History
Patriotic Alternative was founded in July 2019 by the British neo-Nazi[10] and, according to Hope not Hate, antisemitic conspiracy theorist[6][11] Mark Collett, the former director of publicity of the British National Party.[1] In September 2019, PA held its first conference, with Edward Dutton and Colin Robertson giving speeches, among others.[6]
In October 2020, counterterrorism experts reported that extremist far-right groups including Patriotic Alternative were using YouTube to try to recruit people, including children "as young as 12".[12] Later that month, Patriotic Alternative members delivered leaflets to over 1,000 homes in Hull, England, claiming that white British people will be a minority in Britain by the 2060s and that the COVID-19 lockdown was an attempt to "take away our freedom".[13]
In December 2020, it was reported that Patriotic Alternative's London regional organiser was Nicholas Hill, a 50-year-old former Liberal Democrat councillor from Catford in South London, known by the online pseudonym "Cornelius".[14] That month, during an appearance by the Labour Party leader Keir Starmer on LBC, a caller referring to herself as "Gemma from Cambridge" put forward the white supremacist Great Replacement conspiracy theory. Starmer was criticised by some for his perceived failure to challenge the caller, who was revealed by investigative group Red Flare to be Jody Swingler, a yoga teacher and Patriotic Alternative activist.[15]
A group called the Antifascist Research Collective infiltrated Patriotic Alternative Scotland's private Telegram group. Working with The Ferret, the Telegram group of around 60 people was found to include individuals who have been members of, or expressed support for, the Scottish Defence League, the neo-Nazi group Blood and Honour, the British National Party, the New British Union, the British Union of Fascists and the Scottish Nationalist Society.[16]
In February 2021, it was reported that Patriotic Alternative was looking to recruit teenagers through Call of Duty: Warzone gaming tournaments.[5]
Tabatha Stirling of Stirling Publishing[17] wrote a series of articles for Patriotic Alternative as "Miss Britannia" describing her son's school as "a hellhole for sensible, secure White boys" and claimed "there is one member of staff who is openly gay, and I mean RuPaul extra gay".[18] On 14 March 2021, author Julie Burchill announced that, with Stirling, "I've found someone who's JUST LIKE ME", who were now publishing her book after the Little, Brown Book Group had dropped Burchill. This came after Burchill had made defamatory statements about the Muslim journalist Ash Sarkar.[18] However, Burchill parted with Stirling Publishing when she found out that Stirling was associated with Patriotic Alternative.[18]
Patriotic Alternative's social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were suspended in February 2021, but some of its regional pages remain.[7]
In October 2021, Tim Wills, a councillor in Worthing, was suspended from the Conservative Party over allegations of secret support for Patriotic Alternative, after Hope not Hate published results of an investigation into him.[19] Wills resigned from the council on 15 October.[20] The same month, in a district of Borehamwood, the Hertfordshire Constabulary increased patrols after leaflets calling for the banning of kosher and halal food were posted in the letterboxes of several Jewish homes. While it was not considered a hate crime, it was considered a hate incident, and was condemned by local representatives of all three major political parties.[21]
On 9 August 2022, Patriotic Alternative held its annual White Lives Matter activism day, coinciding with the United Nations designated International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.[22]
A joint investigation by The Times and the anti-fascist investigative group Red Flare in September 2022 revealed the identity of a Patriotic Alternative supporter and "Britain's most racist YouTuber", known as "The Ayatollah", as James Owens, a 37-year-old journalism graduate from Hixon, a village in Staffordshire.[23]
Patriotic Alternative helped the British Democratic Party during the 2023 local elections.[24]
In February 2023, Patriotic Alternative supporters showed up at riots at hotels in Liverpool and Glasgow.[25]
In March 2023, Patriotic Alternative delivered leaflets to homes in the Welsh town of Llantwit Major, warning about the possibility of migrants moving there, as part of its response to local plans to build a site for asylum seekers. The leaflets used the term "white genocide".[26]
In June 2023, a Patriotic Alternative member, Kristofer Thomas Kearner, who had already pleaded guilty to charges of disseminating terrorist publications on a Telegram account, including the manifestos of Brenton Tarrant and Anders Behring Breivik, was improsoned four years and eight months.[27]
According to Searchlight magazine, in 2023 Alek Yerbury left Patriotic Alternative and formed a new militant group named the National Support Detachment.[28] Within a month, PA national administration officer Kenny Smith had also left and formed a new organisation called Homeland, attracting many members of Patriotic Alternative to join. The organisation's inaugural meeting was held on Adolf Hitler's birthday.[29][30]
Links to National Action
The Times reported in October 2021 that Mark Collett had attended combat training with former members of the now-proscribed neo-Nazi organisation National Action.[31] The investigation also revealed that Kris Kearns, who leads Patriotic Alternative's "Fitness Club" initiative, was active in National Action before the group was banned.[31][32] In August 2022, it was reported that Kearns faces extradition from Spain to the UK, and up to 15 years in prison on terrorism charges relating to the sharing of far-right terrorist manifestos on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.[33] Sam Melia, a regional organiser for PA, has previously been affiliated with National Action.[34] Alex Davies, the jailed co-founder of National Action, had been active within Patriotic Alternative for more than two years.[35]
Political views
Patriotic Alternative promotes a white nationalist ideology and aims to combat the "replacement and displacement" of white British people by migrants who "have no right to these lands". They support the deportation of people of "migrant descent" and would offer financially incentivised repatriation for "those of immigrant descent who have obtained British passports". Patriotic Alternative opposes all immigration unless immigrants have a shared cultural and ethnic background or can prove British ancestry.[6] On its website, Patriotic Alternative claims that it is a "community building and activism group" and that its "aim is to raise awareness of such as the demographic decline of native Britons in the United Kingdom, the environmental impact of mass immigration and the indoctrination and political bias taking place in British schools".[citation needed]
According to Hope not Hate, members of Patriotic Alternative have supported Holocaust denial, political violence and the white genocide conspiracy theory.[6][36] They have also targeted the LGBT community as being a danger to young children.[6] Patriotic Alternative opposes Black Lives Matter and has displayed White Lives Matter banners around the UK, including on the top of Mam Tor, a hill in Derbyshire.[7] The group also includes a "cohort of anti-vaxxers".[3]
