Tomorrow, a by-election will be taking place to elect a new councillor to represent Worthing’s Marine Ward. This is because the former Conservative councillor for Marine ward, Tim Wills, resigned his seat after our research team revealed he was an active member of the antisemitic, white nationalist group, Patriotic Alternative.
The public social media accounts of Cllr Tim Wills contained the standard fare of an enthusiastic Conservative borough councillor. But on a private Telegram chat group, Wills revealed himself to be an enthusiastic supporter of Patriotic Alternative (PA), a racial nationalist and fascist organisation that seeks the removal of ethnic minorities from the UK.
According to findings by HOPE not hate:
- Wills joined a Patriotic Alternative regional chat on instant messaging app, Telegram, in June 2021. He used his real first and middle names as his username on Telegram, and divulged details of his location and previous career in his messages.
- HOPE not hate uncovered messages from Wills which endorsed the ‘White Genocide’ conspiracy theory, which suggests that genocide is being perpetrated on white people by means of mass immigration and cultural suppression. Wills wrote in the group, “My view is Covid is a loss maker for us, we just need to centre on white genocide […] because many of our white race are convinced about vaccines, but not about our replacement, and need to be informed about this?”
- In another message, he urged fellow members to “Remember the 14 words”, a reference to the 14-word white supremacist slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”, a call to arms formulated by white supremacist terrorist David Lane, who was sentenced to 190 years in prison for his role in the murder of a Jewish journalist.
- Wills wrote in the Patriotic Alternative group, “My view is Tories are best of a rotten lot as still have a right wing minority who are on side” (implying that the party has those within its ranks who agree with his views), before revealing he was a member of the Conservative Party to the group on Telegram.
While we welcomed the resignation of Tim Wills from the party, the fact that Wills stated in the messenger chat that there is a ‘right wing minority’ within the party who support his views should act as a wake up call to those who still deny the scale of the internal racism and Islamophobia issue facing the Conservatives.
You can read more about who patriotic alternative are in our new report Patriotic Alternative: Britain’s fascist threat
The by-election will be taking place on Thursday, December 2 and polls will be open from 7 am until 10 pm.
