No tracking. No cookies
Subscriptions
Subscriptions
Support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features
As anti-migrant protests continue to spread in England, the demonstrations are helping to bridge the gap between supposedly mainstream conservatives and extremist groups.
And by and large those politicians are either failing to distance themselves from these groups, or actively embracing the association.
The old ‘cordon sanitaire’ previously separating centre-right conservatives from the race-obsessed extreme right appears to be evaporating before our eyes – and it is the anti-migrant hotel protests which are providing the space for it to happen.
We look through some of the clearest examples of his below, in addition to our exclusive report in January on Nigel Farage posing with racist activists.
Don’t miss a story
1. Reform Councillors with ‘Neo-Nazi’
Five Reform councillors in Kent joined a ‘stop the boats’ protest in Maidstone at the weekend. They appeared in photographs with a man draped in a flag of the British Movement, described as ‘one of the UK’s longest-standing neo-Nazi organisations’, as Kent Current reported.
The councillors were Oliver Bradshaw, Dean Burns, Amelia Randall, Garry Sturley and Pamela Williams. They posed with protesters including a heavily-tattooed man wrapped in a British Movement flag, who Byline Times can identify as former National Front activist, Mike Gott.
Photo credit: Kent Current
In some shots, Reform’s councillors are smiling and giving double thumbs-up gestures alongside Gott – also known as Carl England – a man Hope Not Hate has dubbed a neo-Nazi.
As Kent Current reports, the British Movement – which his flag endorses – was founded in the late 1960s and is one of the most overtly neo-Nazi organisations in Britain. Its members have been convicted in recent years for offences including stockpiling weapons and preparing acts of terror. Gott has himself previously been sentenced to prison for possession of a knuckleduster (as is tattooed on his face), harassment, and assault by beating.
It is not clear whether the Reform councillors were aware of who Gott is.
Where Is the Political Leadership Against This Violent Far-Right Movement Terrorising Britain?
The silence of senior mainstream politicians and media organisations against the rise of a new well-organised far-right movement on Britain’s streets is a disgrace, argues Adam Bienkov
2. Robert Jenrick with Founder of Terror-Linked Fascist Group
Conservative shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick attended a demonstration organised by a neo-Nazi party and posted a picture of himself with the founder of a terror organisation.
Jenrick later posted pictures of himself with demonstrators, which included Eddy Butler, one of the original founders of neo-Nazi group Combat 18. The numerals in Combat 18 refer to the first and eighth letters of the alphabet, referencing the name of Adolf Hitler.
Monitoring group Stand Up to Racism reported: “Butler helped to establish Combat 18 as the security detail of the British National Party in the early 1990s.
ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE
Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account.
We’re not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe.
“In January 2025, the Government designated Combat 18 as an alias of the Blood & Honour group, saying there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect it of “being involved in terrorist activities through promoting and encouraging terrorism, seeking to recruit people for that purpose and making funds available for the purposes of its terrorist activities”.”
The protest was organised by Callum Barker of the far-right Homeland Party, who has posted images that reference the numerical code “1488”. This code was invented by the US neo-Nazi terrorist David Lane, who was involved in the murder of a Jewish radio host in 1984.
3. Suella Braverman’s Turning Point Ties
Last week, former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman MP spoke at a large protest in Waterlooville against a Home Office plan to house asylum seekers in the town centre. It has not received anywhere near the attention of Jenrick’s appearance, but she was the first.
More than 1,000 people attended. The Conservative MP for Fareham and Waterlooville thanked protesters for “standing up for our country”, adding on X: “It’s not racist to want to protect our towns and our families. It’s not racist to love our country. It’s not racist to say: enough is enough.”
Turning Point UK has been organising the Waterlooville protests, and introduced Braverman at the demonstration. Nick Tenconi is a chief operating officer of the group.
Nigel Farage’s old party UKIP, or what’s left of it, is led by Tenconi. He was seen performing a fascist salute at a recent protest.
Tenconi led part of the recent Kent anti-migrant march, featured above, shouting about “migrant filth” according to Kent Current.
4. Reform Councillor Shares Stage with Neo-Nazi in Scotland
A Reform UK councillor shared the stage with an alleged neo-Nazi at a protest outside a Falkirk hotel housing asylum seekers, who told the crowd “keep Britain white”.
The National reported that Claire Mackie-Brown, Reform UK Falkirk councillor for the Upper Braes, “share[d] the stage with Patriotic Alternative member Richard McFarlane, where attendees included several individuals openly displaying fascist symbols and a handful of men performed Hitler salutes.”
According to the same newspaper, other newly elected representatives from Nigel Farage’s party have, variously, re-posted material from a neo-Nazi group and pushed conspiracies about the Rothschilds and other Jewish banking families.
Other examples of extreme right-wing material from Reform figures, via Hope Not Hate:
- Cllr Mark Broadhurst (Doncaster) once reposted an image of Hitler with the caption: “For f*** sake, if I had chosen Muslims I would have been a f***ing legend”
- Cllr Steve Plater (Doncaster): reposted articles from Patriotic Alternative (PA), a far-right organisation – described as neo-Nazi by Hope Not Hate
- Cllr Howard Rimmer (also Doncaster) has repeatedly shared material from the Traditional Britain Group (TBG), another far-right organisation which pushes the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory as well as articles like: “The Governing Elite Seek To Replace The British Voting Population” – seemingly referring to white people – and promoted claims that former PM Rishi Sunak is “not fully grounded in our culture”
- Cllr Paul Harrison (Leicestershire County Council) has retweeted anti-Muslim Britain First content. He reposted and showed support for mass deportations in response to a question on X by Britain First’s chair
- Cllr Russell Cherry (Thurrock) allegedly shared a tweet from Paul Golding, the leader of Britain First, who has a criminal record for hate crimes
- Cllr Ivan Dabbs (West Northamptonshire) also reportedly retweeted a Britain First post and content from Golding urging a street protest (as per The Guardian above)
- Reform MP chief whip Lee Anderson MP‘s apparent head of office has posted content in support of far-right thug Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon). Ethan Thoburn describes himself on LinkedIn as having been head of office for Anderson since October last year. On a now deleted X/Twitter account, Thoburn regularly promoted Lennon’s content and endorsed his politics – including 91 times in 2017, according to Hope Not Hate.
holding farage to account #reformUNCOVERED
While most the rest of the media seems to happy to give the handful of Reform MPs undue prominence, Byline Times is committed to tracking the activities of Nigel Farage’s party when actually in power
Contribute to our #ReformUncovered crowdfunderGot a story? Get in touch in confidence on josiah@bylinetimes.com
Subscribers Get More from JOSIAH
Josiah Mortimer also writes the On the Ground column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.
So for more from him…
