Far-right group Patriotic Alternative splits

The far-right group Patriotic Alternative (PA) has reportedly split, with a newer, splinter group forming in Scotland. 

The newer organisation, “Homeland”, is said to comprise every former Scottish member of PA, as well as a number of former members from across the UK. The group’s leader, Kenny Smith, the former organiser for PA’s Scottish branch, has allegedly claimed that over half of PA’s membership has now defected to Homeland. 

It is understood that an investigation carried out by the advocacy group, Hope Not Hate and The Herald on Sunday, has identified several members of Homeland, including a cameraman who had previously worked at Scottish National Party conferences.

PA is a UK-based group headed by the former leader of the youth wing of the BNP, Mark Collett. Mr Collett is reported to have dabbled in Holocaust denial, is regularly heard as a guest on the radio show of the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, David Duke, and has described the Holocaust as “an instrument of white guilt”.

The group is known for its efforts to recruit youth to its white nationalist ideology. Previously, the far-right group published an online “alternative” homeschool curriculum condemned as “poison” and “hateful” and attempted to recruit children as young as twelve through livestreaming events on YouTube, according to The Times.

Earlier this year, the group was suspended from Twitter only one month after being reinstated on the platform.

Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.