Far right figure who harassed Senedd member in street unmasked in BBC investigation

Emily Price

A far-right figure, who live-streamed a video of himself harassing a Member of the Senedd in the street, has been exposed in a year-long undercover investigation by BBC Wales.

In June 2023, former organiser of the British National Party, Roger Phillips, followed Labour MS Lee Waters as he visited residents in his constituency to discuss Home Office plans to house asylum seekers at the Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli.

Phillips live streamed a video to Facebook followers as he branded the former deputy minister a “coward” who had an “anti-British” agenda.

As Mr Waters tried to get away, he accused Mr Phillips of using the migrant hotel issue to “push an agenda of hatred”.

The Home Office’s plans were shelved in October following protests and concerns around community tensions.

Undercover

Tonight, Mr Phillips will feature in a year long BBC Wales investigation into far right group Patriotic Alternative (PA).

‘Unmasked: Extreme Far Right’ follows an undercover journalist as he infiltrates the group using a fake identity and backstory as someone who was sofa surfing in Cardiff and didn’t have a full time job.

Posing as a new recruit to PA he covertly recorded at demonstrations, attended their summer camp and their secretive annual conference where he recorded members and supporters using racial slurs and sharing extreme views.

Although Mr Phillips isn’t a member of PA, he was filmed by the programme at a banner waving event where he told the undercover reporter that, “35 to 40 of us were prepping, arming ourselves” after protesting in Llanelli.

‘Shotgun’

He said he was “buying a pump action shotgun now,” adding, “Who do you think is going to fight these f**king migrants? Us lot.”

Mr Phillips also described how he planned to modify the weapon, telling the reporter it could “kill you at 150 yards”.

He said: “So, we’ll have six guns in the cabinet. For me and my family and a few friends.”

Legal action

Once Mr Phillips found out he had been secretly filmed, he claimed to have been talking about paintball guns and said he had deliberately fed the journalist false information because he suspected he was undercover.

Sharing details of the new documentary to Facebook, Mr Waters said the former BNP organiser had threatened him with legal action three months ago “for challenging him as a racist” and sharing video footage without permission.

Mr Waters said: “Mr Phillips is a former organiser for the racist British Nationalist Party and was one of the ring-leaders of the Stradey Park protests where he was arrested.

“He said he was ‘a recovering heart by-pass patient’ and my pointing out he was a racist had ’caused me nothing but stress and anxiety’.

“He wrote to me to say ‘I deserve a full and public apology from you or I will be forced to take further action’.

“As I said at the time of the protests, a small number of racists were using the genuine concerns of local people about a decision by the Tory Home Office in London to push their agenda of hate in Llanelli.

“It genuinely distressed me that some people were taken in. It is very clear what these people are about. We need to see them for who they are and have nothing to do with it.”

Former Counter-Extremism Commissioner Dame Sara Khan believes the UK government should urgently change the law to make groups like Patriotic Alternative illegal.

Police

The call has been echoed by Mr Waters who told Nation.Cymru he thought the comments made by Mr Phillips in the BBC programme should be investigated by police.

He said: “People didn’t pay enough attention to events in Llanelli two summers ago. The violent events that followed in Southport were foreshadowed in our town, but too few were willing to call it out for what it was.

“Malign and openly racist outside forces seized on, and manipulated, genuine local concerns about decisions made in the Tory Home Office. Local decision makers were ignored and made powerless, pushing people into the arms of violent direct action.

“Many of the organisations we’d expect to speak up fell silent. It has left a deep scar on the town, hostility was felt by people of colour and all people from overseas, and there is lingering mistrust towards authorities.

“The whole experience has left me deeply shaken and I worry that it would not take much to rekindle embers of hate and division.

“People like Roger Phillips are well known by police and as the undercover footage shows remain dangerous forces. We should take them at their word and the police should investigate the footage of him. The Home Office should act on the call for a review of the law by Dame Sara Khan, the UK’s first Counter-Extremism Commissioner.”

Patriotic Alternative leader Mark Collett said they are not extremist, do not promote violence and peacefully campaign for the rights of what he calls indigenous British people.

PA, considered to be the UK’s largest far-right group with about 500 members and thousands of followers online, says it exists to “raise awareness” of immigration and promote “family values.”

He says the allegations in tonight’s programme will be investigated and action taken against members if they have broken the group’s code of conduct.

Unmasked: Extreme Far Right airs today (21 January) at 9pm on BBC One Wales and is available now on iPlayer.