Britain’s key far-right networking group had its Christmas dinner cancelled on 7 December after Red Flare revealed the secret venue and the event was picketed by anti-fascists.
The Traditional Britain Group (TBG) had planned to hold its annual Christmas event in the function room of a Mayfair pub but had not prepared for anti-fascists blocking the entrances.
TBG bridges the gap between the hard right of mainstream Conservatism and explicit fascism. It was founded in 2001 following the demise of the Conservative Party-aligned Monday Club and the far-right Western Goals Institute. Despite operating for over two decades, TBG has never had one of its secretive events disrupted or cancelled—until now.
In October, we published the location of their conference as it started and conducted surveillance on the event, which took place at an expensive central London hotel. Attendees included leading figures from the fascist Homeland Party (Homeland), local organisers from the fascist group Patriotic Alternative (PA), Britain First’s candidate for London mayor, Nick Scanlon and several young men with military associations, among others.
Founding members of Homeland at the TBG conference in October TBG’s Christmas social was due to be attended by around 70 members and supporters who had bought tickets at £25 each and travelled from across the UK and Europe. The event was set to be addressed by far-right blogger Peter North, who recently joined the fascist Homeland Party after speaking at their conference in September.
Homeland member Peter North after being ejected from the pub On Saturday night, over 50 would-be attendees were denied access to the venue after anti-fascists blocked entrances to the pub. Some chose to linger awkwardly outside, while others took one look at the anti-fascist picket and walked on past.
Unable to access the venue were members of Homeland, PA, the British Democrats, and Britain First. Notable among the crowd were Adam Worley, Tim Wells and Nathan Attewell of PA, Scanlon of Britain First (formerly of Generation Identity UK) and former British National Party candidate Roberta Woods. Alec Cave of Homeland accompanied North and was seen exiting the pub along with the few attendees who arrived early enough to get in.
Would-be attendees of the TBG social after finding themselves able to get in Around 90 minutes after the event was due to start, the pub landlord cancelled the booking. The handful of attendees who had arrived early—and who spent their evening peering anxiously from the venue’s upstairs windows and pleading with police officers and venue staff to allow them to stay—eventually left under police supervision.
People leaving the pub were keen to hide their faces from photographers Several attempted to hide their faces from press photographers as they left. A small number of TBG members and supporters decamped to the nearby Red Lion pub, where they tried to calm their nerves.
The disruption of the event is a significant embarrassment for TBG. Supporters will be asking pointed questions about the organisation’s lax security measures and apparent lack of preparedness for such an eventuality. Some attendees, such as PA’s Attewell, were visibly inebriated, having been drinking for much of the day.
Response on social media
North responded to the cancellation of the event by dishonestly portraying it to be due to the actions of the police, rather than the pub TBG had duped into hosting the event. This led to posts of his on social media going viral and attracting the attention of free speech campaigners and transphobic legal activists.
TBG made a number of posts on social media decrying the disruption and published a rambling summary of events on its website. TBG said: “many of our attendees had travelled from Scotland, Wales, the West Country etc. at significant travel expense and with hotels booked. Others had flown in from the continent.” It further promised to “update our procedures and approaches to such things in the future.”
In a statement posted on Instagram, the management of the Mayfair pub distanced itself from TBG. The pub said: “The booking in question was made under the impression that it was a private, social gathering… As soon as the gathering was brought to our attention, we immediately closed the event down and all members of the Traditional Britain Group were asked to leave the premises.”
The TBG’s next event will be a black-tie dinner in spring in central London.
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Traditional Britain Group London
