Germany on Thursday moved to ban Combat 18, a neo-Nazi group founded in the UK.

Horst Seehofer, the German interior minister, issued an order banning the group’s German chapter and prohibiting the display of its name or logo in public.

The move was widely expected after the chief suspect in the assassination of a German politician last year was linked to the group.

“Combat 18 Deutchland is directed against the constitutional order as it is essentially related to National Socialism,” the interior ministry said in a statement accusing the group of racism and anti-Semitism.

“Today's ban is a clear message: far-Right extremism and anti-Semitism have no place in our society,” Mr Seehofer said.

More than 200 police officers took part in raids across Germany on properties linked to the group’s leadership, seizing mobile phone, computers, weapons and Nazi memorabilia.

Combat 18 was founded in Britain in 1992 as a militant wing of the British National Party (BNP).

Its name is a coded reference to AH, the initials of Adolf Hitler: the first and eighth letters in the alphabet.