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Neo-Nazi and far-right extremist groups – including two flagged by the UK Government – have embedded themselves in anti-immigration protests across the Westcountry, operating alongside self-described “ordinary mums and dads” with little challenge from politicians, police or the local press.
Over the past year, Byline Times has identified activists linked to neo-Nazi organisations including the British Movement and Blood & Honour working with members of Britain First and other far-right networks. In January 2025, the UK Government froze the assets of Blood & Honour under counter-terrorism regulations. In 2024, the UK Government flagged British Movement as “a cause for concern” in relation to domestic extremism.
As their involvement has grown, protests have hardened, shifting from loosely organised gatherings into marches marked by intimidation, racist chants and hostility towards journalists.
Emerging from online campaigns framed as grassroots opposition to immigration, when those efforts failed to mobilise large numbers far-right actors stepped in, reshaping the movement and giving it a new direction.
In a county of 1.25 million people with fewer than 2,000 asylum seekers and only one asylum hotel, that transformation raises urgent questions about how extremist networks gain local footholds, and why their presence has been allowed to pass without challenge.
Far Right Influence
In the first week of December 2025, as shoppers browsed Plymouth’s Christmas market, around 50 mostly male protestors marched through the city centre chanting “save the nation, deportation” and “you can shove your Palestine up your arse!” Initially met by a larger counter-protest organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR), police contained the counter-group in one area while allowing the march to continue for almost three hours.
Their final event in a year which saw monthly protests taking place in Plymouth and weekly protests occurring in Exeter, the December march underlined how far the movement had shifted towards organised far-right activism.
When asked about the presence of known extremists, police told Byline Times that provided people were protesting peacefully, officers had limited grounds to intervene. Yet this lack of intervention saw the movement become a safe-space for supporters of neo-Nazi music collective Blood & Honour, representatives of Britain First, members of the neo-Nazi British Movement, and far right members of local football firm The Central Element.
Sp how did organised far-right activists gain a foothold in a protest movement that presented itself as families concerned about their children’s welfare?
The Beginning
Plymouth is the largest city in Devon with a population of around 264,000 people, 96% of whom are white. When their version of the Great British Strike – a nationwide anti-immigration protest organised by former soldier Richard Donaldson – took place in May 2025, protesters were pre-warned about violence in the local press linking it to the 2024 riot that occurred following the Southport attack.
Donaldson’s plan was to force a general election by having “500,000 people [walk] out in protest”. In reality, barely one hundred people turned out – waving flags and milling around in small groups – countered by a similar number from Stand Up To Racism. Visibly angered by SUTR referring to them as “Nazi scum”, several protestors Byline Times encountered presented themselves as “just ordinary mums and dads” worried about their children. Reports emerged of similar scenes across the country.
Two months later, Donaldson’s followers began protesting outside UK hotels housing asylum seekers. Still being presented in local media reports as ordinary people “in favour of stricter immigration laws and against the placement of migrants in hotels without communities being consulted”, the coverage largely ignored the presence of organised far right groups.
Devon is 92% white, 0.6% Muslim and only has one such hotel, the Hampton Hilton at Exeter airport. The refugees housed there are primarily women and children and the location has never been the focus of any criminal acts by asylum seekers. Interviews with protestors, however, demonstrated the effects of far right misinformation and influencers.
Byline Times interviewed multiple participants who expressed their belief that Muslims are a danger to women and that “Europeans are more civilised people”. This type of disinformation has characterised other protests across the country and is frequently promoted on social media.
Similar attitudes were reflected by attendees at other protests, who claimed to be unaware of the involvement of far right groups.
Several local residents told Byline Times they were disgusted that the protests had been allowed to go ahead, which they described variously as being “racist” and trying to “divide the working class.”
Silence of Mainstream Parties
Politicians attending these events have done little to challenge the underlying misinformation, or the influence of the far right. Nigel Farage ignored the role of the Homeland Party in Epping, describing protestors as “genuinely concerned families”. Dover’s Reform councillors posed for photographs at a protest attended by Patriotic Alternative and, in Exeter, Councillor Alison Sheridan attended the Hampton hotel protest wearing her council lanyard.
When challenged at a council meeting, Sheridan claimed she was “being cancelled” and that her critics should, instead, be “raising the voices of their residents”. Byline Times can confirm that those residents were later joined by neo-Nazi activist Mike Gott, also known as Carl England, a long-time member of the British Movement and former National Front activist. Local Devon press did not cover this event.
A spokesperson for Exeter Labour told Byline Times: “Labour is working to clear the asylum backlog inherited from the Conservatives and end the use of asylum hotels. Exeter Labour supports secure borders and an asylum system that works. In Exeter, we are committed to ensuring a safe, welcoming and prosperous city for all, free from intimidation of anyone.”
The Flag Movement
At the end of the summer, a new movement was started – Operation Raise the Colours (ORC) – where far right influence was even clearer. A national initiative founded by a former member of the English Defence League (EDL), ORC involved men tying flags to street furniture and painting them on roundabouts. Spreading across the country in the form of local groups calling themselves ‘Flag Force [name of city]’, this took over from Donaldson’s Great British Strike to become a full-scale protest movement run by members of Britain First and other extremists.
Flag Force Plymouth, as they call themselves, claim on social media that they have “nothing to do with migrants“, are “celebrating British roots and values” and “welcome diversity.” Byline Times attended six local protests organised by the group between September and the end of last year. During this period, supporters of the far-right increasingly infiltrated the original group. Initially appearing quietly as attendees at the hotel protests, they gradually took on organisational roles until they were leading the charge.
This came to a head in December 2025 when the march was led by members of the far-right group Britain First, including Nick Hubble, Chris John, and Nigel Murfin (a self-described bodyguard to party leader Paul Golding) who has previously pled guilty to intent to cause harassment of a woman.
Chaperones for this event included a man named Jamie Waters, a supporter of neo-Nazi music collective Blood and Honour whose assets were frozen by the Government in 2025 under counter-terrorism regulations. The men refused to answer questions from Byline Times.
Police officers at protests attended by Byline Times told journalists that they need to “pick a side” and stay with either the Flag Force group or the counter protest, often refusing to allow journalists to move between opposing groups. This is in contravention of National Union of Journalist guidelines which state that journalists should “distinguish [themselves] from those who are there to demonstrate” in order to make clear the only purpose of their presence “is to act as a bona-fide, professional, newsgatherer [and that] professional journalists on assignment…should never take part in a protest.”
A spokesperson for Devon and Cornwall Police said: “The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country. Our role is to enable peaceful demonstrations, ensuring that people can express themselves freely. We employ several tactics to prevent disorder and ensure public safety while respecting civil liberties.”
Plymouth City Council did not respond directly to requests for comment, and minutes of council meetings showed no reference to the growing involvement of the far-right.