A Cumbrian MP says a far-right group are not welcome in the county after they attempted to hold a national conference at a hotel in his constituency.
Police were called to The Villa hotel in Levens yesterday to help hotel staff bring the national conference of fascist group Patriotic Alternative (PA) to an end.
The force said it attended the venue “as a proactive, preventive measure to prevent any breach of the peace”, following concerns raised by members of the community.
Barrow and Furness MP Simon Fell said: “I understand that a far-right group, Patriotic Alternative, attempted to meet at a south Cumbrian hotel over the weekend. I want to place on record my thanks, first and foremost, to Anti-Racist Cumbria for the work that they and others did to shut this down.
“Groups like Patriotic Alternative promote division and fear. They have no place in our community.
“We are a tight-knit community in south Cumbria but welcoming and tolerant with it. As we have seen with the Syrian and now Afghan resettlement programmes, when people are in need, our people step up with incredible generosity and speed, regardless of race, creed or colour of skin.
“I want to make it absolutely clear that those who wish to sow division for political gain are not welcome in our towns, communities, or in our county. Together, we are stronger. We live in an inclusive, and tolerant place that is stronger for it.
“This neo-Nazi group is not welcome here.”
PA’s leader, Mark Collett, a Nazi-sympathiser and Holocaust conspiracist, writes in his book The Fall of Western Man that “when it comes to the notion of white guilt, nothing is pushed more strongly” than the “alleged extermination of six million Jews at the hands of the German people”.
He also describes Hitler’s Nuremberg propaganda rallies as “something that one would have been proud to be a part of”.
The party campaigns for non-whites to leave Britain, for an end to laws surrounding hate speech and would ensure “no public body will promote any alternative as either equal or superior to the traditional family” of mother, father and children.
