Far-right activists, emboldened by riots outside a hotel near Liverpool accommodating refugees, have been targeting community and other campaign groups to try to exploit local tensions in Britain. The most active group is Patriotic Alternative, which grew out of splits in the BNP and other groups, led by a digital savvy younger generation seeking to present themselves as a “white pride” organisation concerned with the environment and heritage. On Friday 15 people were arrested after a protest outside a hotel in Knowsley, near Liverpool, housing asylum seekers, turned into violence and a police van was torched. While it is not believed the group formally organised the protest members had been seen in the area leafleting residents with the slogan “5 Star Hotels For Migrants Whilst Brits Freeze”.
Patriotic Alternative was also in London on Saturday at a protest against a drag queen storytelling event outside Tate Britain, where there were clashes with counter-protesters. But as well as organising protests, Patriotic Alternative has also used organised countryside hikes and litter picking events to garner support in local areas. “Activists from PA Merseyside went to a local park in Southport for a litter pick today. We managed to collect one full bag of litter and had a great response from locals,” read one recent social media post from a regional branch. Experts on the far right are at pains not to overstate the role of a group whose membership is still thought to number just a few hundred, but say they now sense a potential “moment” of danger as activists attempt to replicate the scenes in Liverpool in protests to come against asylum seekers staying in hotels in Rotherham, Dover, Newquay, and Skegness. A senior researcher at the anti-racism charity Hope not Hate, said of Patriotic Alternative: “The group remains small, with an active membership in the low hundreds, and is desperate for relevance. As a result it downplays its extremism when dealing with the public and tries to co-opt existing anti-migrant campaigns. “Because PA is highly active and relatively well organised there is a risk it may succeed in inflaming local tensions, growing its brand in the process. However, the large majority of the public would run a mile if PA was honest about what it stands for – crank conspiracy theories and a fetish for the Third Reich.” Founded in 2019 by Mark Collett, a former protege of the BNP leader Nick Griffin, the group has had some success in uniting activists seeking a new far-right home after the effective collapse of the BNP (British National party). Under Patriotic Alternative’s banner older far-right activists have joined with younger ones. The group’s public faces on online discussion shows – which are hosted on its favourite fringe platform, Odysee.com – include its deputy leader, Laura Towler, who credits Elon Musk for the “resurrection” of her Twitter presence, and her husband, Sam Melia. The group is particularly active in Yorkshire, where the couple live, and in the north-west and east of England. Splits have taken a toll in the Midlands and in Scotland, where it had been stronger but is still trying to capitalise on some local opposition to asylum seekers being put up in a hotel in Erskine, Glasgow. The clashes in Knowsley and the protests outside Tate Britain also show how the group is seeking to piggyback on the agitation of others. At the Tate, its activists joined others seeking to engage in “culture war” style opposition to the drag queen storytelling event for children, with others present including conspiracy theorists previously exercised about vaccines. Elsewhere, Patriotic Alternative is continuing to try to infiltrate other campaigns. On Monday, the South West Bedfordshire Tory MP Andrew Selous, and Dunstable’s mayor, issued a statement telling residents that a public meeting about a local hotel in receipt of a contract to house asylum seekers had not been organised by extremists. It came after residents received leaflets purporting to be from Patriotic Alternative, urging people to attend the meeting. In Staffordshire, activists carrying Patriotic Alternative flags marched among residents on an anti-immigration protest in Cannock. The local newspaper reported on, and carried photographs of, the demonstration without mention of the far right, subsequently reporting on what it referred to as a ministerial vow to “clear asylum seekers out of hotels in Cannock”. Meanwhile a Patriotic Alternative video on the Cannock demo has been widely shared on Facebook, including with a group numbering more than 11,000 members, which has published lists of hotels alleged to be housing refugees and asylum seekers. Its administrators include a Reform UK member and former Brexit party parliamentary candidate, who told the Guardian he had been unaware of Patriotic Alternative. He said that he was “booted off” the group when he later sought to discourage others there from sharing far-right content. A spokesperson for Patriotic Alternative said: “Patriotic Alternative has been working alongside local people across Britain to amplify their voices and concerns regarding the housing of illegal migrants in nearby accommodation. “We have held well-attended protests in Seacroft, Hull and Erskine, with more to follow. We weren’t present in Knowsley, although we support the local people and their concerns.”