Inside sinister group spreading hatred and fear that it claims ‘will save our great country’
THE messages sent by Alexander Agnew to Anas Sarwar were sickening enough in themselves. Calling him a ‘brownskinned heretic’ and apparently threatening to burn down his office, they were designed to terrify the Glasgow MSP and his young family. Last week, Agnew appeared in court to admit criminal charges of sending racist and threatening emails. But what is even more shocking is that their author is not just an isolated loner. Today we can reveal Agnew is a high-ranking member of a sinister fascist group based in Scotland, a fact not mentioned in court. Worryingly, the New British Union of Fascists (NBU) – of which Agnew is a long-serving regional officer – is launching a recruitment drive.
An investigation by The Scottish Mail on Sunday discovered that the group, which claims to have thousands of members, is actively fundraising and organising meetings across the UK.
While slamming the country’s ‘sham democracy’, it plans to infiltrate community and local councils.
The group openly glorifies Oswald Mosley – the 1930s leader of the British Union of Fascists, who was jailed for being a Nazi sympathiser.
Along with his supporters, known as the ‘Blackshirts’ after the uniform they wore, he preached antiimmigrant rhetoric backed with violent protest.
Named in tribute to Mosley’s brigade, the New British Union of Fascists publishes the online Blackshirt magazine – in which contributors call for a return to ‘white pride’, claim ethnic minorities are more violent and allege that a ‘cartel’ of Jews is plotting to ‘destroy the nation state’.
The NBU was formed in 2012 by former British National Party candidate Gary Raikes, who lives in rural Aberdeenshire.
Last week, Mr Raikes confirmed that Agnew was the NBU’s ‘regional officer’ for Glasgow. Despite Agnew’s conviction under hate crime laws, he has been asked to remain an official representative.
He said: ‘Alex admits he was wrong and made a stupid mistake. He apologised and offered to resign. It has made absolutely no difference to the movement and I asked Alex to stay on as one of our officers.’
AGNEW began terrorising Mr Sarwar with a string of emails in February last year. Prosecutors said Mr Sarwar believed he was targeted ‘because of his race and his campaign against racial hatred’. One email told the Glasgow MSP he was no longer welcome or needed ‘in a white nation’. Others said that ‘Scotland shall never accept a brownskinned heretic as anything but a rapist culture and a sin against God’, and told him to ‘keep a close eye on your offices’, alongside a fire emoji.
One email, headed ‘Get out’, included a disturbing video of a speech given at a meeting of National Action, a banned neo-Nazi terror group blamed for inciting the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016.
The court heard the emails all matched up with Agnew’s mobile
phone number and his partner’s address in Penilee, Glasgow.
Agnew was sentenced to community service and banned from leaving his home between 9pm and 6.30pm for eight months.
With meetings across the UK including a ‘fascist coffee morning’ held in London, the NBU are rapidly appointing ‘regional officers’ across Britain.
They have also outlined plans to gain seats on local councils in a bid to strengthen their credibility.
Mr Raikes – pictured proudly displaying the distinctive fascist symbol of a circle intersected by a lightning bolt on armbands worn over a uniform with a black shirt – claims the group has a ‘few thousand’ members.
It is now undertaking a fresh recruitment drive via social media. In March, the Blackshirt online newsletter included a practical guide to ‘standing for local councils’. Questions such as, ‘Can I be a
councillor and have a job?’ and ‘What support is available to councillors?’, covered three pages of the leaflet.
Agnew’s involvement is also revealed in The Blackshirt. An issue published last June stated: ‘Hello comrades, I am Alexander Agnew and I am the Regional Officer for Central Scotland and the West. I live in Glasgow and I am 52 years old and I have been a member of our glorious organisation for a number of years and a supporter for longer.’
In another letter, Agnew revealed he also used the name ‘Anders Wolfe’.
A social media profile under that name introduced him as a ‘Fascist and Unit Leader for Scotland in the Right Wing Resistance’.
One photograph posted on the profile shows a 1933 poster for the British Union of Fascists, which states: ‘Keep out alien Jews.’ Another shows German ex-servicemen visiting Britain in 1936, amid Swastika flags.
Yet another shows a black woman standing beside a door scrawled with the graffiti ‘Keep Britain White’. The NBU is raising funds by selling armbands with the fascist insignia, along with badges and coffee mugs, online.
When approached at his Aberdeenshire home on Friday, Mr Raikes initially threatened to ‘set the dogs’ on our reporter and call the police. He later agreed to discuss the NBU via email.
HIGHLIGHTING the racial intolerance at the heart of the group, he wrote: ‘Sir Oswald Mosley stated that races are different and should be preserved.’ He added: ‘Over recent years it began to become clear that a form of fascism would be required to save our once great country... that it hasn’t yet formed in the minds of the people is down to us to rectify.
‘The whole objective of the New British Union movement is revolutionary. In the great advance our feet must be firmly planted not on the shifting sands of flux and hysteria, but on the firm rock of British fascist discipline. The
first truth on the path to enlightenment is that liberalism leads to persecution.
‘Remove the smiling mask from a liberal and you will see a face snarling with satanic hatred of all that makes us British. We live in a sham democracy, we are governed by a bunch of selfinterested limited-issue minorities.
‘We all know under the present system you could stand a monkey in a red or blue rosette and they would get elected. Fascism is the future.’
Despite claiming the NBU is a peaceful organisation, its members have been seen to back extremists.
On Thursday, a Twitter post by the NBU’s London branch referred to promigrant German politician Walter Lübcke, allegedly murdered by a Rightwing extremist.
It stated: ‘Although NBU does not endorse unlawful violence, this video demonstrates exactly why we in NBU London WILL NOT be condemning the assassination of Walter Lubke ostensibly by a desperate German patriot. Anyone who does so is not one of us.’