A new far right political party led by a man who styles himself on Adolf Hitler and spoke at an anti-asylum seeker rally in Elgin, has been approved to stand in elections by the Electoral Commission.
Alek Yerbury’s National Rebirth Party was authorised by the elections watchdog on 28 February to field candidates in Scotland, England and Wales.
It is the second far right group to gain approval from the Electoral Commission (EC) in recent weeks. Last month The Ferret reported that the Homeland Party was allowed to officially register as a political party despite an intervention from the Home Office, which feared the group had applied “by stealth”.
Yerbury, a Leeds-based former soldier, is the National Rebirth Party’s leader and treasurer. Research group Hope not hate has branded him as “an extremist” with alleged “sinister ambitions” who has made “violent statements” about political opponents.
In reply, Yerbury said his party “offered a genuine third option to the old parties” and the state of UK politics made him “more convinced than ever of the validity” of his controversial comments.
He defected from the far right group Patriotic Alternative (PA) last year and was a keynote speaker at a rally in Elgin which opposed the housing of asylum seekers.
Yerbury campaigned in Moray town alongside a central figure in Highland Division – another PA splinter group – who, in a private neo-Nazi chat group we gained access to in 2022, shared a picture of his weapons collection, which included a knife which featured the Nazi swastika.
According to 2021 social media posts seen by Hope not hate, Yerbury called for the use of guns on migrants in Belarus, and his political enemies to be sent to forced labour camps.
Referring to the MP Jo Cox, who was murdered in 2016 by a far right terrorist born in the East Ayrshire town of Kilmarnock, he said “clearly the other MPs have learnt nothing from that, and are still just as ignorant and selfish as ever”.
Yerbury was pictured at a 2022 PA event in England alongside a leading figure in a Nordic neo-Nazi group which is linked to violence, is banned in Finland, and has faced calls to be proscribed as a terrorist group in the US by lawmakers.
In the same year, Yerbury spoke alongside PA’s Sam Melia, who attended protests against the housing of asylum seekers in Erskine, Renfrewshire and spoke at a PA conference in Stirling.
Melia was pictured marching with the neo-Nazi National Action in 2016 before it was banned as a terrorist group. Last month, he was jailed for two years after being found guilty of intent to stir up racial hatred. Police found a poster of Hitler and a Nazi emblem in his home.
Asylum hotels in Scotland have been targeted by a range of far right groups and individuals, including members of a defunct Scots neo-Nazi outfit, and a man later jailed for five years for racist offences including a “call to arms against black and Jewish people”.
In January, we revealed that a far right activist posed as a Home Office inspector to get information about a Dumfries hotel housing Ukrainian refugees, which led to the targeting of guests and staff, and alleged plots to turn off the building’s power and water.
Far right party led by ‘extremist’
David Lawrence, senior researcher at Hope Not Hate said: “Alek Yerbury is an extremist – he styles himself on historical fascist leaders and has made numerous violent statements about his political opponents. His new party is just a vehicle for his own sinister ambitions.
“The so-called ‘National Rebirth Party’ will try to exploit anti-migrant sentiment and disillusionment with the mainstream. However, the overwhelming majority of the public will run a mile when they discover the truth about this would-be dictator.”
Stand Up To Racism Scotland, which held counter protests against far right, anti-asylum seeker demos, said:
“The Scottish far-right remains tiny and fragmented after defeats inflicted on them in Erskine and Elgin. This consistent opposition by anti-racists and anti-fascists partly explains why the far-right in Britain have failed to have the dangerous breakthroughs their counterparts in countries like Portugal or Argentina have enjoyed recently.
“However, underlining the registration with the electoral commission by the Homeland Party and Yerbury’s new outfit is the confidence that these organisations are drawing from the racist atmosphere fostered by the Tory government.”
The Cabinet Office did not respond to a request to comment.
Yerbury said: “Great Britain is facing an existential crisis as a nation, and too much time has been wasted already. The nationalist agenda must start to organise around serious political organisations in order to alleviate this crisis.
“The formation of the National Rebirth Party is part of this plan. Our people need to be offered a genuine third option to the old parties, and it needs to be radically different enough to even be worth engaging with.
“I am fully aware of the commentary put out by Hope not hate and various subversive organisations. As to the references to various social media comments put out by me over the past few years – after the way the situation has deteriorated politically for the British people over the past year, I am now more convinced than ever of the validity of those comments.”
PA did not respond to a request to comment.
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Oh dear. For someone who presumably holds the Union Flag dear, its not good to fly it upside down. Sign of distress
Why the emphasis on Jo Cox’s murderer being born in “the East Ayrshire town of Kilmarnock”, and on somebody or something being “a Scot” or “Scots”? why no equivalent emphasis on Yerbury being “English”? Do I detect a whiff of pejorative and hypocritical anti-Scottish racism here?