Official records, social-media posts and campaign photographs uncovered by Stand Up To Racism show figures connected to the British National Party and Homeland taking part in Restore Britain’s Holborn and St Pancras campaign.
A Stand Up To Racism investigation has uncovered formal electoral support and practical campaign involvement by fascists and racial nationalists in Restore Britain’s first parliamentary campaign in London.
The evidence includes the official nomination of Restore candidate Tyler Johnson, original social-media posts, public video and photographs from campaign events.
It shows that Johnson’s formal proposer was Patrick McGinnis, leader of the National Housing Party, who has published a video blaming “Jewish ideas” for the supposed destruction of Britain.
Michael Newland, a former senior British National Party official, also distributed Restore literature and appears to have addressed assembled campaigners. Johnson was present among the group.
Callum Barker, a former activist in the fascist Homeland organisation, appears in photographs of the campaign. Homeland is a neo-Nazi party founded by former BNP leadership figures.
Meanwhile, Restore activist Lewis Holmes played an apparently substantial operational role while publishing racist material of his own.
These were not simply individuals endorsing Restore online or appearing at a large public meeting. Their involvement reached into the formal nomination process, volunteer organisation, leaflet distribution and campaign gatherings attended by Restore’s candidate.
Restore’s candidate nominated by National Housing Party leader
The official nomination record for Tyler Johnson names Patrick McGinnis as his proposer—the principal subscriber formally placing Johnson on the ballot.
McGinnis is the leader and nominating officer of the National Housing Party United Kingdom, positions independently confirmed by the Electoral Commission.
The party advocates an end to permanent-settlement immigration, withdrawal from the Refugee Convention, repeal of the Equality Act, and abolition of hate-crime and discrimination legislation. It describes Britain as “anti-white and anti-Christian”.
McGinnis has also published a video entitled “Jewish ideas are destroying our country, not Islamic ideas”.
In the video, he blames what he calls “Jewish ideas” for transgender inclusion in schools, feminism, an alleged anti-white media agenda, the declining influence of Christianity, public debt and the supposed weakening of the police, armed forces and legal system.
“All these ideas, what have destroyed all these institutions, what I’ve just mentioned, come from Jewish ideas,” McGinnis says. He also claims that the media is owned by Jews.
He says that he opposed the permanent settlement in Britain of Muslims, Africans, Asians, Poles and Russians.
McGinnis provided the principal signature needed to place Johnson on the ballot and subsequently appeared at a Restore campaign gathering. A second National Housing Party activist, Mark Furnell, also signed Johnson’s nomination papers.
Former BNP official addresses campaigners
Photographs published by Lewis Holmes show Michael Newland taking part in the Holborn campaign.
Newland was formerly a BNP press officer and national treasurer. Parliamentary election records show that he stood for the party in the London mayoral elections in 2000. He later helped establish the far-right Freedom Party after leaving the BNP.
One campaign photograph shows Newland holding Restore literature. In another, he appears to be addressing assembled activists while Holmes stands nearby with a clipboard. Restore candidate Tyler Johnson is visible among the group.
Another post shows Newland distributing Restore leaflets on 5 September.
This was practical participation in Restore’s campaign by a former senior official of Britain’s most electorally successful fascist party.
Newland’s former BNP associate Eddy Butler has separately entered Restore’s political orbit. Butler was an important organiser of the BNP’s “Rights for Whites” campaign in Tower Hamlets and subsequently helped develop the party’s electoral strategy. Searchlight reported in May that he had joined Restore activity around the launch of its Epping branch.
Former Homeland activist joins the campaign
Callum Barker also appears in a Restore group photograph. Another image shows him at a post-campaign gathering with Restore activists and literature.
Barker was previously an activist in Homeland, the fascist organisation created following a split from the neo-Nazi Patriotic Alternative group.
He later became a prominent organiser of protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, where asylum seekers were being accommodated. An earlier Stand Up To Racism investigation exposed him as a leading figure in the Epping Says NO network, where he said, “I don’t want integration, I want entire communities gone.”
He subsequently campaigned openly for Restore. Searchlight also photographed Barker campaigning with Restore supporters in Makerfield.
His presence in Holborn connects Restore’s parliamentary campaign with the newer generation of fascist activists involved in ethnonationalist organisations and anti-refugee street mobilisation.
A campaign organiser’s racist record
Lewis Holmes appears to have performed a significant operational role in the campaign before Johnson was publicly announced as Restore’s candidate.
On 5 September, Holmes reported that approximately 50 volunteers had distributed around 8,000 leaflets. He wrote in the first person, thanked those who had attended and described the operation as “a positive first day”.
Photographs show Holmes handling campaign materials, addressing activists through a megaphone and standing with a clipboard while Newland apparently spoke to the group. In another post, Holmes thanked “all our volunteers” for attending.
The evidence does not establish that Holmes held a formal Restore office in the constituency. However, it does show him carrying out functions extending well beyond casual attendance.
Holmes has also published a series of racist statements. In one post, he wrote: “How about instead of telling third worlders not to spit shit on the floor, we deport them? Simple.”
He has rejected the description of Black and Asian people as ethnic minorities in Britain, demanded that “millions” of people be removed and described small-boat migration as an “invasion”. He celebrated Patriot Platform’s attempts to prevent migrants rescued in the Channel from being transported through Portsmouth, announcing that the port had been “blocked by patriots”.
Holmes has also commemorated former BNP councillor and London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook, calling upon Barking and Dagenham Council to observe a minute’s silence after his death.
Restore must be challenged
Weyman Bennett, co-convenor of Stand Up To Racism, said:
“Restore cannot dismiss this as a few embarrassing social-media endorsements. Fascists and racial nationalists have been involved in the formal and practical work of its first parliamentary campaign in London.
“A party leader who publicly blames ‘Jewish ideas’ for the supposed destruction of Britain helped put Restore’s candidate on the ballot. A former senior BNP official distributed its literature and apparently addressed its campaigners. A former Homeland activist joined its campaign activity.
“Restore’s politics of mass deportation and its presentation of migration as an invasion are creating a political space in which fascists believe they belong. Rupert Lowe must answer for the forces his organisation is bringing together and legitimising.”
Richard Donnelly, a senior researcher at Stand Up To Racism, said:
“This evidence does not depend on guilt by association. It documents identifiable people performing identifiable functions: formally nominating a candidate, organising volunteers, distributing campaign material and apparently addressing campaigners.
“The Holborn campaign shows the danger posed by Restore. It is attempting to turn a dispersed milieu of former BNP organisers, newer ethnonationalists, anti-refugee activists and racist online networks into an organised electoral force.
“Anti-racists need to expose these relationships before Restore can use electoral campaigning to give fascist activists legitimacy, experience and a wider audience.”
Restore’s problem is not simply that fascists have discovered its campaign. Its programme of mass deportation, remigration and racialised nationalism has created a political home in which they evidently believe they belong.
Stand Up To Racism is calling on anti-racists, trade unionists and local campaigners to expose Restore’s politics, challenge its candidates and organise against every attempt to turn extreme racism into a durable electoral movement.