Far-right activist changes his name after fraud conviction

Martin Shipton

A prominent far-right activist who was given a suspended prison sentence for his part in a massive insurance fraud is using a new name since his conviction and is continuing to produce racist material on social media channels.

Dan Morgan, of the Swansea-based group Voice of Wales, is now using the name Dan Vow, which is presumably derived from the initial letters of the organisation he founded with fellow extremist Stan Robinson.

Earlier this year Swansea Crown Court heard how a call centre was set up to con people on the back of the PPI scandal. It was responsible for an astonishing 53 million scam phone messages.

The fraudsters promised big payouts in connection with mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance policies but in reality their aim was simply to get victims’ credit card details and steal money from them.

Refunds

Hundreds of people paid up to £550 each after being tricked by the call centre staff into believing they were due substantial PPI refunds, with many of the victims of the scam being elderly and vulnerable. Sentencing 16 people involved in the fraud – from directors of the firm to those working the phones – a judge described the aim of the business as “deliberate, planned fraud”.

Morgan was given a six months jail sentence suspended for 12 months for his part in the criminality.

In 2021 YouTube removed two channels jointly run by him and Robinson because of their racist content. Welsh politicians and race equality groups condemned the Voice of Wales channel for airing interviews with The Proud Boys, an American far-right group that has been outlawed in Canada, and controversial figures such as former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson.

The YouTube account was terminated for breaching the platform’s terms of service. A second YouTube account, also set up by the men, was also removed.

But together with Robinson, who was recently selected as Ukip’s candidate for Llanelli in next year’s general election, Morgan/Vow has now made a YouTube video in which they interview controversial former Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom.

Offensive comments

During his stint at the European Parliament Bloom was repeatedly criticised for making offensive comments. In 2004, shortly after being elected to the European Parliament for the first time, he told a journalist that “no self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age”. Around the same time he said: “I just don’t think [women] clean behind the fridge enough” and “I am here to represent Yorkshire women who always have dinner on the table when you get home.”

After inviting students from Cambridge University’s Women’s Rugbyb Club to Brussels, he was accused of sexual harassment making “sexist and misogynistic remarks” and using offensive language during a dinner party. He admitted making misogynistic comments but denied sexual harassment.

Later he wrote an article in which he said that women were better at “[finding] the mustard in the pantry than driving a car”.

In 2010 Bloom was ejected from the European Parliament’s chamber after yelling the Nazi slogan “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” at a German MEP as he was speaking.

In 2013 he made a speech about Britain’s foreign aid in which he referred to African countries as “Bongo Bongo Land”.

He was also accused of anti-semitism after referring to Goldman Sachs as an “international Jewish bank”.

In 2013 Bloom had the Ukip whip withdrawn after he hit political journalist Michael Crick in the street with a conference brochure, threatened a second reporter and at the party’s conference jokingly referred to females in the audience as “sluts”. He sat as an Independent for the rest of the term.

Sunk

In his interview with Dan Morgan/Vow and Stan Robinson, Bloom says small migrant boats should be towed back to France by the Royal Navy, and if the French navy tries to intervene, their ships should be sunk.

Bloom attacks the 20mph speed limit in Wales and says any police officer who enforces the limit is likely to be told by his young son, “Dad, you’re a complete w…er”.

At one point Bloom says: “:Perhaps we have to cull people”

When Michael Crick’s name is mentioned, Bloom says: “He’ll get another one!”

Referring sneeringly to the multiracial population of the UK capital, the former MEP says: “There are no Londoners in London any more.”

Bloom says Ukraine has a “corrupt and disgusting government”, that the Russian Federation intervened in Ukraine because ethnic Russians were being killed and states that Russia “has won the war”.

He goes on to make antisemitic and Islamophobic comments.

Throughout the YouTube video, Morgan/Vow and Robinson grin sycophantically and laugh at Bloom’s utterances.

The anti-fascist magazine Searchlight described Morgan’s change of name as a “rather pathetic attempt to polish up [Ukip’s] image following his criminal conviction.