Far right pair exploit fake news about Southport killings to incite racism
Martin Shipton
Two notorious far-right activists are promoting an event in Wales that will seek to stir up racial hatred towards refugees by exploiting a false narrative about the Southport dance class murders.
Swansea-based Stan Robinson and Dan Morgan are using their “Voice of Wales” Facebook blog to encourage people to attend a “vigil” outside the Senedd on Saturday August 3.
The event is said to be in memory of the three primary school children stabbed to death in their dance class in Southport on Monday, but on social media details of the event appear under the headline “End the Nation of Sanctuary. Enough is Enough.”
In 2019, the Welsh Government declared that Wales would become the world’s first “Nation of Sanctuary”, a plan aimed at making refugees feel welcome by offering them practical help that was subsequently endorsed by the United Nations.
Far right
Now the racist far-right is spreading disinformation about the horrendous Southport attacks in a bid to discredit the Nation of Sanctuary policy.
In addition to the three young girls aged six, seven and nine who died, five children and two adults remain in a critical condition after the attack.
A flood of misinformation about the attack has been spread on numerous social media platforms by sources ranging from far-right activists to fake news websites and conspiracy theorists. It was falsely suggested that the 17-year-old suspected knifeman was a Syrian asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a small boat last year.
On Tuesday afternoon, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper urged the public to avoid “unhelpful” speculation about the attack, saying social media companies “need to take some responsibility” for the content being shared on their sites.
“Above all, this is about young children,” she said. “This is about children and their families who will be grieving, and the many other children who were involved who will be facing great trauma as well.”
The only details released about the suspect by police are that he is a 17-year-old from the village of Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff.
It is understood that his parents migrated to the UK from Rwanda, which is not an Islamic country.
On Tuesday night a protest by hundreds of far-right activists, believed to be supporters of the English Defence League, founded by “Tommy Robinson” saw missiles thrown at police in Southport and a local mosque attacked.
A prominent British conspiracy theorist had earlier been filming at the crime scene. A YouTube video where he calls for emergency military rule and mass deportations received 30,000 views in the two hours after it was posted on Tuesday.
The ‘“source’” for the false name of the attacker appears to be a website seen by the Guardian calling itself Channel 3 Now, which mixes potentially AI-generated US and UK news content and is styled like a mainstream American network news channel.
The name and other false claims about the suspect were being shared by influencers on platforms such as TikTok. One such video, also seen by the Guardian, from a self-styled social media influencer and Reform UK supporter who goes by the name of brucesrandomness, had been viewed nearly 800,000 times.
The Voice of Wales duo latched onto the false information to promote Saturday’s “vigil” in Cardiff. Stan Robinson was UKIP’s candidate in Llanelli at the July 4 general election, picking up a derisory 1.5% of the vote. Dan Morgan is a convicted fraudster who received a six-months suspended prison sentence in October 2023 for his role in an insurance scam that robbed hundreds of ordinary people of their savings.
Islamophobic
On their Facebook site, Robinson and Morgan have posted inflammatory messages that are racist and Islamophobic.
On Sunday July 28 they spoke at an anti-Islam rally in London organised by “Tommy Robinson”, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. Yaxley-Lennon is now a fugitive from justice, having left the UK to avoid appearing in court this week on a contempt of court charge.
A Welsh Labour source said: “It’s difficult to imagine how much lower Stan Robinson and Dan Morgan can stoop. To exploit the horrific attack in Southport with lies aimed at stirring up racism and Islamophobia is utterly despicable and beneath contempt. It’s totally sick.”
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As many have said, deny them the ‘oxygen of publicity’ to stifle the spread of misinformation.
That’s hardly going to work in this world of multi-platform communications channels. Back in the pre-internet and multi TV channel era a news blackout may well have been effective, it’s not any longer. Suppressing this kind of news merely denies those of us who are opposed to this kind of stuff, as any decent human being should be, information about these kinds of events so we can go and peacefully counter protest and use our weight of numbers to demonstrate to these knuckle-draggers that they are in a minority and are not welcome. Normally only those who support the fascists… Read more »
Absolutely, Padi . I remember huge turnouts in Castle Square in opposition to attempts by the far right to hold rallies there.
Unfortunately the threat of violence and quasi journalists shoving a camera in your face in order to plaster it all over far right websites as happened at the Stradey Park has put many people off.
The few brave people who put their heads above the parapet have paid the price.
The obvious answer to quasi-journos is to wear a mask, (and have your own bunch of ‘news gatherers’ ) which still hasn’t been banned, and if you are there in large enough numbers, i.e. outnumbering the knuckle-draggers then it’s likely that they’ll be the ones who are subdued. The kind of opposition turn outs such as happened in the past in Swansea are the way to go, as then the far-right are intimidated into not even arriving for their ‘protest’. The trick is to turn out in huge numbers. Of course, if you’re short of numbers, then a wholly different… Read more »
My observation of the Stradey Park Hotel blockade was that it was organised and run by the Furnace Action Committee, local residents. Stan Robinson and Dan Morgan played very little role apart from turning up occasionally to record videos of themselves talking to camera in selfie mode.
That is not true. It was originally organised by local resident Then hijacked by these criminals and fascists, who then turned people against the likes of Rob Lloyd, a respected member of the Llanelli community. They are thugs and their platforms should be closed down
And I suppose it was the Furnace Action Committee that invited the likes of Tice , Beer and current fugitive Robinson to come and make political capital. How many of the Committee were arrested and charged with a variety of offences? Did they subject accredited journalists and politicians to intimidation? I think not. What Llanelli got was every far right sleaze bag and his caravan turning up for a piece of the action.
There was no ‘invite’. It’s a public place and the Action Committee were in no position to ban anyone. There was, as I understand it a good relationship between the residents and Dyfed Powys Police, which did lead to some arrests for some who turned up with in possession of drugs. If anything is to be learned from these events is that political parties like Plaid Cymru should concentrate on addressing the issues that are raised by residents instead of ‘closing down’ their own membership in Llanelli over the past few years. Evidently played a role in Cllr Beer (Cyngor… Read more »
Unlike Stradey Park those campaigning against turning RAF Scampton into a Refugee/Asylum Seeker Camp have very successfully managed to prevent the Far Right from turning up at their protest site.
Individuals at Stradey Park weren’t only arrested for possession of drugs but possettion of knives, aggravated trespass . Also people who opposed the presence of the Far Right felt very intimidated.
This is true, I remember I took a wrong turning up the hotel road, and as I exited the little residential car-park near there as I used it to turn around in, I looked right to check for traffic and clocked some woman with a gaunt look on her face, slow-waving at me as if to say, ”yeah? what are you looking at??” I was just turning around for god’s sake! Also saw her in many Stradey videos stirring-up violence by being loud and mouthy. and here’s something else, her best friend who was with her in these videos who… Read more »
Gareth Beer, Reform and Stan Robinson UKIP, pictured together like best buddies at the Diplomat hustings. Enough said.
That event was a joke. 1% Stan tried his absolute hardest and got nowhere. I think he would’ve been more appreciated if he hadn’t secured over a quarter of the tickets for his riff-raff.
Yes and scum always floats to the top.
He wasn’t successful, he lost!
Ever action committee is capable of sending out a message that fascist scum are not welcome. The claim that the action committee, (who should all give their heads a wobble over opposing shelter and help for refugees and asylum seekers) have no control over who attends is just a weak excuse, and attempt to not be held responsible for the appearance of the far-right. Make those repulsive elements unwelcome and they will not turn up should the message be sent out forcefully enough. All the action committee has achieved is to become an apologist for fascist hordes.
The media will always say miss information even if it was true just to keep the peace.
“I begrudge them the Oxygen of Oxygen.”
(The late, great Linda Smith)
Misinformation? Just like all the mainstream media then.
These two have morphed from the realms of being viewed as a pathetic couple of blokes with fringe views to a full blown public danger.
After last night’s scenes in Southport, SWP really need to deal with these two before someone gets hurt as a result of their constant misinformation and hate.
Vigil? What’s the chances this turns violent. These cretins should be done for incitement to riot.
I think the answer is to be there peacefully in large numbers, and make it clear that this is going to happen. These individuals are basically cowards and would probably choose to not turn up if they felt there would be a large welcoming committee.
This pair are scum of the earth.
These two ONLY must be forced to clean up and pay for any mess and damage resulting from their vigil of violence. They must also be forced to stop bringing the name of our country into disrepute and rename themselves ‘Voice of HATE’.
They are what they are nothing more nothing less FAR RIGHT WING FASCISTS E D L or NATIONAL FRONT or B N P all the same under the command of FARAGE and Reform and the far right of the Tories certain newspapers Torygraph Daily Mail and Daily Express are stoking up hatred along with G B News who seem to have an objective of bringing down labour government who where democraticly elected something like Trump mob in America a couple of years back
To call all reform supporters racist is incredibly ignorant. Clearly you have an absolute minimal understanding of what’s going on. To simply blanket a quarter of the voting population in the UK as racist is an incredibly weak view and only highlights your childlike perception of what the reality really is.
Their transparency is so vivid. What you have to realise is that there are those who might share their views, but have condemned Voice of Wales (VoW) in speaking for them. I even supported their views at one point but never their methods. Notice how they put their vids out telling their Sospan gang lot to behave for Daddy Tommy R, because they knew they’d have lots to report on anyway etc, but there was no video of how to behave for the hustings though, was there? Of course not, because chances are there wouldn’t be enough content, unless they… Read more »
Both their views and their methods are utterly reprehensible without merit and completely beyond any redemption.
Fascism is fascism whether it’s knuckle-dragging morons fighting in the streets or with a veneer of respectability in a suit and tie. It needs to be stamped out.
I’m not going to disregard the fact that woke extremism and immigration is an issue. This does not make me or anyone else a ‘fascist’ or ‘reprehensible without merit and completely beyond redemption’ just for being aware of this either, I am not far-right or far-left just because my views are one or the other. Not everyone is worthy of such titles. I just know that these two (VoW) are not the people to be quoting chapter and verse when it come to moral intergrity, as much as Tommy Robinson shouldn’t be. Voice of Wales are ‘supported’ by a band… Read more »
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