Far-right terrorism poses a growing threat in the UK, according to the annual report of Hope Not Hate, the anti-nazi group. HNH points to the young age of many of those now being convicted. Among far-right extremist groups listed by HNH are FKD, founded by a 13-year-old in Estonia; four FKD-linked young people have been convicted of terrorism in the UK, and the group was banned in July 2020. And the short-lived The British Hand was set up last year by a 15-year-old boy.
The report covers trends and changes in the domestic and international far right: whether racism, covid and related conspiracy theories, and terrorism.
Of 12 far right activists or sympathisers convicted of terror offences during 2020, six were teenagers. Four were convicted of being members of a proscribed organisation, National Action (NA). Seven were convicted of preparing or encouraging acts of terrorism, or being in the possession of terrorist documents. Some 59 far-right activists or sympathisers have been convicted of terror-related offences since the beginning of 2017, with a further 11 awaiting trial.
HNH says that the steady trickle of far-right sympathisers going through the courts is reflective of the growing far-right terrorist threat. The report notes that whereas in the 20th century the police and authorities were slow or less willing to go after right-wing extremists, compared with the equivalent left wing extremists, that is no longer the case – indeed, the report speaks of a ‘crack down’.
As the report says, MI5 has rated the far-right as second only to the threat from Islamist terrorism. HNH says that trend is likely to continue in the near future, ‘with worrying numbers of young people attracted to extreme far-right ideology and increasing evidence of international links between groups (including with those in the US)’.
As for what to do about the problem, the report says that police action must play a central role in disrupting such groups, ‘but more work needs to be done to understand and discourage young people from getting drawn into these groups in the first place. The police, social media companies and civil society all have a role to play’.
For the report in full, visit the Hope Not Hate website.
