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Masked men gathered in Dover and other coastal towns at the start of September, staging the first direct action from a network that spans at least 15 patriot groups and more than 40,000 followers built up over the past 18 months. Coastal groups within the network are now planning further protests outside local RNLI lifeboat stations.
Byline Times has identified seven Reform councillors who are listed as members of these groups on Facebook. Among them is Mark Thorn, Reform’s campaign coordinator for Gateshead, who has repeatedly urged his own followers to join Patriot Platform. Patriot Platform, fronted by Danny Thomas – an acolyte of convicted fraudster and thug Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (known as ‘Tommy Robinson’) – is formed from members of dozens of local groups. Among them is Poole Patriots and Northeast Patriots, which draw together councillors and ordinary residents alike.
The network has also given rise to Frontline Alliance (FA), a veteran-led offshoot. Its founders have set out plans, in social media videos, for a body of unelected figures inside Parliament that would decide policy for whichever party is in power, alongside a British version of the US immigration enforcement agency ICE – with a threat to form a new political party if mainstream parties will not meet their demands. One of the founders denied any such plan when Byline Times put it to him directly.
The network has grown out of the collapse of the Flag Force movement, which Byline Times has previously exposed for hosting neo-Nazis posing as ordinary parents within it. It has capitalised on residents’ fears, drawing otherwise peaceful people into mobilising against migrants under the belief they are protecting their communities.
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The Civilians
The British Brotherhood (BB) is a prime example. Birmingham man Anthony Davies renamed a pagan Facebook group he operated, rebranding it in July 2025 as a Christian military order. Davies replaced pagan content with AI-generated nu-metal anthems about imagined crusades and clips declaring a need for the return of “Paki-bashing” – though older pagan posts still remain on the page.
Questioned about this change by Byline Times, Davies said: “The majority of its members began to feel called to the Christian faith, so that Facebook group change its path and gave members notice of this change and offer them to stay… but many choose to leave and join a new group which we advestive [sic] for them at the beginning to help them out.”
As many members left his group in disgust, hundreds more joined, looking to be part of what Davies called a “grassroots Christian fraternity of ordinary citizens standing together to make our streets safer, kinder, and stronger.” In his comment to Byline Times, Davies added that BB “is not political… has no extremist agenda, and we don’t seek power, our only aim is to make our local areas better places for everyone.”
At least two men in the group have criminal records, one of whom was recently sentenced to three years and five months for burglary, while the other has historic convictions for manslaughter and domestic abuse. The former has shared images of himself on the BB Facebook group, while the latter appeared in a video on their TikTok page ranting about immigrants receiving benefits.
Growing steadily for the past year, BB now has a large presence on both Facebook and TikTok and is advertising for people willing to “walk into Hell no matter the outcome”. For some, this seems to involve “patrolling” parks and attending the weekly pub quiz, but others have stated a desire to “fight for [their] country til [their] dying breath”.
It is unknown whether BB members were present in Dover and Portsmouth, but the group has approvingly shared content from Poole Patriots, another group in the network which was present.
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The Councillors
The investigation found multiple councillors from Reform UK and Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain spread across the 15 patriot groups. Of the seven Reform UK councillors identified, none have posted within the Facebook groups they are members of, but one has made multiple posts on his own page in support of Patriot Platform.
Thorn has actively promoted the Northeast Patriots. Asking his 5,100 followers if they want to “stand up to defend Britain when or where needed”, he has made multiple posts recommending that they join Patriot Platform. Thorn has also referred to the landing of migrants in Portsmouth as an “invasion” and exhorted followers to “defend our nation” and “fight, fight, fight”.
Despite presenting themselves as concerned citizens, the language of the network’s posts leans increasingly towards that of militias. Immigrants are presented as “the enemy”, and those who join are asked to take an oath to “stop the invasion”, “protect the children”, and “keep our flags flying”. While none wear camouflage, the selling and wearing of Patriot-branded hoodies ensures a uniformed bloc at street protests.
Journalist and military veteran Joe Glenton told Byline Times that “a majority of veterans, like anyone else, would cringe at this sort of cosplay… But we need to look at the deeper processes behind it: the accelerating collapse of public trust”.
He said that “the privatisation and hollowing out of so many services and institutions, 25 years of failed wars plus the profound anti-Muslim racism generated to wage them, the super-charged prompts of Farage, Robinson and Musk, the mainstreaming of far-right ideas, a crumbling social contract and the withered liberal prohibition on violence,” had likely contributed to the appeal of groups in the network.
Reform UK were contacted for comment.
The Veterans
For those who agree with Patriot Platform in principle but do not believe their protests will be effective, there is Frontline Alliance.
Formed in June this year by army veterans Alex Watts, Andrew Shaw, and Simon Dibb, and deeply involved with Richard Donaldson, who began the Great British National Strike movement which became Flag Force, they present a carefully curated veneer of respectability and have set out plans to gain influence over Government policy.
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Eschewing the idea of aggressive street protests, they still follow multiple members of the patriot network online, use similar language in their posts, and have claimed to be “on the same side” as Danny Thomas.
In a lengthy TikTok video, Watts proposes forming “an apolitical body within the Government [to] represent the needs of the nation”. Based inside Parliament, with members from all parties plus “proper economists and prominent commentators”, Watts claims this group will “decide what needs to be done and when”, while the ruling party will decide how it will do it.
Their first point of order is removing Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), followed by setting net migration targets, and a British birth rate target. This will, he says, allow them to “exploit the good bits of Islam while eradicating the bad”.
When Byline Times reached out to Watts for comment on the logistics of this plan, he said “we have no intention of forming a group inside Parliament so I’m not sure where you got this from”.
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In another video, Watts advises veterans to “create and lead small teams” within their communities, assuring them that FA will provide “the infrastructure, the support and eventually the funding” to “unify British people and get our country back”. Despite regularly posting that FA is apolitical, he also tells viewers that this type of action will “hold the Government’s feet to the fire” and “win the next election”.
Once this has been achieved, the teams will become a British version of “ICE” – the US Immigration & Customs Enforcement agency which has killed US citizens during its mass deportation efforts. These teams will be responsible for “detaining and deporting immigrants” which will supposedly lead to net zero immigration within six years. The end result, he says, is that Britons will be able to live under “the good kind” of parochial system.
When asked to explain how this would work, Watts wrote:
“… we will put pressure on the Government and main political parties… to stop bickering and collaborate to ensure that one of them wins the next election with a written commitment to sort out the corrupt and criminal elements of the Establishment, mass immigration and radical/criminal Islamification once in power.
If they indeed sort themselves out we will channel public support from across the communities to that party. IF they do not do this then we; alongside other organisations associated with Frontline Alliance and with the will of the people; will create a political party (in effect a ‘People’s Party’) to challenge for the next GE [general election].”
Discussing this, Glenton said: “The parliamentary angle is typical in my view. Fascist movements often seek to combine organised street violence with a ‘respectable’ electoral beachhead… This lot are aping 20th Century fascism… But the people answering their call to arms are motivated by deep alienation and misinformation.
They’re excited by the prospect of cleansing violence, by the idea that they’re somehow purifying the national body from a disease… Fascism is anti-intellectual. Those it recruits want to enact punitive violence. They want the buzz of the witchhunt. They want to feel powerful. For them this is exhilarating, it offers meaning, even community, that they do not have otherwise.”
FA’s plan looks as unlikely to succeed as the rest of the patriot network’s street mobilisations, but its 14,000 followers appear to believe in it, and – as with the wider network – its comments section fills with people asking where they can sign up.
Police were told in advance that a protest could take place ahead of the Dover demonstration, ITV News has reported. The patriot network’s numbers are still growing, and its capacity to mobilise large crowds at short notice remains undiminished.