Warning: This story accommodates robust and offensive language.
A far-right organisation ought to be banned and a few members investigated by police, the BBC has been advised, after we secretly filmed folks within the group saying migrants ought to be shot.
Former Counter-Extremism Commissioner Dame Sara Khan believes the UK authorities ought to urgently change the legislation to make teams like Patriotic Different unlawful.
Barrister Ramya Nagesh watched a number of the footage and stated: “There’s greater than sufficient proof for the police to analyze and discuss with the Crown Prosecution Service.”
An undercover BBC reporter spent a yr investigating the far-right group and its members have been recorded utilizing racial slurs.
One Patriotic Different (PA) member stated he believed a race struggle was inevitable and the organisation ought to use an analogous tactic to the Nazi celebration to realize energy.
The group can’t be banned beneath present laws as they don’t advocate terrorism however Dame Sara, the UK’s first Counter-Extremism Commissioner, feels they’re “making a local weather conducive to terrorism”.
Patriotic Different chief Mark Collett stated they don’t seem to be extremist, don’t promote violence and peacefully marketing campaign for the rights of what he calls indigenous British folks.
The group, thought of to be the UK’s largest far-right group with about 500 members and 1000’s of followers on-line, says it exists to “increase consciousness” of immigration and promote “household values”.
The BBC Wales Investigates programme discovered some members making feedback that consultants say may quantity to inciting racial hatred.
Patriotic Different have regional branches across the UK and encourage members – together with former lecturers and nurses – to carry protests, spotlight immigration points, movie their actions and share clips on-line.
A BBC journalist infiltrated the group in Wales utilizing a faux id, Dan Jones, somebody who slept on buddies’ sofas in Cardiff and didn’t have a full-time job.
Posing as a brand new recruit, the undercover reporter covertly filmed at Patriotic Different demonstrations, their summer season camp and secretive annual convention over the course of a yr and heard some members sharing excessive views.
Demos and banners: The general public-facing picture
Dan attended various demonstrations in south Wales, together with in Merthyr Tydfil the place the group protested towards the housing of migrants.
He went to banner waving occasions on busy highway bridges the place the group would visibly reveal towards controversial native points, encouraging drivers to honk horns in assist.
These occasions are authorized and sometimes attended by people who find themselves not in Patriotic Different.
Nevertheless it was at these so-called ‘banner drop’ protests the place Dan met folks like Roger Phillips.
Whereas he stated he wasn’t a Patriotic Different member, Mr Phillips joined the group at an indication and privately advised Dan “35 to 40 of us have been prepping, arming ourselves” after being at a protest towards plans to make use of a resort in Llanelli to accommodate asylum seekers.
“I am shopping for a pump motion shotgun now,” Mr Phillips advised the undercover reporter.
“Who do you assume goes to combat these migrants? Us lot.”
He mentioned modifying ammunition and claimed the weapon he deliberate to get may “kill you at 150 yards”.
Mr Phillips stated afterwards that he had suspected Dan was undercover so fed him false info and that he had been speaking about paintballing weapons.
Joe Marsh, Patriotic Different’s Wales organiser and former chief of the anti-Muslim Welsh Defence League, invited Dan to occasions.
“If you did not have Jamaicans and Africans right here stabbing folks, we would not have any knife crime,” the previous British Nationwide Celebration (BNP) activist and former soccer hooligan was filmed saying.
After the stabbing of three younger women in Southport in July 2024, Mr Marsh advised his followers: “Individuals should not be calling demos at mosques… if you’ll do one, outdoors a migrant resort or within the city centre.”
The subsequent day, inns housing migrants close to Rotherham and in Tamworth have been set on fireplace. We have no idea if any of the protesters have been Patriotic Different members or followers of Mr Marsh.
Mr Marsh advised the BBC he had not incited racial hatred, he had legally protested and had not launched any new recruits to members with excessive views.
What’s stated behind closed doorways
The key filming uncovered how the extra excessive views of some members got here out, like when Aaron Watkins supplied Dan some informal work.
Mr Watkins is now a handyman after shedding his tax job at HMRC after being outed for making racist feedback on-line and being noticed at demonstrations.
Whereas the pair have been wallpapering a home, Mr Watkins advised Dan: “The communities which are probably the most numerous are the folks we need to do away with, violently ideally.”
“Spherical them up into camps and in the event that they refuse to depart, we shoot them. The individuals who come listed below are parasites.”
Mr Watkins advised Dan that anti-terrorism detectives didn’t discover any proof towards him after they investigated him for making racist feedback as a result of he had a brand new cellphone and had destroyed his previous handset.
“I would burnt the previous one, actually on a barbeque,” he privately admitted. “So, they could not get me.”
When the BBC approached Mr Watkins afterwards, he declined to remark.
Our undercover reporter was invited to affix social media chatgroups the place he acquired messages each day about how immigrants have been “invading” the UK.
Dan was invited to Patriotic Different’s summer season camp in Derbyshire and to their annual convention the place he met Patrick – and the previous historical past instructor from Bristol stated the group ought to mirror the tactic of the Nazi celebration in Nineteen Twenties Germany.
“When you have a look at what the nationwide socialist celebration did in Germany… neighborhood organising, speaking to folks about native points, not as politicians… that’s what paved the best way for them skyrocketing to the elections from 1929 onwards,” he stated.
Patrick then advised Dan a race struggle was “inevitable”, and if immigrants didn’t go away: “The one method to do away with them will probably be to kill each single certainly one of them.”
When requested about his feedback afterwards, Patrick accused the BBC of getting an anti-white bias and “persecuting odd British individuals who care deeply in regards to the security and wellbeing of our indigenous folks”.
Dan shared a dialog with one of many convention visitor audio system who was a far-right activist and a convicted prison from Australia, Blair Cottrell.
He was secretly filmed likening Africans to canines and advised that slaves had been glad to work for white folks.
“An previous woman was stabbed to demise by a gang of African youngsters. While you have a look at the best way issues occur in Africa, the one language they perceive is violence” he advised Dan and different group members.
“The one method to successfully reply to a criminal offense that they’ve dedicated as heinous as what I described is to actually pores and skin them,” he was filmed saying.
“You dangle just a few of their our bodies up throughout some site visitors lights or one thing. Simply theoretically after all, I can not condone it.”
The BBC has repeatedly requested Blair Cottrell about his feedback – he replied, however didn’t reply our questions.
Dan has now left Patriotic Different and the undercover footage was proven to a number one barrister who stated the BBC’s findings ought to immediate a police investigation as a result of, in her view, a number of the feedback may incite racial hatred.
Calls to analyze Patriotic Different
“After the Southport riots, we noticed prosecutions of people who’d posted even only one or two messages on their social media platforms,” stated prison barrister Ramya Nagesh, who has written a e book on hate crime.
“And people messages have been arguably not as inflammatory as those you will have proven me.”
Dame Sara stated teams like Patriotic Different have been “making an attempt to mainstream extremism in our nation”.
“They need to completely not be allowed to function with impunity,” stated Dame Sara.
“We have seen their current exercise and their contribution in direction of public dysfunction in the summertime riots.”
She has now known as on the UK authorities to introduce new legal guidelines to ban teams like this.
“It is extremely pressing… until one thing modifications, I am afraid we will proceed to see teams like PA radicalise our kids and make us a weaker and fewer democratic society.”
The UK authorities stated extremism has “no place in society” and was working to “assess and think about the appropriate method” to tackling the problem.
“We work carefully with legislation enforcement, native communities and our worldwide companions to sort out teams and people who sow division and hatred,” stated a House Workplace spokesperson.
Patriotic Different’s chief stated any feedback have been made in personal.
“We’re people who advocate for the rights of indigenous Britons and we’re folks which are campaigning now towards what’s going on on this nation,” stated Mark Collett, who fashioned the group after being press officer for the BNP.
When pressed about using racial slurs by his members, Mr Collett stated this was prohibited within the group’s code of conduct.
“If folks have breached that code of conduct, then we’ll cope with that sooner or later,” he added.
In case you have been affected by any of the problems raised on this story you’ll be able to go to BBC Motion Line.
