The founder of an anti-migrant chat group which featured Nazi, racist and antisemitic material fronts the Scottish arm of a far right political party led by a Hitler lookalike, The Ferret can reveal.
Martin Grove founded a chat group which, as we reported in January, targeted the staff and residents of hotels which house migrants. One member of the group told others not to fear jail time and another called for a hotel employee to be assaulted.
Grove alleged in a May blog post that he was detained under the terrorism act in Glasgow Airport. The Ferret was unable to verify this claim, however, and Grove did not clarify when asked.
Grove, a utilities worker at Advance Construction Scotland, was recently named Glasgow branch leader of the far right National Rebirth Party, which, in March, was authorised by the Electoral Commission to field candidates in Scotland, England and Wales.
The new party is led by Alek Yerbury, a Yorkshire-based former soldier who styles himself on Adolf Hitler.
Research group Hope not hate described National Rebirth as “a plainly racist and startlingly authoritarian group” and said it was unsurprising the party had attracted “fractious fascist” Grove, and other “violence-obsessed individuals”.
Yerbury dismissed Hope not hate as “largely an irrelevance” and said his party aimed to resolve problems caused by the UK’s “old parties”. Grove said he was motivated by his “love of the British people” and his concern about the way the country is heading.
Grove’s far right chat group
In January, The Ferret revealed the racist and antisemitic content of a far right chat group we gained access to called “Scots against migrant hotels”.
We have now identified the group’s founder as Grove, who posted pictures of himself wearing clothes with far right logos he bought from a neo Nazi website which also sells knives.
Grove shared a list of Scottish sites he believed were used to house asylum seekers and told fellow users: “…the plan is put pressure on these hotels, but that’s just the start”.
He shared videos of himself calling various hotels under the pretence of booking a room. Another man posed as a Home Office inspector to get information about a Dumfries migrant hotel.
This led to the targeting of guests and staff, and alleged plots to turn off the building’s power and water. It is unclear whether the man was a member of Grove’s chat group.
Alleged detention
In a blog post, Grove claimed that despite wearing a mask during his “first few years in nationalism”, attempts to hide his identity “led to me being detained under schedule seven of the Terrorism act at Glasgow Airport after a family holiday”.
Schedule seven allows police to stop, question and search passengers “to determine whether they may be involved or concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”.
The Ferret was unable to verify the claim with authorities. But a source monitoring far right groups said Grove “mentioned a number of times” in chat groups under surveillance, and he was “raging”.
In another post, Grove complained that the number of non-white people in the hospital where he attended the birth of his child “took some of the excitement away from the day”.
“We are literally being bred out of existence and many of the people utilising taxpayer funded services to do this have never even contributed into that system,” he claimed. “But it’s time for us all collectively as a nation, to stop ignoring the evidence of our own eyes, before it’s too late.”
‘Beyond repulsive’
Green MSP Maggie Chapman said: “These revelations are beyond repulsive, and a reminder of the vile racism that is festering in the shadows of the internet and our politics. We must never be complacent about the far right of the threat that they represent.”
She added: “This is yet another hate group masquerading as a political party. Hope not hate and The Ferret should be commended for the invaluable work they have done in exposing far right extremism in Scotland and across the UK.”
David Lawrence, senior researcher for Hope not hate, said: “The National Rebirth Party (NRP) is a plainly racist and startlingly authoritarian group that exists mostly so Alek Yerbury can better live out his Weimar-era fantasies.
“It is therefore unsurprising that it is proving attractive to other disturbed and violence-obsessed individuals. Grove, a fractious fascist who has cycled through a number of fringe groups in recent years, will fit right in at the NRP.”
Yerbury, however, dismissed Hope not hate as “largely an irrelevance”. “They are not a legal authority on criminal matters or a registered political organisation but a third-party advocacy group with a private agenda,” he argued.
“Old parties” like the Greens blame others for society’s problems, despite wielding power, Yerbury claimed. “The reality of those circumstances is that any division, strife or damage being done to our country can only be their own fault.
“The advocates a vision for Great Britain that is devoid of these problems and in which the political forces responsible for them are disempowered.”
Grove said he made “no apologies for my love of the British people and my concern for future and my concern of the direction the country is heading”. He pointed to long NHS waiting lists, and claimed veterans were “sleeping rough whilst refugees/immigrants are catered for in hotels across the country at taxpayers’ expense.”
He added: “It’s not out of a dislike or contempt towards any other peoples that I have joined the NRP, but out of a love for my fellow Brits who’ve been trampled under the heel of greedy politicians for long enough without a voice. We must secure a better future for British children”.
Advance Construction Scotland did not respond to a request for comment.
