Anti-fascists warn of new antisemitic group with neo-Nazi adherents

Anti-fascist campaigners in the UK have warned of a virulent new far-right group that spreads Holocaust denial in its efforts to push a white nationalist agenda.

Researchers at Hope Not Hate (HNH) reported this week on the threat from Patriotic Alternative (PA), an antisemitic group attracting neo-Nazi adherents created in 2019 by Mark Collett, the former head of publicity for the British National Party.

HNH researcher Simon Murdoch said: “Collett is a longstanding antisemite who has spoken sympathetically of Nazi Germany, described the Holocaust as the ‘alleged extermination of six million Jews’, and has regularly collaborated with David Duke, a former leader in the Ku Klux Klan.”

PA is described in the report as “a racist far-right organisation with antisemitism at its very core” which aims to combat what it says is the “replacement and displacement” of white Britons by people who “have no right to these lands”.

Its supporters hold fast to a conspiracy theory that Jewish elites are the driving force behind this ‘replacement and displacement’, with PA’s manifesto saying: “No minority should ever be allowed to wield disproportionate power over the British people or hold disproportionate influence over or within the government.”

In a nod to some well-worn antisemitic tropes, the group warns of “unscrupulous lenders or predatory providers of financial services” and says Britain “should never be used as a pawn for foreign powers”.

Several members were unabashed about their Holocaust denial in group messages, the HNH report detailed. One wrote: “Public Service Announcement: A factoid is a claim that is widely accepted as fact through repetition but isn’t necessarily (and often isn’t) true, such as the Holocaust.”

Another described the Holocaust as “the single most overhyped event in history,” adding: “The West has been blinded since 1945 by the Holocaust story but this is wearing off.” Yet another said: “We’re finding out that more and more Holocaust survivors… Survived. Almost like as if the Holocaust never happened…”

Collett, a proud fan of National Socialism, published a book in 2017 describing the “alleged extermination of six million Jews”, adding: “When it comes to the notion of white guilt, nothing is pushed more strongly.”

Murdoch said: “PA are smaller and less influential than they claim and their longevity is uncertain, but they are certainly one of the fastest rising threats in the UK far right.”