‘Dangerous’: The UK’s Most Powerful Fascist Group Has Just Split in Two

The UK’s largest and most powerful fascist group, Patriotic Alternative, is reeling after an acrimonious split, with many of its senior figures defecting to form a breakaway political party that wants to win votes at upcoming elections.

The rebel faction, led by Patriotic Alternative’s former national administration officer Kenny Smith, announced during a meeting last Thursday that it was forming a new party, called Homeland. The mass defection was revealed by the antifascist research group Red Flare, which obtained a recording from Homeland’s inaugural meeting and shared it with VICE World News.

According to a spokesperson for Red Flare, who did not want to be identified to avoid compromising their antifascist research, the defections appeared to be “catastrophic” for Patriotic Alternative, as they involved a large proportion of the organisation’s senior membership – about two-thirds of its 50 national “officers” and half of its more senior “regional organisers.”

Since forming in 2019, Patriotic Alternative has become the most high-profile force on the British far-right, seeking to unite disparate factions of the fascist scene and carving out a public profile with protests against drag queen story hour events and hostels housing migrants, as well as stunts like displaying “White Lives Matter” banners to hijack the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.

In a leaked recording of an emergency meeting of Patriotic Alternative held on the same day as Homeland’s inaugural meeting, which was also obtained by Red Flare and shared with VICE World News, the group’s leader, Mark Collett, sounded despondent at news of the split.

“I do not want to split, it breaks my heart,” said Collett. “It gives me sleepless nights.”

The Red Flare spokesperson said that Collett appeared to be “hopping mad” over the defection, which appeared to involve many of the far-right activists that Patriotic Alternative had been grooming to become competent political organisers in recent years. He said that much of Patriotic Alternative’s efforts had been focused on encouraging extremists, many of whom had been radicalised online, to come out of their bedrooms and start politically organising in the real world; it appeared that the most effective of those had been peeled off in the defections.

“I don’t imagine that [Collett] is anything but livid over this,” said the Red Flare spokesperson. 

“Smith has fucked Patriotic Alternative.”

When approached for comment, Patriotic Alternative confirmed that there had been defections, but downplayed their significance, and claimed they would not affect the group.

“A handful of senior officers resigned from Patriotic Alternative last week, but were unable to take many people with them,” said deputy leader Laura Towler.

“These positions have now been filled, and it’s business as usual at Patriotic Alternative.”

Despite openly pushing the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, Patriotic Alternative has made a concerted effort to attempt to whitewash its virulently racist, ethno-nationalist politics by pushing a community-minded public image. But that has been only a flimsy veneer: Collett, the party’s leader, is a neo-Nazi who has repeatedly recommended supporters read Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, was previously in a relationship with a woman with a large swastika tattoo, and has links to the now-banned neo-Nazi terror organisation National Action, including having attended a combat training course with the group.

Collett’s Telegram channel is full of blatantly antisemitic and racist rhetoric, with recent posts criticising white British people stranded in the conflict in Sudan for being in an African country in the first place.

According to the leaked recording of the Homeland meeting, the split was driven by frustrations over perceived incompetence by Patriotic Alternative’s leadership, and its focus on online activism, rather than focusing on wins at the ballot box.

Smith, a veteran in the British fascist scene who last year pleaded guilty to firearms charges for possessing excessive ammunition, criticised Patriotic Alternative in particular for its “lack of political direction” and “lack of progress on becoming a registered political party.”

Patriotic Alternative has tried seven times to register as a political party since 2019, but has failed on each occasion. Its constitution breaches UK equalities law by preventing minorities from becoming members of the party.

In the leaked audio of the Homeland meeting, Smith outlined a plan to sidestep the barriers faced by Patriotic Alternative by registering the party under the names of unknown “cleanskin” activists – potentially under a different name, then changing the name of the party to the more nationalist “Homeland” after registration.

“I think if we went straight in with ‘Homeland’ and well known personalities, we’d probably face exactly the same struggles as PA,” he said. “The tactic is basically to get registered essentially with unknowns.”

The Red Flare spokesperson said Homeland appeared to be attempting to repeat the success of the fascist British National Party during the 2000s, when it managed to win more than 50 councillors in local elections by targeting predominantly white working-class wards. His group believed that Homeland was now “the most dangerous group on the British far right.”

However, anti-racist group Hope not Hate said in a statement to VICE World News that while Homeland was “undoubtedly a group to watch closely,” it was “too early to say with confidence how effective and stable it will prove.” 

“Far-right splinter groups often fail to live up to the hype of their launch, and face challenges replacing the organisations from which they have split, squeezing the political space for both groups.”

It was clear, though, that the defections were “a disaster for PA, and may cripple them long-term.” 

“Fascist groups are most influential when they are united and strong, but this split has resulted in damaging infighting and division across the fascist fringes,” said the statement.