British far-right developing younger, online presence

The Hope Not Hate group has warned that the threat from the British far-right is now developing online and is being driven by a younger audience. The campaign group, which investigates neo-Nazi groups, said that traditional groups were weakening with membership of traditionally-organised far-right groups at its lowest level for two decades. However, digital leaders were driving their cause forward instead, growing in size and influence. Over 20 people have been arrested in the last year in relation to far-right investigations - with a number of cases awaiting trial - while Met Commissioner Mark Rowley recently warned of the growing threat from the far-right. Nick Lowles, head of Hope Not Hate, said: "We are facing a surging threat from far-right terrorism and violent extremism. We fear further violence from the extreme right in the months to come. This rising terrorist threat is the consequence of the increasingly confrontational tone of online far-right rhetoric, combined with the almost universal extreme-right belief that a civil war between Islam and the West is coming. It is vitally important now that police and the government do more to crack down on the peddlers of hate and those pushing a civil war rhetoric."