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Neo-Nazis used Help for Heroes pretext to hoodwink police, council, landowner and community by staging two day rally in a Fenland field

Images from the video leaked to the BBC of the Neo-Nazi rally at a field at Haddenham near Ely Archant

Neo-Nazis hoodwinked a landowner, police and a district council into booking a Fenland field for a two day rally that they falsely promoted as being as charity event for Help for Heroes.

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Images from the video leaked to the BBC of the Neo-Nazi rally at a field at Haddenham near Ely Images from the video leaked to the BBC of the Neo-Nazi rally at a field at Haddenham near Ely

Video footage of the rally – that attracted Far Right supporters from the continent- has been leaked to the BBC showing an outpouring of anti-Semitic and racist chanting and singing.

Local councillor Bill Hunt said he had been unaware of the rally last month but it was clear deception had been involved.

“I didn’t know about these obnoxious people making this booking – they feed on such notoriety and like it when people take notice of them. I’m not certain we should be giving them the oxygen of publicity”.

Some 300 people are thought to have attended to mark the anniversary of the death of Ian Stewart, founder of the Blood and Honour organisation that organised the Fenland

Images from the video leaked to the BBC of the Neo-Nazi rally at a field at Haddenham near Ely Images from the video leaked to the BBC of the Neo-Nazi rally at a field at Haddenham near Ely

event.

It has emerged that the landowner unwittingly allowed the booking having previously hosted events on the Haddenham near Ely field for fairs and festivals.

East Cambridgeshire District Council allowed the organisers a temporary events licence after an on line application was submitted describing it as a “private party with music”.

Cllr Hunt said it had emerged many of those attending came from Belgium, Holland, France and Germany which only confirmed his view “that open borders don’t work. If 70 to 80 per cent of those attending came from Europe, as I am led to believe, it shows how essential it is control our borders”.

Images from the video leaked to the BBC of the Neo-Nazi rally at a field at Haddenham near Ely Images from the video leaked to the BBC of the Neo-Nazi rally at a field at Haddenham near Ely

But he also felt that “if you honestly believe in free speech and element of that must also include being insulted and dealing with such obnoxious people”.

He said from what he heard some of those attending had been seen in the village shop – “weird and bald headed looking”- but villagers thought it was a charity event after a Help for Heroes banner had been placed on the roadside near the field.

One of the groups campaigning against Blood & Honour is Hope Not Hate and their spokesman Matthew Collins told the BBC the annual rally had found difficulty in finding locations that would accept them.

He said other countries had imposed banning orders on these events because of the imagery used and the links to violent extremism.

Mark Gardner of Community Security Trust, which protects British Jews from anti-Semitism, told the BBC that it looked “like somebody pulled the wool over the police’s eyes”.

Help the Heroes said if money from the event was offered they would reject it as it was a non political group and they did not accept donations from extremist groups.