How the UK’s far right is trying to capitalise on the statues row

Anger over the vandalism of Winston Churchill’s statue and the Cenotaph threatens to reinvigorate and unite fractured groups, Lizzie Dearden writes

Tommy Robinson is among the figures attempting to capitalise on the national debate (PA)

Every single man should be in London next Saturday or forever don’t call yourself a patriot,” Tommy Robinson shouted into his phone on 7 June.

“It’s no use sitting behind your keyboards when these masked up scumbags think they’re going to go rip Churchill’s statue down … the British public won’t sit by and watch that s**t.”

The rallying cry sparked fears of serious disorder in the capital, where football firms, veterans and other groups were already planning to “defend” monuments.

Mounting tensions were defused on Thursday evening, when Black Lives Matter cancelled its main London protest on Saturday and authorities boarded up statues including Winston Churchill – leaving nothing to “protect”.

Robinson later announced that he had decided not to go, supposedly not because of the threats he had received but because “I don’t want to be responsible for more racial division”.

The crisis seemed to be averted, but it is merely the opening volley in what looks to be the latest front of Britain’s culture war.

For several months, the UK’s far-right have been floundering. The key issues traditionally used by anti-Islam groups to mobilise and recruit have been in particularly short supply.

There have been no terror attacks since January, no new grooming gang scandals have been exposed, Robinson is out of jail, Brexit is happening and Boris Johnson is prime minister.

Both Robinson and Britain First were among his cheerleaders ahead of the general election, but the victory of a politician known for comparing Muslim women to “letterboxes” may ultimately have worked against them.

Nick Lowles, the chief executive of counter-extremism group Hope Not Hate, said: “Boris Johnson becoming prime minister and delivering on Brexit took a lot of the wind out of the far right’s sails.

“They felt there was finally a voice to speak to their anger.”

But he is now falling out of favour, as Brexit negotiations stall and critics take aim at a supposedly weak response to Black Lives Matter protests.

The vandalism of memorials including the Cenotaph and Winston Churchill’s statue has ignited a wave of anger not just among the far-right, but the moderate members of the public they seek to recruit.

“The symbolism or war memorials being desecrated, Churchill being defaced, touches a nerve for a lot of people,” Mr Lowles said. “This will leave a legacy and feed into the ‘them and us’ cultural battle.”

Following the toppling of a slave trader’s statue in Bristol, left-wing activists have compiled lists of figures they want removed nationwide for links to slavery, colonialism and racism.

War memorials have also been graffitied and vandalised during recent demonstrations, and as long as Black Lives Matter protests continue, “defenders” are likely to confront them.

Dr Joe Mulhall, Hope Not Hate’s head of research, said: “Statues and Black Lives Matter has really animated the British far right that we monitor, it has caused great excitement and anger.

“The videos put out are some of the angriest I’ve seen in years.”

He explained that war memorials were “sacred” for British nationalists, and the reaction could be compared to how religious communities would react to the desecration of holy sites.

“It really is a culture war moment,” he added.

In an email to supporters on Friday, Britain First wrote that its activists will "protect statues nationwide from left-wing hooliganism over the coming months".

For people who could not join its “brave footsoldiers” on the streets, the group begged for donations.

The National Front has also sought to capitalise on the issue, calling for the toppling of Nelson Mandela’s statue.

While statues have mostly been seized on by cultural nationalists, more openly racist elements have been spreading footage of violence by black protesters to reinforce their beliefs.

Previously, far-right activists sought to compare the death of George Floyd to the terror attack where Lee Rigby was murdered, by framing them both as racial killings.

“Great replacement” conspiracy theorists, who think the white western population is being supplanted, have been claiming any disorder is a consequence of “diversity”.

And the Black Lives Matter movement as a whole is being repurposed for wider conspiracy theories over “antifa terrorists”, George Soros, the “liberal elite” and a supposed New World Order.

Dr Mulhall said the fall-out from George Floyd’s death had the potential to build “unity” between fractured and competing far-right movements.

“But a lot of big names that would have been successful at capitalising on this no longer have the platforms where they could reach less engaged people,” he added.

Britain First and Robinson have been banned from Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and most importantly Facebook, where they previously enjoyed audiences of millions.

A boarded-up statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London, on 12 June, after it was graffitied during Black Lives Matter protests (Reuters)

Deplatforming has pushed them and other far-right activists into less-frequented corners of the internet, such as the Russian VK social network and Telegram app, where their output is less likely to spread beyond dedicated followers.

Robinson alluded to the loss on Friday, while boasting that an hour-long rant he posted on a fringe video platform had reached 100,000 views.

“Not bad for someone banned from social media,” he added. “Imagine we had Facebook, we’d be on millions. The problem is I need to reach those millions of people now, I need to reach the public.”

He called for his supporters to share his video on their own social media accounts and in comments on news articles, but many have also fallen foul of hate speech rules and the appeal seems to have had a muted effect.

But while the coronavirus pandemic has pushed the public's concerns closer to home and kept demonstrators off the streets, it has also meant a lot more time spent online.

Counter-terror police have raised concerns about the potential for increased radicalisation while connections to friends, relatives and colleagues weaken.

The national coordinator for the Prevent counter-extremism programme told The Independent that coronavirus-related conspiracy theorists were being used to draw in recruits.

“We’re becoming more concerned not just about young people spending time online but the impact of isolation, and the changing risk picture,” Chief Superintendent Nik Adams said.

“My fear is that people have got more opportunity to spend more time in closed echo chambers and online chat forums that reinforce the false narratives, hatred, fear and confusion that could have a radicalising effect.”