Far right groups in Scotland are using the recent riots in England and Northern Ireland to try and recruit new members, The Ferret can reveal.
They include a white supremacist martial arts club and a political party called Homeland which promotes a nationalism based on ancestry, land and the “law of blood”.
We can also reveal that loyalists are promoting “pro-UK” and anti-Islam demonstrations planned for Scotland in the wake of widespread rioting in other parts of the UK.
Other social media accounts are advertising Scottish demos via videos soundtracked with a song about rioting.
An MSP and a Scottish anti-racism group argued that it would be “complacent” to believe Scotland is immune from similar unrest caused by the far right, and warned against “groups looking to sow division and hatred on our streets”.
Organisations trying to capitalise on the rioting include Active Club Scotland (ACS), a far right fight club which meets at gyms in central Scotland and organises outdoor trips.
We can stop the far right and the fascists hoping to grow – but only if we break their confidence before they build. This is why we have called rallies against the far right across cities in Scotland this Saturday and a major anti-fascist and anti-racist counter demonstration in Glasgow on 7 September.
Talat Ahmed, convenor of Stand Up To Racism Scotland.
According to the anti-racism group Hope not hate, ACS aims to “be the vanguard of the fascist movement”.
The ACS Telegram group posted this week: “THE TIME IS NOW WHITE MAN!…NO ONE PROVOKES ME WITH IMPUNITY! JOIN THE ACTIVE CLUB TODAY!”.
The political party Homeland, an offshoot of the far right group Patriotic Alternative, formed last year, is also urging people to join as members, although it has rejected violence and is calling for a “political solution”.
In a video on social media, one prominent member blamed the Southport murders on multiculturalism, and said rioters were “angry” and “worried” about children due to “violence towards the natives of this country”. He deemed the accused murderer, Axel Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, “a product of the immigration system”.
He urged “all the fathers, and the potential fathers out there, the brothers, uncles, men of this country” to join Homeland in light of the unrest to help “fix this”.
Homeland is led by former British National Party member, Kenny Smith, a self-described “racial nationalist” who was previously a PA figure in Scotland.
On 1 August, after rioting in Southport and London saw mosques, businesses and police officers attacked, Smith said he had seen “more thuggery and violence” from the police than demonstrators. It is thought around 110 police officers have been injured so far.
His party condemned the police response to the unrest of recent days, claiming prime minister Keir Starmer “wants to set the dogs on the native people of these isles whilst giving a free pass to those that do not belong here”.
There is no suggestion these groups are working together and Homeland said it does not collaborate or coordinate with other far right groups.
The recruitment drive comes as fears mount that violence could spread to Scotland.
In Aberdeen, an anti-Islam demonstration advertised by some as “Pro-UK”, is due to be held next month.
Others promoting the demo have celebrated violent attacks on asylum seekers and muslims, and expressed support for a banned terror group.
The event is planned at Aberdeen’s Castle Gate on 7 September, which would coincide with another “pro-UK” demo in Glasgow, promoted by prominent far right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the name Tommy Robinson.
One individual who has claimed to be an organiser of the Glasgow event said the rally will be peaceful and that those seeking to label attendees as “right wing, racist, homophobic” or “fascists” are “foolish and silly”.
Other demos, potentially targeting hotels housing asylum seekers in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Greenock, Paisley, East Kilbride, were also being pushed out on TikTok by an account called the Scottish Defence Group, which has now been taken down.
Another demo, planned outside an asylum hotel in Bathgate on Friday 9 August, was posted by a TikTok account called Protests.Scotland. A video promoting the demo used “I Predict a Riot”, a song by English indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs, as its soundtrack.
The song was also used in another video posted by a different user, which listed the locations of planned protests, including the planned “Pro-UK” rally in Glasgow.
Scottish Defence Group’s posts said the exact location of the demos would remain secret until the day they are due to occur.
A digital poster of the “Pro-UK” Aberdeen rally in September features AI-generated images of crying children wearing Union Jack clothing whilst surrounded by Arabic men brandishing large knives.
Among those who shared it are a Scots-Northern Irish Facebook group, called Greater Glasgow and Wide Loyalist Events. It celebrated the alleged violent assault of a man claimed to be Muslim, and an arson attack on asylum housing by far right rioters in Rotherham, Yorkshire.
The politics of hate and the far right rioters which we’ve seen mobilising across parts of England and the north of Ireland can never be welcome in Scotland.
Maggie Chapman, Scottish Greens MSP.
Other posts promoted the Ulster Volunteer Force – a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary group which murdered 500 people and is a proscribed terrorist group in the UK.
The account posted videos of Tommy Robinson, claimed Afghans had arrived in the UK “for our blood”, branded Islam “a hostile religion to us all” and said “the floodgates to hell open”.
Scots far right figures weigh in on unrest
Following the far right riots, The Ferret gained access to a Telegram group filled with Nazi, violent and racist content. It advocated the murder of non-whites and urged rioters to make molotov cocktails and bring them to demos.
The group, which has since been taken down, also called for the murder of Nick Lowles, CEO of Hope not Hate, an anti-racism research group. The post was in response to a post from Unity News Network (UNN) which criticised Lowles and his organisation.
UNN, which promotes anti-immigrant content, is run by David Clews, a former Conservative and Labour councillor in Renfrewshire, who also worked for the Scotland in Union campaign group.
Clews has appeared at conferences run by Patriotic Alternative.
The Homeland Party is committed to peaceful, democratic, and lawful means to pursue change in the United Kingdom.
A spokesman for Homeland.
An ultra-unionist organisation called A Force For Good which is headed by Alistair McConnachie – an alleged holocaust denier from Castle Douglas – shared comments from controversial figures following the UK riots.
The X account of A Force for Good endorsed comments which blamed politicians for the Southport murders and promoted the Glasgow “Pro-UK” rally due to take place next month.
The account shared numerous comments from Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate – a self-proclaimed misogynist who is currently awaiting trial in Romania over allegations including rape and human trafficking. Tate denies the charges.”
Meanwhile, the anti-fascist research group Red Flare said that a far right Telegram group shared a list of 39 immigration-related charities, advice centres and solicitors as targets for arson attacks with its 13,000 members. “The group also includes calls to murder ethnic minorities, anti-fascists and government ministers,” Red Flare claimed.
It alleged that an administrator of the group is “repeatedly posting a guide on how to commit arson attacks, authored by the Russian-Ukrainian neo-Nazi group National Socialism/White Power (NS/WP) Crew”, which is designated as a terrorist organisation in Russia.
Allan Jones, a spokesperson for Red Flare, told The Ferret: “British neo-Nazis are sharing a guide on how to commit arson produced by a banned Russian-Ukrainian neo-Nazi terrorist group which specialises in murders.
“This appears to represent the mainstreaming of ‘Terrorgram’ content in the British far right, with neo-Nazi terrorist content being shared with a wider audience of anti-migrant rioters.”
Talat Ahmed, convenor of Stand Up To Racism Scotland, said: “The Scottish far-right are rebuilding from a very low base, but politicians and media have created a fertile climate of Islamophobia and anti-refugee sentiment for them here too.
“We can stop the far right and the fascists hoping to grow – but only if we break their confidence before they build.
“This is why we have called rallies against the far right across cities in Scotland this Saturday and a major anti-fascist and anti-racist counter demonstration in Glasgow on 7 September.”
Scottish Greens justice spokesperson, Maggie Chapman MSP said: “The politics of hate and the far right rioters which we’ve seen mobilising across parts of England and the north of Ireland can never be welcome in Scotland.
“The online misinformation being used to organise and build these racist riots must be tackled head-on.”
A Homeland spokesman said: “The Homeland Party and its chairman, Kenny Smith, disavow any groups that condone incitement or acts of violence.
“The Homeland Party is committed to peaceful, democratic, and lawful means to pursue change in the United Kingdom. Comparing peaceful and orderly protests to attacks on hotels housing migrants during these recent riots is irresponsible and dishonest.
“The comments made in a recent video were intended to channel citizens’ anger and concerns into lawful and democratic avenues for change. They were not meant to incite division or hatred but to encourage engagement in democratic processes that strengthen our community and address the underlying issues contributing to unrest.”
Alistair McConnachie from A Force for Good, who has denied being a Holocaust denier, said: “We blame politicians of all the main parties for the problems associated with mass immigration and fraudulent so-called asylum seekers. We do not blame the immigrants themselves.
“In relation to the small boat invasion of young males across the English Channel, we want a three-point policy which would 1. Stop the Boats 2. Send them Back, and 3. No Resettlement of any of them in Scotland, or the rest of the UK.
“As far as legal mass immigration is concerned, the numbers are far too high. There were 1.2 million ‘long-term’ immigrants entering the UK in 2023 according to the Office of National Statistics. This is unsustainable and should be reduced to no more than 50,000 a year.”
A spokesperson for Unity News Network said: “This is yet more pathetic guilt by association nonsense. Our position has been clear from the outset that we are utterly opposed to all violence including that from the British state against its own people.
“UNN is under attack due to our consistent exposure of the corruption and lies at the heart of the British state. The Ferret is clearly a tool of the British regime and military industrial complex in running cover for Starmer.”
Every group named in this article was contacted for comment.
This article was updated at 15.17 on 10 August 2024 to clarify that it was A Force for Good’s X account which endorsed comments blaming politicians for the Southport murders, and shared comments from Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate.
