A new far-right party, the National Rebirth Party (NRP), has been registered with the Electoral Commision by former supporters of fascist group Patriotic Alternative (PA). This is the second split from PA to be registered as a political party so far this year. The NRP’s leader is Alek Yerbury, once dubbed the “Hull Hitler”, a former member of PA’s Yorkshire region and founder of the National Support Detachment, which aims to provide security for far-right street activity.
On 28 February Yerbury posted on his Telegram channel that he had: “just been informed by the electoral commission that my application to register a political party has been authorised.”
Criticising PA, he added: “When various prominent nationalists said to me, ‘It is impossible to register political parties’. All they really told me, is that THEY couldn’t do it.” A search of the Electoral Commission’s website revealed the name of the new party.
The NRP’s nominating officer, Antony Flowers, is a former member of the British National Party (BNP) who was also active in PA from at least February 2021. We photographed Flowers at PA’s national hike in the Peak District in 2021.
Flowers runs Towton Home & Garden Services which has in the past employed avowed neo-Nazis. Former employees include PA’s Yorkshire regional organiser Samuel Melia, as well as PA Yorkshire’s regional fitness officer Jacob Bewick. Melia and Bewick were supporters of banned neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action.
Melia was pictured marching in formation with NA on a protest in Darlington in November 2016. In July 2017, Melia was photographed at a meal in Manchester with several leading members of NA, including Christopher Lythgoe who was jailed for eight years for remaining a member of NA after the group was banned. Lythgoe was the leader of NA at the time.
Last week Melia was sentenced to two years in prison for race hate offences. Yerbury appears to be a current employee of Flowers’ firm, as he was last photographed working with Flowers in November 2023.
The party is the second splinter group from PA to have successfully registered as a political party this year, following the Homeland Party’s registration in January. These registrations raise serious questions about the competence of PA’s leadership, who, since launching PA in 2019 have completely failed to register with the Electoral Commission on seven occasions. Despite this ongoing failure, PA have announced they will stand three candidates as independents in upcoming elections in North West England.
The NRP seems set to pursue a different strategy to Homeland. Yerbury has been an outspoken critic of the “ladder strategy”, which proposes building power from the bottom up, beginning at the community level, and which is favoured by Homeland chairman, Kenny Smith. In contrast to Homeland’s stated intention to focus on community politics, Yerbury’s NRP will likely focus their efforts on campaigning at the national level. Yerbury has been involved in a protest camp outside RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, where asylum seekers were proposed to be housed.
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National Rebirth Party Yorkshire
