Far-right group exposed in BBC undercover Investigation watch:

Far-right group exposed in  BBC undercover  investigation
Watch: BBC  journalist Wyre Davies confronts Patriotic Alternative member Aaron Watkins
Warning: This  article contains  violent and offensive  language.
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A far-right organisation  is to be banned and some members  are to face a police investigation, the BBC has  learned, after we secretly filmed  members of the group saying  immigrants should be  stopped from being shot.
Former counter-extremism commissioner Dame Sara Khan  says the UK government  must urgently change the law to  outlaw groups like Patriotic  Alternative.
Barrister Ramya Nagesh  has seen some of the footage and said:  "There is more than enough evidence for the police to investigate and refer  the case to the Crown Prosecution Service."
An undercover BBC  journalist spent a year investigating the far-right group and its members were  filmed using racial  slurs.
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Gareth Lewis:  What are the parties' positions on  immigration? A member of the Patriotic Alternative (PA)  has said he  believes a race war  is inevitable and  that the organisation  will have to use  tactics similar to  those of the Nazi  Party to gain  power.
The group cannot be banned under current  law because it does not advocate  terrorism, but Dame  Sarah, Britain's top counter-extremism commissioner, believes it "creates a climate conducive to  terrorism".
Patriotic Alternative leader Mark Collett said  he was not  an extremist,  did not  advocate violence and  campaigned peacefully for the rights of what he  called Britain's indigenous  people.
The group,  which is considered the largest far-right group  in the UK with  around 500 members and thousands of  online followers, says it exists to "raise awareness"  about immigration and promote "family  values". Protesters gather outside the Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli  as plans to use it  as temporary  accommodation for asylum seekers  were announced.
The Patriotic Alternative  is involved in protests  over controversial local issues  in communities, such as plans to use a Llanelli hotel to house asylum  seekers.
BBC Wales Investigates found  that some members  made comments that experts  said could  be inciting racial  hatred.
Patriotic Alternative  has regional branches  across the UK and  encourages its members - including former teachers and nurses - to  organise protests, highlight immigration issues, film their activities and share clips  online.
A BBC journalist infiltrated the group in Wales using a  false identity, Dan Jones, someone who slept on friends' sofas in Cardiff and did not have a full-time  job.
Posing as a new recruit, the undercover  journalist secretly filmed Patriotic Alternative  protests, its summer  camp, and  its secret annual conference over the course of a year and  overheard some members sharing extreme  views. Demonstrations and banners:  public image
Dan  has taken part in  several protests in South Wales, including in Merthyr  Tydfil, where the group protested against  migrant housing.
He took part in the  event by holding banners on busy road  bridges, where the group  demonstrated visibly against controversial local issues, encouraging drivers to  throw snowballs in  support.
These events are legal and  are often attended by people who are not  part of the Patriotic  Alternative.
However, it was  during these so-called  "flag removal" demonstrations that Dan met people like Roger  Phillips.
Although he said he  was not a  member of the Patriotic  Alternative, Mr. Phillips joined the group at  one protest and privately told Dan  that "35 to 40 of us were  getting ready, setting up" a hotel in Llanelli to  accommodate asylum  seekers. People hold  signs on a bridge, one  of them saying "stop the  invasion"
Dan met Roger at a Patriotic Alternative  "flag march," where supporters  waved flags and banners  on busy  streets.
"I bought a  shotgun," he told Mr. Phillips  to the undercover  reporter.
"Who do you think is going to fight these  immigrants? All of us."
He discussed modifying  the ammunition and  said the weapon he planned to get could  "hit at 150  yards."
Mr. Phillips  later said he suspected Dan was undercover  because he gave false information and  mentioned paintball guns.
A secret photo of Joe Marsh in a grey hoodie,  the regional organiser  of the Patriotic Alternative for Wales
Our undercover  reporter met Joe Marsh,  the leader of  the Patriotic Alternative  group in Wales, after contacting him in 2023 following the Llanelli  protests.
Joe Marsh,  the organiser of the Patriotic  Alternative in Wales and former leader of the anti-Muslim Welsh Defence League, invited Dan to  the event. "If there weren't Jamaicans and Africans stabbing  people here, we wouldn't have knife crime,"  said the former British National Party (BNP) activist and  ex-football hooligan.
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After the stabbing of three young girls in Southport in July 2024, Marsh told his  supporters: "People  should not call protests in mosques... if you  have one,  in front of a  mosque, the hotel  of migrants." or  downtown."
The following day, hotels  hosting migrants near Rotherham and in Tamworth were  burnt down. It is not  known if any of the  demonstrators were  members of the Patriotic Alternative or  supporters of  Mr. Marsh  Aaron Watkins told the BBC he had not incited racial hatred, had  protested legally and had not introduced new recruits to members with  extremist views.  What is being said behind closed doors  Secret footage has revealed how the more extreme views of some members  have come to light, such as when Aaron Watkins offered Dan  a casual  job. Mr Watkins is now a  practical man after losing his  job as a tax  specialist at HMRC after being  reported for racist comments online and  seen at demonstrations.  As the pair  tore down a house, Watkins told Dan:  "The most diverse  communities are the people we want to get rid of,  preferably by force." Aaron Watkins  was wallpapering the stairs of a house Aaron Watkins described  immigrants as  "sub-human invaders." "We round up camps and if they refuse to leave, we shoot them. The people who come here are  parasites." Mr. Watkins told Dan that  terrorism detectives  found no evidence against him when they investigated him for racist comments because he had a new phone and destroyed his old  one. "I burned the old  man, literally, on a barbecue," he  admitted privately. "So they couldn't get  me, when the BBC  contacted Mr  Watkins, he  refused to comment. Our undercover reporter was invited to join social media  chat groups where he  was getting messages  every day about how  they were  'invading' UK was invited to  the Patriotic  Alternative summer camp in Derbyshire and their annual conference where he met Patrick - and the former  Bristol history teacher said  that the group should  reflect the  tactics of the Nazi party in  Germany "in the  1920s, the National Socialist Party made Germany ... organizing the community, talking to people about local issues, not as  politicians ... that is what paved the way for  its rise in elections from 1929  onwards," he said. Patrick  later told Dan  that a race war was  "inevitable" and if  the immigrants  didn't leave, "the only way to get rid of them  would be to kill  them all." Screenshot of former history teacher Patrick  by journalist Dan Patrick, a former history teacher from Bristol, said  that the Patriotic Alternative should  "mirror" the tactics  used by the Nazi  party. Asked about his comments  later, Patrick accused the BBC of having an anti-white bias and  of "persecuting ordinary  Britons who care deeply about the safety and  well-being of our indigenous  people." Dan shared a conversation with one of the guest speakers  at the conference, who was a far-right activist and convicted criminal from Australia, Blair Cottrell. He was secretly filmed  comparing Africans to dogs and  suggesting that slaves  were happy to work for white people. "An  elderly woman was stabbed to death by a gang of African  children. "When you look at  how things  are in Africa, the only language they understand is  violence," he told Dan and other  members of the group  Secret Footage of Blair Cottrell,  the guest speaker for the Patriotic  Alternative at its 2024 conference, filmed in secret. The BBC The guest speaker at  the Patriotic Alternative conference in 2024 was far-right  activist Blair Cottrell, who  was convicted of burglary, arson and  murder and inciting  hatred of Muslims back home in  Australia, as  repugnant as  she was. "What I described is literally  throwing them out," she said. "Pick some of their bodies  on traffic lights or something.  In theory, of course, I can't  argue that the BBC has repeatedly asked Blair Cottrell  what he thinks of his  comments, but he  hasn't responded. He has now left  the Patriotic Alternative and the  hidden camera footage  has been shown to a leading  lawyer, who  has said  that the BBC's findings should prompt a police investigation  because he believes some of the comments could incite racial  hatred." "After the Southport riots, we saw prosecutions of individuals  who had even posted one or two messages on their social media platforms,"  said criminal  lawyer Ramya Nagesh, who has written a book on hate crime. "And those messages were not as  provocative as the ones you  showed me." Dame  Sarah said groups like  the Patriotic Alternative were  "trying to mainstream extremism  into our  country." "Dan Jones" joined  the Patriotic Alternative to find out more about some of its members and  here is  a photo of him with his membership  card. BBC undercover journalist Dan Jones infiltrated  the Patriotic Alternative to find out more about the group and  found himself assigned the number 430  members to his circle. 500 members "They absolutely  must not be allowed to  act with impunity," Dame  Sarah said. "We have seen their recent activity and contribution  to public  unrest during the summer riots."  He has now called on the UK government to introduce new laws to ban groups like this.  "This is extremely urgent...  If nothing changes,  I fear we will continue to see groups like  the AP radicalising our children and  making us a  weaker, less democratic  society. The UK government said extremism  "has no place in  society" and was working to  "assess and consider the  appropriate approach" to tackling the  problem. 
Not a valid attachment ID."We are working closely with law enforcement, local communities and our international partners to tackle  the problem of extremism and individuals who sow division and  hatred," a Home Office  spokesman said. Patriotic  Alternative leader Mark Collett  welcomed white nationalists such as the former Ku Klux Klan  leader on his  podcast. The Patriotic  Alternative leader said  all comments were made in private.  "We are people  who stand up for the rights of indigenous Britons and we are people  who are now  living against what is  happening in this country," said Mark Collett, who formed the group after  serving as press  secretary for the BNP.  Its members ,Mr Collett said this was prohibited  by the group's code of conduct. "If  there are people  who have breached that code of conduct, we will deal with  them in due course," he  added.

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