the following film contains some extremely offensive content. Yasminara Khan reports on the protest.

Yasminara Khan: These are just some of the protests that have taken place in 2023.

[Woman shouting “Nazi!”]

Small boats, asylum seekers and migrants have become a political battleground and an issue for communities across the country.

Mark Collett: (at protest meeting) They are not refugees! They are illegal immigrants!

Welsh woman: Why are these people who are illegal, they have no documentation, why are they given a star hotel?

Yasminara Khan: Here in LLanelli [Wales], people have been protesting about plans for asylum seekers to be placed in a four star hotel. They say it’s important to the local economy.

But this situation has given leverage to groups described as far-Right who are taking advantage of the tensions and infiltrating community organised protests.

One of them is Patriotic Alternative, a group run by Mark Collett, a forming leader member of the British National Party who’s expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and recommends Mein Kampf to his supporters.

Matt Collins is a former member of far-Right groups, who now works for Hope Not Hate, a group that campaigns against them.

Matt Collins: These people are quite skilled at getting into communities and causing trouble and stirring things up. Patriotic Alternative are incredibly active! They’re not a particularly large organisation, but they’re incredibly active and incredibly dedicated!

Laura Towler: (at protest meeting) I’d say there’s maybe around 400 people here today. These protests are getting bigger and bigger! [audience cheers]

Yasminara Khan: The group’s ideology is based around the far-Right conspiracy theory of White genocide. A rhetoric that falsely claims there is a covert plan to replace White populations with ethnically diverse communities.

On their ideology, Patriotic Alternative told us:

“The plan to replace White Britain’s is not a ‘covert’ plan, as you falsely claim, but an overt attempt to reduce the indigenous people of these islands to a minority in their own ancestral homeland.”

Neil Basu: (Non-Executive Director, College of Policing) We’ve talked about some of them, the Great Replacement theory, White supremacism, Neo-Nazism. That is what I would describe as unlawful terrorist activity that would put them right in the cross hairs of MI5 counter-terrorism policing.

Yasminara Khan: The town of Furnace has attracted attention from groups described as far-Right from outside the area. But there are groups getting involved in local protests closer to home in the form of Voice of Wales, who describe themselves as investigative journalists and travel the UK to conduct interviews.

Dan Morgan: Well, look, it makes you question absolutely, …

[03:25]

Yasminara Khan: One Voice of Wales member has a strong history of affiliation to other hard-Right groups. And another, James Harvey from The Voice of Wales student wing, is seen questioning the Holocaust. What you’re about to hear is extremely offensive!

James Harvey: You look into Hitler and you look into what the Nazi Party did, and I’m not defending them at all. But 6 million jews weren’t killed. And the reason I say that is because if you look at the concentration camps, most of them weren’t equipped with gas chambers.

Yasminara Khan: And here Dan Morgan and James Harvey discussing the ban on Tom Jones song Delilah from International Rugby in Cardiff.

Dan Morgan: Apparently it was done, but apparently it wasn’t used.

Now, I don’t know much about that, but, …

James Harvey: I’m thinking it’s not Somalian enough, really, is it, for Cardiff? That’s what they want. They want the Somalian anthem. [making gorilla like gestures]

Dan Morgan: What is their anthem? No, I wouldn’t even do, …

Yasminara Khan: Voice of Wales said the comments made by Mr Harvey have:

“Been taken out of context.”

He has since clarified his position:

“He fully believes that the genocide and horrific mass murder of millions of people, jews and others, took place during World War 2.”

The group failed to explain the comments and hand gestures used when discussing Somalis.

Patriotic Alternative and Voice of Wales are different groups with different members, goals and beliefs.

But both groups travel around the country in a bid to spread their message.

For the first time, we’ve been able to track the movements of these two groups, finding out where they are protesting and which places they repeatedly return to.

Analysis by BBC Verify and News Night shows they cumulatively organised or attended 50 protests since the start of the year, with the vast majority focusing on accommodation for asylum seekers.

[Erie music playing]

They’ve been all over the UK, including Scotland, but favour some areas with multiple visits to the same location, like Long Eaton and Haydock.

You might remember the Knowsley demonstration, which quickly descended into violence, resulting in a police van being set on fire.

And here you can see The Voice of Wales protests in blue. The majority in Wales, but some have spilled over the border into England, like in Portland, Manchester and Scampton.

And like Patriotic Alternative, they returned to the same sites multiple times with their key focus on Swansea and LLanelli.

Tim Loughton MP: (Conservative, East Worthing and Shoreham) I think there are two things here. People have a genuine concern about large quantities of people coming into areas for the pressure that they’re putting on local services; the schools, the doctors and everything else. Whether they are people coming from abroad or big developments, mean huge pressure on local services. Those are legitimate concerns.

What we’re seeing here, though, are people who have no local interests. They’re just anti-immigrant, they’re racists! And they want to take advantage of people who have got genuine local concerns in order to push their own racist agendas.

[06:33]

Neil Basu: The idea that they would be using a local protest who might have legitimate concerns about immigration, if that balanced debate is hijacked by people who start talking about “invasion” and start talking about these people being dangerous, that’s an extremist conversation! It drives a polarised debate.

It means people from the extreme Right-wing get very heated, which means people protesting against them from the extreme Left get very heated. And then you’re going to see violence, and then you’re going to see a problem for law and order.

Yasminara Khan: The Bibby Stockholm is moored in Dorset. It’s currently empty. Performs part of efforts by the Home Office to reduce the 8 million pound daily bill to taxpayers by moving asylum seekers out of hotels and into alternative accommodation.

It’s caused unease amongst locals, and has been jumped on by both Patriotic Alternative and The Voice of Wales.

Voice of Wales: The reason why Voice of Wales is here is because this affects everybody! Everybody in the United Kingdom! The tap needs turning off!

Yasminara Khan: Unlike Voice of Wales, Patriotic Alternative organises protests such as this one here in Portland. It was a small group and it had a low turnout. One of them was Michelle Vardy, a concerned local, who we also found had been posting in anti-asylum Facebook groups.

Michelle Vardy: This is a poor area and a lot of people, they can’t even afford to feed their children three meals a day on school holidays, yet they’ve seen a barge coming in, and our government is paying for three meals a day for them.

Yasminara Khan: And would it worry you if you knew that the leader of that group has sympathies towards Adolf Hitler, for example?

Michelle Vardy: If that’s the case, … Um, yeah. But I also understand that a lot of these groups that are against all the illegal immigrants coming here. They always get slurred with far-Right and racist tendencies from other groups, like Stand Up to Racism, when I’m not sure that’s the case.

Yasminara Khan: Michelle told us she engages with both Left and Right-wing groups on Facebook.

Two hundred and fifty miles north in Wigan, (Greater Manchester) another demonstration took place.

Maureen O’Bren is a local independent councilor in Wigan. After listening to the concerns of constituents, she organised a small protest against the plans for residents. But it was infiltrated by Patriotic Alternative.

Maureen O’Bren: It was [word unclear] about two to 300 people came, very genuinely concerned people who live locally and they think it’s very unfair that the main hotel that they use for weddings – there’s a lot of people employed here – are just losing that without consultation.

Yasminara Khan: At that protest, a group called Patriotic Alternative came down. Did, you know, about that?

Maureen O’Bren: I put a post on Facebook stating no one from the far-Right, far-Left, any organisations like that were welcome. It was purely for genuinely concerned residents of Wigan and Standish.

I think a few did turn up from Patriotic Alternative. I’d never heard of them. I didn’t know who they were. I don’t want somebody coming with their agenda and using my protest. Not just mine obviously, the people who are against, … Genuine protests, very genuine, kind people who are welcoming. We don’t want to be tarred with the same brush as those who are maybe there for other reasons, pushing their own agenda. We don’t want that.

Maureen O’Bren: Patriotic Alternative say they’ve been welcomed by communities all over the UK.

Tim Loughton MP: There is a very different agenda by some of these racist groups where they’re talking about:

“No more migrants! We’re full!”

Talking about:

“White genocide.”

They’re really trying to whip up fears, complete illegitimate fears amongst reasonable and moderate people. Those are the people we absolutely need to guard against!

Yasminara Khan: As thousands continue to cross the channel in small boats and the urgent need to house asylum seekers persist, this is an issue that will continue to ignite communities and in turn gives far-Right groups fertile ground to exploit existing tensions in a bid to spread their ideology.

[10:52]

END

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Youtube Comments

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(Comments as of 9/24/2023 = 15)

@michaelwalsh3579
1 day ago
‘We are all Marxists now.’ – Sir. Charles Curran, BBC, 10 October 1970.
6

@unelectedbureaucrat2003
1 day ago
This is more of a promotion nice one BBC!
13

@aname5471
1 day ago
How many MP’s I wonder, do not actually live in the constituency they claim to represent. I’ll bet there’s quite a few
8

@dw2195
1 day ago
Every other race has a community centre in are lands but there’s no white English Welsh Scottish or Ireland community centres WHY
10

@michaelwalsh3579
1 day ago
‘Newspapers have to sell in order to live, so do commercial TV. That leaves the British Broadcasting Corporation as the only truly public service medium in this country disseminating information, entertainment, and, in the case of race relations propaganda. We are unashamed to admit it is what we are doing.’ ~ Gerry Hines, BBC, Programme Organiser, in Race Today.
3

@timvaux2216
1 day ago
College of Policing now totally politicised.
3

1 reply

@BritishNaturalist-vb8hj
22 hours ago
Yes it seems they do not like the freedom of speech.What a bloody disgrace!

@evolassunglasses4673
1 day ago
Enoch was right.
11

@buzzbolt4387
1 day ago
I was reasonable and moderate once. I am a patriot. I love my Country and care for its Citizens.
Tim Loughton MP would call me a racist. I call Tim Loughton a liar!
2

@ChefEarthenware
12 hours ago
I do love a bit of even-handed, unbiased reporting.
I’m glad I don’t pay for the BBC if this is the kind or tripe they broadcast.

@yessanknow302
1 day ago
It’s up to me to decide what is ‘offensive’, not an ethnic bbc journo.
2

@briandouglas2123
1 day ago
She called me a racist. We . .ell thanks for the compliment, I’m flattered. Didn’t know you cared.
5

@michaelwalsh3579
1 day ago
‘The BBC is hideously White.’ ~ Greg Dyke, BBC Director-General. June 21. 2007.
2

@TheTraveller001
1 day ago
So that’s where the dreary Derbyshire washed up. Collins is in a bit of a state as well. Glad I never watch BBC these days.
5

@deg5026
8 hours ago
The ominous music is pathetic

==========================

See Also

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Mark Collett — It’s Okay To Be White — TRANSCRIPT

Mark Collett — Christmas Adverts – Multicultural Propaganda — TRANSCRIPT

Mark Collett — What We Must Do To Win — TRANSCRIPT

Mark Collett — Assad Didn’t Do It – Faked Syrian Gas Attack — TRANSCRIPT

Mark Collett — The Plot to Flood Europe with 200 Million Africans — TRANSCRIPT

Mark Collett — The jewish Question Explained in Four Minutes — TRANSCRIPT

Mark Collett at The Scandza Forum, Copenhagen – Oct 12, 2019 — Transcript

Patriotic Weekly Review – with Blair Cottrell – Dec 4, 2019 — TRANSCRIPT

Dangerfield – Talking Tough with Mark Collett – Mar 28, 2020 — Transcript

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