It’s shortly before 11 am on 7 March , and a few demonstrators draped in Union flags are beginning to gather by the cenotaph in the city centre. They’re here to take part in a so-called ‘March for Unity’ organised by the Bristol Patriots, a group that emerged in 2025, targeting hotels housing people seeking asylum.

They’ve since branched out into an aggressive campaign of harassment against leftwing groups in the city, but today’s march, according to fliers, is about uniting Christians, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs against “extremism” – a thinly veiled, if not explicitly clear, Islamophobic message.

Among the small crowd are two unofficial security guards, both clad in what they claim are bulletproof and stab-proof vests, walkie-talkies at the ready. The pair have been seen before cosplaying as security at related ‘patriotic’ demonstrations in Cheltenham, as well as here in Bristol. 

Before the march gets going, the pair dash off towards the Harbourside. They return with self-proclaimed neo-Nazi Ryan Ferguson sandwiched between them. He receives a celebrity welcome by the dozen or so Bristol Patriots, who queue to meet him and take selfies with him.

Ferguson is not the only outright fascist in their ranks that morning. The ‘patriots’ are joined by a child sex offender, a bank robber, and other unsavoury figures identified by antifascist research organisation Hope Not Hate with the Cable’s support. 

The march would descend into a dismal, hate-filled spectacle — one ultimately stopped in its tracks by a well-organised, far larger group of antifascist counter-protesters. And it may well mark the end for the far-right group that has spent almost a year sowing hatred and division across the city.

‘The events speak for themselves’

Shortly before 1 pm, the Bristol Patriots’ march from the cenotaph is brought to a standstill on Union Street. Surrounded by hundreds of antifascists, tensions rise as scuffles begin to break out. The police presence is heavy — officers on horseback, others carrying batons.

In footage captured by the Cable, Ferguson directs a stream of abuse at two Jewish antifascists, shouting: “I am a Nazi, yeah. What are you gonna do about it? I’m a neo-Nazi, you Jewish little c*nt. Heil Hitler… It’s not an offence… In the bunker.”

His grotesque tirade, accompanied by Nazi salutes, continues as police officers barely flinch –  never mind telling him to stop or arresting him for a hate crime. 

“[Ferguson] was mouthing things at me like ‘six million’ and other antisemitic stuff, clear references to the Holocaust and gas,” one of the protesters who received the abuse tells the Cable. “It’s quite shocking to see a proud, out-and-out Nazi on Bristol’s streets,” they add. “I didn’t know who he was until after… this guy’s clearly an attention-seeking, sad fascist, touring the country trying to provoke reactions from people… But it was really heartening to see Bristolians come out and oppose these people.”

When the Cable confronted Ferguson about the remarks later that day, he appeared less emboldened. Declining to answer questions, he told our reporter: “You know what I stand for…. I’m not gonna give you the satisfaction of clicks and baits.”

Our clip, which has been widely circulated on social media, has garnered thousands of views and been reported by the BBC, Bristol Live, and others. Comments on the video questioned the police response — or lack of one. In response, Avon and Somerset Police confirmed that an investigation is underway, stating: “We are aware of this video circulating from the protest in Bristol over the weekend. An investigation is underway. We will provide updates when we are able to do so.”

Ferguson has form on this. In 2024, he served a nine-month prison sentence for racially abusing a Black football player, Jordan Garrick. And on 24 January 2026, he took part in a “whites only” demonstration in Blackpool, and in February, he marched alongside a far-right group calling itself Patriots of Worcester. 

According to Hope Not Hate, Ferguson has links to Jack Renshaw, a convicted child sex offender and neo-Nazi who was arrested for plotting to kill Rosie Cooper, then MP for West Lancashire. Renshaw was a key figure in National Action, one of the UK’s most extreme far-right groups, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in 2016. 

Ferguson wasn’t the only far-right activist from outside Bristol to appear that day. We shared our photos of the demonstration with Hope Not Hate, who identified a veritable rogues gallery of thugs, abusers, and even a former member of the loyalist paramilitary group the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) with a long string of armed robberies behind him.  

Bristol Patriots posted an apology on their Facebook following the backlash from the march. In their post, they confirmed that they would suspend their account while they “reset” and make “significant changes”.

On Thursday evening, Avon and Somerset Police confirmed that a 26-year-old man had been arrested in connection with their investigation into an alleged hate crime during Saturday’s demo. The man was arrested on suspicion of a religiously-aggravated public order offence and was being questioned in custody.

In a post on Instagram, Bristol Antifascists said: “The events of Saturday speak for themselves. Bristol Patriots are Nazis. They invited Nazis, they talked with Nazis, they shook hands with Nazis… Bristol Patriots are done. Bristol is Antifascist.”

Far-right, conspiratorial tropes

The Cable first became aware of a group calling itself Bristol Patriots last summer. It emerged from a loose movement called the ‘Great British National Protest’, created by former soldier Richard Donaldson in May 2025 – a year after vicious racist riots had rocked the country. 

The Great British National Protest quickly fizzled out, but local groups sprang up in its place. Bristol Patriots became publicly active that August, during the so-called ‘Raise the Colours’ campaign. 

Across British towns and cities, St George’s crosses appeared tied to lampposts and daubed onto roundabouts. Organisers claimed it was merely a celebration of national pride, but many inferred anti-migrant messaging. Bristol Patriots joined in, posting videos of themselves hoisting flags in Cadbury Heath, on Bristol’s eastern edge.

In January, members of the Bristol Patriots waved St George’s and Union Jack flags and set off flares in a “guard of honour” outside the funeral of a man who had died after falling from a ladder while tying a flag in Bedminster.

The Cable understands the group’s two main organisers are Rob Gould, based in Yate, South Gloucestershire, and Clive Herbert, in his early twenties and based in Bristol. Other regular attendees at their protests include Julie Stokes, who regularly appears as a steward, Kye Tyler, who is often seen wearing a green keffiyeh, and Marcus Leighton, who speaks regularly at the group’s rallies.

Though we estimate the core membership of the group to be no more than 10 to 15 people, they’ve been highly active in the city, causing repeated disruption. Their latest demonstration,  calling for religious unity masking thinly-veiled Islamophobic sentiment, was just their latest change in tactic. 

The first protest organised in Bristol under the banner ‘Bristol Patriots’ took place in August 2025, outside a hotel in the city centre.  The Cable was on the ground alongside openDemocracy. 

Attended by roughly 40 people, there was an almost festive atmosphere  — Angels, Sweet Caroline, Is This the Way to Amarillo played on a soundsystem. They believed they were closer to power than ever, with MPs backing “remigration,” Reform UK climbing in the polls, and Nigel Farage declaring that people arriving by boat should “go back to Afghanistan.” 

Following this initial demo, the group held similar protests on a roughly monthly basis, primarily outside hotels. But they were dwarfed, as they have been in all subsequent ones, by a much larger demonstration made up of antifascist and antiracist organisers. 

A regular presence at all of their demonstrations are a number of streamers, or ‘auditors’. Posing as ‘citizen journalists’, they film demonstrations, harass antifascists, and often try to provoke confrontations in order to gain YouTube clicks. Some of the most well-known of these streamers include Tyrant Finder, Go West and Captain Obes.

At the march on Saturday was ‘auditor’ Mark Sinclair (AKA Freedom Dad), who is aligned with the East Belfast Night Watch, an anti-migrant vigilante group. According to Hope Not Hate, Sinclair is a former member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, a banned loyalist paramilitary organisation. He served 17 years in prison for a series of bank robberies and, more recently, racially abused a Chinese person on route to the Unite the Kingdom rally last September.

Bristol Patriots’ own social media replicates many far-right and conspiratorial tropes, including the ‘Great Replacement Theory’ – essentially the idea that ‘global elites’ are trying to replace the white population of Western countries with non-white immigrants. 

They also favour crudely-designed AI posters and bizarre AI- generated music. At one protest in January 2026, they blasted a version of ‘Old McDonald had a farm’, complete with pro-Trump messaging. 

Since its inception, the group has claimed that it is not a far-right organisation. Its website claims the group stands for “secure borders, political accountability and British pride”. It often invokes “women’s safety” as the justification for its protests. Yet its activities, and the people who keep showing up, tell a different story. 

Extremists and criminals

Shortly before the 7 March demonstration begins, the Cable tries to speak to the few Bristol Patriots milling about. We approach one of the few women present and ask her why she’s there. She tells us she’s motivated by “standing up for unity”. When asked why Muslims might feel unwelcome, she replies, “They didn’t want to come. They had the opportunity to come”. 

The two ‘security guards’ are standing nearby. Though they don’t identify themselves, we believe them to be James Hodges, aka “the Viking”, and Justin Duplessis. 

Hodges tells us he’s keeping an eye out for: “anyone trying to go out and come past the police line, anyone trying to antagonise the police or members of the public, any hate speech.” Which is ironic, given we’ve also found a video of him and Duplessis proudly doing Nazi salutes to Ferguson from the balcony of a pub in Worcester in early March. Apparently, he’s exempt from his own rules. Or rather, he’s talking shit.  

Asked why the need for a stabproof vest,  Hodges tells us: “I’m a private military contractor… I’ve been doing this for 15 years now in hostile environments. I feel naked without this.”

Despite all the talk of ‘unity’, it’s clear they have hostile views about Muslims. “I’m a Catholic uniting with fellow Christians against the march of Islamic extremism in our country,” says Duplessis. He says he’s concerned about “undocumented males coming over from countries where Islamic brotherhood is rife” and talks about Muslims “voting for Hamas and Hezbollah”. 

Before long, as more Bristol Patriots arrived, they stopped talking to us, and we turned to trying to identify those who were showing up.

Other far-right activists who joined from outside Bristol included three members of neo-Nazi splinter group White Vanguard, one of whom Hope Not Hate later identified as Jay Barlow. Barlow has a 2018 conviction for grievous bodily harm: he received a four-year jail term for a knife attack at a supermarket.

‘Ethnonationalist streamer’ Hugh Anthony and Christian nationalist streamer Young Bob, real name Gregory Moffitt, were also present. And so was William Walker, a former councillor for the Democratic Unionist Party. Walker was sentenced to 100 hours of community service in 2023 after admitting two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child.

He’s been spotted at several Bristol Patriots events.

None of this was unusual. Despite Bristol Patriots claiming to be merely concerned citizens, the Cable can confirm that far-right, extremist activists and criminals from across the South West and beyond have consistently shown up at their demonstrations.  

Motley Crew of fascists

In October 2025, during a Bristol Patriots march from the Cenotaph to College Green, a man calling himself “Carl England”, but whose real name is Mike Gott, was spotted. Gott is a former member of the National Front, which was the UK’s largest far-right organisation during the 1970s and 80s. He was seen wearing a flag of the British Movement, an overtly fascist organisation. 

Based in Bournemouth, Gott is well known on the south coast for his involvement with various far-right organisations.

Other far-right figures have made regular appearances. In November 2025, Nick Tenconi, head of UKIP, appeared at the Bristol Patriots demonstration outside another city centre hotel, where the group claimed to be protesting against “illegal immigration”. 

On that day, as they hurled abuse at people in the hotel, who they claimed were all “military-aged men”, small children could be seen in the windows, looking down at the hostile crowd below in bewilderment. 

This was the second time Tenconi has appeared in Bristol over the past year. 

In May 2025, UKIP organised a march in Bristol calling for “mass deportations”. UKIP, which successfully campaigned for Brexit and was the political vehicle which the UK’s most prominent far-right populist, Nigel Farage, used to advance his career, has subsequently refashioned itself as a Christian nationalist organisation, to the right of Reform. 

Its new logo design has been compared with an iron cross, a symbol which has been used, among others, by the Nazis. 

Tenconi has been seen giving Nazi salutes and is outspoken in his Islamophobia and racist views. He has been seen harassing refugees living in camps in Calais. At the November demo, he gave an incoherent speech about Bristol being “a communist cesspit” and talked about cultural replacement. 

Also present at the November demonstration was Nigel Murfin, head of Britain First in the South West region. Based in Bideford, Devon, Murfin describes himself as the “bodyguard” to Paul Golding, head of Britain First at the national level. 

Britain First is another of the UK’s most hardline far-right organisations and has a long history of racist organisers in its ranks. Murfin has been seen several times at Bristol Patriot demonstrations. 

Murfin was fined twice, in 2019 and 2020, for threatening a woman.

A change in tactics

In December 2025, Bristol Patriots appeared to shift their tactics. They moved away from organising protests outside hotels and began targeting left-wing and pro-Palestine events instead. 

The first of such incidents was when members of the group appeared outside music venue Strange Brew, in the city centre, where Bristol Antifascists were holding a fundraiser.  The reason Bristol Patriots targeted this event is arguably due to the effectiveness of antifascist organising in the city. 

Bristol has seen significant and sustained mobilisations from groups including Bristol Antifascists, Bristol Antiracist Action, formed in the wake of the riots in July 2024, and Stand Up to Racism, which is affiliated with the trade union movement.

In January, members of Bristol Patriots were seen harassing protesters during a pro-Palestine demonstration in Patchway. Present at this march was Byron ‘Rone’ Taylor, who has a conviction for racially aggravated assault against three schoolgirls. 

Members of Bristol Patriots have also regularly been seen waving Israelis flags, expressing pro-Zionist sentiments, and shouting anti-Palestine slogans. 

In January, they held a demonstration supposedly against ‘digital ID’, an attempt by the group to launder its far-right objectives and gain a larger audience. During this demonstration, a significant police operation attempted to kettle antifascists, though they were unsuccessful.

Then, on 15 February, a significant escalation occurred. An antifascist fundraiser, featuring local punk bands, was taking place at the Red Lion pub on Whitehall Road in east Bristol. Around 15-20 members of Bristol Patriots showed up outside, some wearing stab-proof vests and military-style padded gloves. All were dressed in black and wore masks.

As horrified residents on the street looked on, they began harassing people attempting to go into the pub. Antifascists and east Bristol residents quickly responded, turning up en masse to defend the pub. 

More recently, just a week after the attack on the Red Lion in Easton, activists from the Zionist group Our Fight blocked Bristol Apartheid Free Zone campaigners from holding a doorknocking session in Bishopston. The campaigners were harassed, followed, and filmed, while placards accused them of conducting a ‘Jew hunt’ as obnoxious AI music blared from a PA system.

‘We know how to do it, we’ll do it again’

A few days after the protest, the group released a statement on its Facebook page stating that they “want to offer an apology regarding some of the other groups who were invited to the march by certain individuals within our community. While Bristol Patriots has always believed in welcoming anyone who shares our core views, some of those who attended on Saturday do not align with our mission”. 

Given Bristol Patriots’ long and sordid history of collaborating with well-known fascists and neo-Nazis, and their consistent use of hardline anti-migrant rhetoric, calls for “mass deportations” and aggressive behaviour against left-wing activists and those sympathetic to Palestine, it’s hard to take this statement seriously. 

The statement continued: “This is not the end of patriotism in Bristol. This is a time for us to reset and bring back the true British patriotism that we started with”. 

The Cable hopes that Bristol Patriots’ version of “patriotism”, which has entailed bringing intimidation, harassment and division to our city, is finally over.  However, given the current political climate and the acres of column inches and TV space given over to far-right groups such as Reform and others, we suspect this is not the last far-right activity we will see here. 

But as Saturday and previous demonstrations showed, Bristol stood ready to oppose it. As Bristol Antifascists’ statement reads: “Having mobilised numerous times before, people showed up in large numbers again ready to oppose the fascists… Bristol has done this before, we know how to do it, and we’ll do it again.”