The British far-right swaps swastika tattoos for sharp suits and slick ads

Founded by former BNP organiser Kenny Smith as a splinter group of Patriotic Alternative (PA), a neo-Nazi group whose members have promoted Holocaust denial and the “white genocide conspiracy theory”, it claims to have distanced itself from PA’s more extreme views.

Indeed, Homeland is not your typical far-right group – it has an official X account with 30,000 followers and is a registered political party with an established (and rapidly growing) membership, 70 per cent of whom are under 30 according to the party’s estimates.

The hateful rhetoric has been heavily toned down, with PA policies like mass deportations and race-based immigration reframed under vague terms such as “remigration” and “ethnic unity”.

Likewise, there is no outright attack on Muslims, Jews or gypsies of the kind you might see on the extremist fringes from which the party emerged, rather on its website it alludes to the exclusion of these minorities, saying: “Ethnicity is an individual’s hereditary and cultural origin and not merely that person’s place of birth.”

But beneath the veneer of respectability and glossy PR, it appears that much of the old guard remains.

In November, an investigation by Hope Not Hate found evidence of extreme antisemitism and racism within Homeland’s ranks.

For example, it alleged that Connor Marlow, the party’s regional organiser in the West Midlands, previously shared images of himself making a Nazi salute in a fascist fitness group chat and posted a meme of the gates of Auschwitz edited to resemble a smiley face.

Elsewhere, Anthony Burrows, the party’s “nominating officer”, lost his shotgun licence in 2021 over his alleged involvement with PA.

During the course of his hearing, Derby Crown Court heard that he had shared images of Adolf Hitler and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke as part of a post he captioned “describe your politics with four people”, according to a report by The Ferret.

While Homeland hopes to grow its vote share in the local elections this spring, after securing 13 per cent of the vote and a distant third place in the sole council seat it contested in 2024, Homeland’s rhetoric is starting to extend well beyond its eletoral power.

Flirtation with “remigration” policies in some quarters of Reform UK, which sits neck and neck with Labour in the polls, is gathering steam.

For example, Rupert Lowe, tipped by many as a potential successor to Nigel Farage as Reform leader, has plenty of support among the Homeland base despite its general disdain for his party.Smith dubbed him “Remigration Rupert” in an X post, while some of the accounts Lowe follows on the platform have also advocated the policy. One, named “God Save Great Britain”, wrote in December: “The whole of Europe needs Remigration. Make our countries great again.”

Similarly, Naomi Ripley, who runs a Reform-supporting X account followed by Lee Anderson MP, replied to criticisms of the party by saying: “The next election is 2029. Nobody can set out firm plans now, for then. Yes, they’ll stop immigration and have indicated about remigration. Open your eyes and see their progress.”

Remigration is also a key part of the policy platform of the far-right AfD, now Germany’s second-largest party and one addressed by Farage at a rally in 2017, where he was given a standing ovation after praising the party’s growth as an “historic achievement”​.​