(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

Violent racism and neo-Nazism is experiencing a terrifying resurgence across the world.

Last month, on August 12, hundreds of white supremacists descended on a university campus in Charlottesville, Virginia, brandishing flaming torches and screaming out racist epithets.

Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old activist who was taking part in a counter-protest against the racists, was killed when a white supremacist ploughed his car into the crowds.

But the problem isn’t confined to the US. On Tuesday, three men were charged with being members of the proscribed neo-Nazi terror group National Action.


Two of them were soldiers serving in the British Army.

Racist extremist groups continue to try to spread hate in Britain – so it’s important to know who they are.



National Action

National Action is a banned terror group (Picture: PA)

National Action is a proscribed terror group. This means that it is banned in the UK.

It was founded in 2013, but became one of the country’s most notorious hate groups in 2016 after pulling a series of disturbing stunts and demonstrations. They left stickers emblazoned with hate-filled slogans littered across cities, and a 20-strong flashmob of people doing Nazi salutes last May ended with five people being arrested. They also held an annual ‘Miss Hitler’ beauty pageant for racist women.

Their posts on social media endorse and encourage extreme violence against ethnic minorities, people they perceive to be ‘race traitors’, the Government, and any other authority figures.

They believe that Britain will soon see a ‘race war’ – with National Action taking a central role in it.

People giving Neo-Nazi salutes during a “White Man March” demonstration organised by the Neo-Nazi group National Action in Newcastle in 2015 (Picture: LNP)

After the terrorist murder of Jo Cox MP in June 2016, National Action shared photos of her killer Thomas Mair with the caption: ‘Don’t let this sacrifice go in vain!’ They also tweeted things like ‘Only 649 MPs to go’ and ‘Jo Cox would have filled Yorkshire with more subhumans!’

National Action members also celebrated the terrorist attack on Pulse nightclub in Orlando last year, and shared images of a police officer’s throat being slit.

These actions made the group notorious across Britain – and they are what led to them being outlawed in December last year. It was the first far-right terror group to be proscribed since World War II.

Affiliation with National Action can lead to a person being charged under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Combat 18, Blood and Honour and the Racial Volunteer Force

Combat 18 – also known as C18 – is closely linked with Blood and Honour (Picture: Skrewdriver)

Combat 18 – also known as C18 – is called so because A, for Adolf, is the first letter in the alphabet, and H, for Hitler, is the eighth. Hence, 18.

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It is associated with Blood and Honour, a Nazi music promotion network and group that was founded in 1987.

It is an openly neo-Nazi group that, unlike other groups that are technically political parties, is completely hostile to electoral politics.

It was founded in 1992 by Charlie Sargent, who is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of 28-year-old fellow C18 member ‘Catford Chris’ Castle.

In 2002, a splinter group formed – the Racial Volunteer Force. C18 and the RVF maintain close links.

C18 is closely linked to the Racial Volunteer Force (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

The group’s online forum was officially shut down in 2014, and has since been replaced with a Nazi DVD and merchandise store that sells ‘white pride’ paraphernalia and Confederate flags.



However, the Nazi group itself is still very much active.

Members of C18 in the UK are banned from joining the British police forces or the Prison Service.

National Front

A National Front rally (Picture: Facebook)

Founded in 1967, the National Front is believed to be one of the longest-running neo-fascist hate groups in the world.

Despite dwindling in numbers over the last two years, the NF continues to hold rallies all over the country. These days, they typically terrorise Muslim centres, Halal slaughterhouses, and anywhere else they think Muslims may be found.

Their posts are often graphic and violent. Writing about a so-called ‘anti-grooming rally’ held in Newcastle last month, the NF described clashing with antifascist counter-protesters.

‘Sadly for the UAF [anti-fascists], the Nationalists stormed through the police and at least four reds received a good battering, and had their flags confiscated and destroyed,’ they wrote.

‘The communist flag of Cuba was publicly burned on the monument steps whilst the reds looked on as they cowered behind their police protection, licking their wounds.’

Britain First

Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, leader and deputy leader of Britain First, leading a rally (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

Technically a political party, but also one of the country’s most insidious hate groups.

Britain First shot to prominence about three years ago for its viral social media posts. They would often couch Islamophobic messages in posts that were ostensibly about child abuse, women’s liberty, or humane slaughter, which meant they would be shared by thousands of people unfamiliar with the group and its beliefs.

Once the group gained more prominence – thanks to anti-fascist online campaigns to raise awareness of what the group actually stood for – the party’s social media posts were less widely shared by general members of the public, although they remain popular with those sharing their beliefs.

Paul Golding stood for Mayor of London last year, but lost by quite a bit to Sadiq Khan (Picture: Getty Images)

As a political party they have no clout. They only stood in one election – the London mayoral election, in which their leader Paul Goulding only got 1.2% of the vote, losing quite spectacularly to the city’s current mayor Sadiq Khan. Goulding famously turned his back when Khan was announced as the winner, solely because he is Muslim.


Since then the party has been mired in legal disputes. Jayda Fransen, Britain First’s deputy leader, was convicted and fined for abusing a Muslim woman, and for wearing a political uniform. A few months later, Goulding was convicted and sent to prison for breaching a court order forbidding him from entering mosques.

The group continues to stage stunts and demonstrations, often filming themselves and posting the videos on social media afterwards. However, they are fast fading into obscurity.

British National Party

The British National Party – led by Nick Griffin, centre – reached its peak in the 2000s (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Another far-right political party that was once the most notorious in the country, but has now almost entirely dissipated.

Nick Griffin founded the party in 1982, having previously been involved with the fascist group International Third Position.

It rose to prominence in the mid-to-late 2000s, reaching its peak when Griffin was invited to be a panellist on BBC’s Question Time in 2009.

The invitation sparked a huge national controversy, and there were protests held outside during filming.

Griffin, predictably, humiliated himself on the show, and since then the BNP has been in decline.

In January 2016, the party was deregistered by the Electoral Commission as it had failed to pay £25 to stay registered.

Griffin has since been seen hosting a cooking channel on YouTube.

English Democrats

Like Britain First and British National Party, English Democrats is a nationalist political party campaigning on Islamophobic policies.

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Its slogan is ‘Putting England First’ – including ahead of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Up until June this year ED favoured mayoral and police commissioner elections. However, the group did put forward seven candidates in the General Election on June 8. None of them fared well.


Lately, the group has been posting photos of Aung San Suu Kyi on its Facebook page in support of the ethnic cleansing carried out against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

Following publication of this article which included the English Democrats in a list of ‘far right’ organisations, Robin Tilbrook, the leader of the Party, has asked us to make clear that they consider themselves to be modern democratic English nationalists and have the slogan ‘Not Right, not Left, just English!

English Defence League

An EDL supporter at a rally in 2014 (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

The English Defence League is a violent hate group that continues to organise rallies across the UK.

Posts on the group’s Facebook page encourage followers to ‘invade’ areas with concentrated Muslim communities, such as Tower Hamlets and Luton.

However, the rallies it has organised have increasingly ended in failure, often culminating in a clash with antifascists.

One particular rally, held in Birmingham earlier this year, saw the EDL upstaged by a mosque’s tea party.

A man puts on a mask with the St George’s Cross flag at a demonstration organised by the EDL in London on June 24 (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)

An EDL supporter with the tattoo on his scalp (Picture: Getty Images)

It was founded by former leader Tommy Robinson in 2009, before he quit in a highly-publicised press conference in 2013.

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Sitting alongside him was Maajid Nawaz, director of anti-extremism think tank Quilliam.

Two years later, in 2015, Robinson claimed that Quilliam paid him thousands of pounds to leave the EDL – although he maintained that his decision to quit was unrelated to the offer.

Hopes that Robinson was changing his ways were short-lived, however, as he later formed a far-right splinter group Pegida UK (which has since dissipated).