National Action (UK)

Members

A member known as "Tom", who was 18 years old at the time, was interviewed by The Huffington Post in March 2014. He named José Antonio Primo de Rivera of the Spanish Falange, Alexander Raven Thomson and Oswald Mosley of the British Union of Fascists, and writer Wyndham Lewis as inspiration for National Action. The group's strategy document twice quoted Adolf Hitler, which "Tom" called "a bit dodgy". He explained it by saying "What has been a successful nationalist movement? Oh it was [the Nazis]...That's why we're using [the Nazis]. They used it and they were able to gain power...Gottfried Feder, who was an economist and a member of the NSDAP, he had some good ideas".

Due to the secretive nature of National Action, it is not clear who the leader of the organisation is. Former National Front member Ashley Benn (pseudonym Tommy Johnson) has been referred to as the organisation's leader, and is thought to be one of a number of activists behind National Action's founding document.

In an investigation by the Daily Mirror, Benjamin Raymond, age 25 in June 2014, was found to be the leader of National Action. He is a former double-glazing salesman who graduated with a degree in Politics from Essex University in 2013. By 2014, he had written on his blog: "There are non-whites and Jews in my country who all need to be exterminated. As a teenager, Mein Kampf changed my life. I am not ashamed to say I love Hitler." He has expressed admiration for Anders Breivik, the far-right terrorist, who is "the hero Norway deserves". Raymond told BBC News in 2015: "The source of all of the conflict in society is all the different racial groups that have been brought here. They have been brought here to create a people who are deracinated and easier to control".

Another member was found to be 19-year-old Alex Davies of Swansea, who withdrew from a first-year course in philosophy at Warwick University in June 2014 after his involvement in National Action was revealed. A university spokesman said to the Mirror "Any such allegations are taken seriously." Davies had joined the Young BNP at 16, but found the group to be in "disarray". He describes the difference between the two groups as: "We're targeting universities regularly. That's something the BNP never had. We've built something in a few months the BNP didn't have in 20 years." A current senior spokesperson for the organisation is Jack Renshaw, a former Youth BNP activist currently facing criminal charges over incitement to racial hatred.

Policy and actions

Davies described the group as "like the BNP but more radical". National Action self-styles itself as a "revolutionary nationalist" organisation which grew out of a failed offshoot within the youth wing of the British National Party and has made effective, large-scale use of social media and blogging platforms.

National Action also wanted to reintroduce Section 28, which prohibited the "promotion of homosexuality" in schools. On immigration, "Tom" says "With coloured people we'd say big no to them coming over. But with [white people] we'd be a bit more lenient".

The group has distributed its material on at least 12 university campuses. In an interview with The National Student, an anonymous organiser for National Action explained why they target universities: "very soon they are going to find out just how hard the system has screwed them – if they knew what we know now we would have an army. The last Labour government aspired to send 50% of 18- to 21-year-olds to university and the total student population has grown exponentially over the past decade. That is 50% of youth who are going to be very angry burger flippers". He also promised "This year will be a reign of terror", and described people who are in interracial relationships as "pathetic internet nerds who can't get laid and STD-infested sluts".

In October 2014, Garron Helm, a National Action member from Merseyside, was sentenced to four weeks in prison for sending a message via Twitter to MP Luciana Berger relating to her Jewish background, which was found to be "an offensive, indecent or obscene message". "I’m not a lunatic for embracing martyrdom, I’ve just accepted that I could be more use in death than life", he wrote in early 2015. Helm served two weeks of his sentence before being released. In November 2014, 10 National Action activists were arrested in dawn raids on suspicion of conspiring to cause criminal damage to Berger's office; they were all bailed. No further action was taken against them. National Action's campaign against Berger was supported by US-based neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, which offered advice on how to set up untraceable Twitter accounts in order to send abuse.

In June 2015, 26-year-old Zack Davies, who told police that he was a member of National Action, was found guilty of the attempted murder of Sarandev Bhambra, a Sikh man and trainee dentist, in Mold, Flintshire. Dr Bhambra was struck in the head and nearly lost a hand in the attack suffering "life changing injuries". Davies claimed this was revenge for the murder of Lee Rigby and chanted "white power" as he launched the attack. Davies was given a life sentence the following September and is to serve for 14 years before being considered for parole. National Action publicly deny any association with Davies or his actions.

In August 2015, the group attempted to hold a 'White Man March' in Liverpool. Strong opposition from the Anti-Fascist Network forced organisers to cancel the march before taking refuge in the lost luggage collection point at Lime Street Station. Tensions were raised by a letter to Mayor Joe Anderson threatening race riots; National Action claimed this was a forgery by an agent provocateur.

In November 2016, The Sunday Times reported that "fears that far-right activists may be grooming a new generation of Hitler Youth in the UK emerged" after stickers from National Action proclaiming parts of Liverpool to be a "Nazi-controlled zone" appeared. The group also held a number of marches and demonstrations on Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday proclaiming that "Hitler was right", and celebrated the election of Donald Trump as President-elect of the United States under the slogan of "white power".

Responses

"Tom" reported that the group was monitored by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. Gerry Gable, the former editor of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said, "National Action are highly organised with a lot of foreign money backing them up. They’re not looking to attract thickos who just want a fight, but unfortunately that is all they have at the moment. They want thinkers who are prepared to die for National Socialism." Scotland Yard is reported to be "very concerned" by the group, but gave the official response, "We cannot discuss details of individuals or organisations that may or may not be the subject of an investigation."

Ian Austin, a Labour Party MP whose adoptive father fled Nazi Czechoslovakia, said of National Action, "Seventy years ago, British heroes were fighting to liberate Europe from the scourge of Nazis and fascism. It's absolutely disgusting to see young British people praise Hitler today."

Run up to proscription

In November 2016, The Sunday Times reported that National Action was supporting Thomas Mair, the murderer of the Batley and Spen Labour MP Jo Cox, posting "only 649 MPs to go!" on social media. National Action also supported Mair personally, saying "don't let this man's sacrifice go in vain" and altered its listing on Google to state: "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain!", a slogan Mair had said to a court when asked to give his name following Cox's murder. The organisation also supported the Orlando gun homicide and has called for graphic and violent attacks on police officers in the UK. Mair, however, appeared to have little involvement with National Action or any other White Nationalist groups within the UK.

Before it was banned, the organisation was the most active in Yorkshire, where half of referrals to the government's anti-extremism strategy have been about the far-right. In October, the Jewish Chronicle reported that the organisation's leaflets "including swastikas, a Nazi salute and the phrase 'no tolerance'" were spotted in Hull, Liverpool, Glasgow and Cardiff. The Hull Daily Mail says that "The first evidence of the group in the city was in July when graffiti appeared on a wall on George Street in the city centre with an incorrectly painted Swastika, the letters NA and a logo." In a newsletter, National Action claimed that although the group was "not entirely sure who could of [sic] done" the graffiti, "it seems we have got quite a following in Hull, with graffiti (even though backwards) of swastikas and an attempt at our logo and the initials NA popping up around Hull and triggering the reactionary left."

National Action has promoted the antisemitic conspiracy theories that Jews were behind the September 11 attacks and has labelled Cox as the "patron saint of [Asian] grooming gangs", according to The Sunday Times. At a secret meeting of the Yorkshire Forum, Jack Renshaw, a spokesman for the group, said (in a video seen by The Times) that they need to adopt a "killer instinct". According to him: "As nationalists we need to learn from the mistakes of the national socialists and we need to realise that, no, you do not show the Jew mercy".

The group was proscribed as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000, making it a criminal offence to support or be a member after Friday 16 December 2016. In laying an order for National Action's proscription, the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, described the group as "a racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic organisation which stirs up hatred, glorifies violence and promotes a vile ideology". National Action is the first far-right organisation to be proscribed in such a manner, and one of only three terrorist organisations based on the British mainland to be proscribed (the other two being radical Islamist organisations). Its ban was seen as an acknowledgement by the UK government that the far-right was on the rise, and figures released by the National Police Chiefs' Council show that the number of far-right referrals to the anti-terror Prevent programme increased from 323 cases in 2014-15 to 561 in 2015-16.