In the latest article of a series, we expose the seasoned extremists resurfacing in Restore Britain, the new party led by Rupert Lowe MP. This includes former members of militant neo-Nazi groups, far-right pagans, ex-BNP stalwarts and more
The launch of Restore Britain as a party this February has excited the extreme right in a manner unseen since the heyday of the British National Party (BNP), more than a decade and a half ago.
Headed by Rupert Lowe – the most extreme MP in recent memory – Restore claims to have rocketed to 130,000 members. This would make it nine times the size of the BNP at its height, a party to which Restore bears political similarities.
It is unsurprising, then, that former BNP officials and other extremists are washing up at Restore meetings across the country. Earlier this week, we exposed three activists who had spent decades immersed in the extreme fringes, including one affiliated to some of Britain’s most overtly neo-Nazi groups.
Now, we take a look at another trio with dubious political histories.
Last weekend, Restore held its first Scottish event. Attending at the inaugural Dundee Central, Arbroath and Broughty Ferry branch meeting was James Munro, who later tweeted that it was a “bloody strong start […] If you’re from the Dundee area join up, roll up those sleeves and let’s get working”.
However, over the past decade, Munro has dwelled in some of the darkest corners of the extreme right. HOPE not hate and The Ferret previously revealed his past in the Scottish Nationalist Society (SNS), a militant neo-Nazi groupuscule that emerged in 2017.
Initially formed under the name “Scottish National Socialists”, the SNS adopted the Celtic triskele symbol – designed to echo the Nazi flag – as its banner. The tiny group drilled martial arts, targeted universities with propaganda and attached itself to the extreme right street movement.
At a 2019 Scottish Defence League march in Edinburgh, Munro and other members were snapped throwing Nazi salutes clad in the skull masks popular among the extreme right. The group disappeared from view that year.
Munro went on to join the neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative (PA) in 2021. Under the pseudonym “Son of Burgundy”, he co-hosted two official PA podcasts, producing hours of content containing Holocaust jokes, noxious racial stereotypes and much else. “I thought I would be PA till the end of my days,” he later wrote.
However, Munro abandoned PA in 2023 during a mass defection to the new Homeland Party, led by former BNP organiser Kenny Smith. Over the next two years, Homeland became the country’s largest fascist party and Munro one of its most active Scottish members. After his past in the SNS was exposed in 2023, Munro claimed he had been “led astray” in joining the “cranky group”, and that “Kenny Smith’s mission is one I believe in”.
Nonetheless, Munro has switched allegiance yet again, now openly promoting Lowe and Restore on social media.
Yorkshire appears set to be an area of focus for Restore, with several branches up and running. Among those snapped at a meeting of the Harrogate and Knaresborough branch this month was Shane Pellow (AKA Shane Hennah), a former member of the defunct Independent Nationalist Network (INN).
The INN was a tiny band of extremists that splintered from the neo-Nazi Patriotic Alternative in 2021. The group established links to the militant anti-vaccine movement, as well as former BNP leader Nick Griffin. However, it squandered much of its energy on online squabbles and folded in 2024, having achieved little of note.
Pellow joined the INN in 2022 via the conspiracy theory “truther” scene, using the pseudonym “Viking Celt” and posting an antisemitic meme in the INN chat group.
He practises a form of Germanic paganism, which is popular among elements of the extreme right but seemingly at odds with Restore’s Christian nationalism. According to spokesman Charlie Downes, “Restore Britain believe that Britain is a people defined by indigenous British ancestry and Christian faith”.
Other former members of INN are also vocal supporters of Restore. As covered by the Byline Times, Chris Mitchell (an INN co-founder and former PA organiser), posed for a photo with Lowe in February.
Mitchell, who was convicted for hate crime offences in 2023, also established a group on Telegram to support Restore, which he uses to push a stream of extreme racism, antisemitism and misogyny.
As previously covered, an older generation of extremists is also jumping on the Restore bandwagon. Among them is Steve Gill, snapped alongside Pellow at the Harrogate meeting.
Gill is a former BNP candidate, representing the fascist party in Harrogate in local and parliamentary elections in 2010. This was at the height of the party’s “modernisation” programme, as it attempted to obscure its extremism from the public.
Gill resurfaced in the fascist fringes last year, when he attended events organised by Heritage & Destiny (H&D), the UK’s main racial nationalist magazine. That April, he was photographed at an H&D event in York alongside editor Marc Cotterill, British Democrats leader Jim Lewthwaite, and figures associated with the violent neo-Nazi group Combat 18.
Later that month, Gill was snapped at another H&D meeting alongside Mark Collett, leader of Patriotic Alternative and the UK’s most prominent neo-Nazi, as well as Andrew Brons, the former National Front leader and BNP MEP.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. More experienced extremists are attending Restore events, and we will expose them in the coming weeks.
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