In the latest article in a series, we expose the hardcore extremists resurfacing in Restore Britain, the new party led by Rupert Lowe MP. This includes members of the neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative campaigning for Restore in the Makerfield by-election next month
Restore Britain is riding high. Energised by its rapid growth and recent election success in Great Yarmouth, Rupert Lowe’s party has opted into the parliamentary by-election in Makerfield, Greater Manchester, expected to take place on 18 June.
Promising to deport “millions”, Restore has galvanised the extreme fringes in a manner unseen since the collapse of the British National Party (BNP). As we have previously revealed, the notorious pro-ethnic cleansing activist Steve Laws has claimed to have “daily” contact with Restore’s top team, and militant neo-Nazis like Aryan Front have lined up to support the party.
Now, we can reveal that figures associated with the neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative (PA) are campaigning for candidate Rebecca Shepherd in Makerfield.
Patriotic Alternative (PA) launched in 2019 and quickly became the most active neo-Nazi group in Britain, recruiting ex-BNP stalwarts, veteran Holocaust deniers and former members and associates of the proscribed neo-Nazi terror group, National Action (NA).
PA lost momentum following a series of splits and the imprisonment of key activists on various race hate and terror-related offences. The group has also failed to register as a political party, meaning activists have to engage in electoral politics via other vehicles.
We have already exposed former members of PA – Callum Barker in Epping, and James Munro in Dundee – as current Restore activists. However, we can now name three more – Thomas Bryer, Craig Buckley and Michelle Smith – active in the North West.
Snapped at a campaign day in Ashton-in-Makerfield last weekend was Thomas Bryer, previously a front-facing PA activist.
Bryer emerged in PA’s flagship North West branch in 2023, helping the group inflame tensions around an asylum accommodation site in Standish, Wigan.
He also stood as an English Democrats candidate in Makerfield at the general election the following year, after a pact between the two far-right groups. He came last place with 368 votes (0.9%).
The Nazi apologist has claimed that “Churchill dragged us into a pointless war with Germany” and that British troops in both world wars “were fooled by Zionist controlled politicians into killing fellow Whites”, among other antisemitic posts.
He also described a picture of fascist leader Oswald Mosely as “Literally me” and had the following to say about the Third Reich:
Bryer practises Odinism, a racially exclusive version of Germanic paganism, and was a member of the Green Man Hearth, a tiny group active in the North West. Andrew McIntyre — a key instigator of the Merseyside riots of 2024 — was briefly involved in the group, which is composed of members of PA and the British National Socialist Movement.
Accompanying Restore candidate Rebecca Shepherd at a campaign day earlier this week was Craig Buckley, another PA activist from Wigan.
Like Bryer, Buckley has been a prominent front-facing PA activist since 2024, and stood in the general election for the English Democrats that year. During his campaign in Leigh and Atherton, Buckley enlisted Peter Rushton, one of the UK’s foremost Holocaust deniers, to canvass on his behalf.
In his report of the day, published in the extreme right magazine Heritage & Destiny, Rushton concluded: “The old gang parties are dying: the future belongs to racial nationalism.” Buckley ultimately placed last with 376 votes (0.9%).
Buckley is the nominal leader of the Identity Party, a PA front registered by underhand means. According to PA leader Mark Collett, Identity was registered in order to expose the Electoral Commission (EC) for unfairly scuppering PA’s own applications (in reality, PA had introduced errors).
Buckley has also been active in street politics, and was snapped by HOPE not hate at a “March for Remigration” in Manchester last August, organised by the anti-Muslim group Britain First, as well as a PA anti-migrant event in Newark-on-Trent the same month.
Bryer and Buckley are not the only PA North West activists to resurface in Restore. A recent branch meeting in Tatton, Cheshire – just a 30 minute drive from Wigan – was attended by Michelle Smith.
Smith came to our attention in 2023, when she attended a series of regional PA events in the North West, as well as the group’s annual conference that October.
She used the Algiz / “life” rune, popular with the extreme right, as her featured image on Telegram, and before that the below image:
Restore is unlikely to win in Makerfield. However, the group will draft in hundreds of activists to spread its anti-migrant politics in the local area, and deserves the attention of campaigners.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are more extremists attending Restore events — and we will expose them in the coming weeks.
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