HOPE not hate can exclusively reveal that the Guardians of Great Harwood (GGH), a local “community crime prevention group” in Lancashire, has been running self-defence classes taught by former National Action (NA) instructor Jimmy Hey.
Hey trained activists from NA – which was proscribed as a terrorist group in 2016 – in martial arts from the very same gym in which he now trains GGH volunteers.
GGH are a small self-styled “crime prevention team”, operating in a similar way to many other vigilante-style groups across the country. They operate volunteer-led street patrols in the Great Harwood area, as well as providing free self-defence classes taught by Hey.
GGH launched in early June 2026 with a meeting of around 25 people, led by Michael “Mickii” Edwards. “We are extra eyes and ears for the town, working with the police and never around them,” reads the group’s website. “We keep a friendly watch, record what needs recording, and hand it over to the people whose job it is to act.”
National Action was a neo-Nazi terrorist group founded in 2013. From the outset, the group promoted an unfiltered, Hitler-worshipping Nazism and a violent hatred of Jews, becoming increasingly militant and obsessed with the idea of an imminent race war.
NA published photographs of activists performing Nazi salutes in Buchenwald concentration camp, and received attention after a supporter attempted to murder a Sikh man with a machete in 2015.
After increasingly worrying signs – including studying ISIS videos at training camps and celebrating the assassination of Jo Cox MP – NA was proscribed under anti-terror legislation in 2016.
A number of NA activists continued to organise in contravention of the ban, however. One prominent ex-member, Jack Renshaw, hatched a plot to murder an MP in 2017 – a plan that was foiled due to information received by HOPE not hate. Numerous former NA activists are behind bars due to their activity with the group.
Hey operated in the NA orbit from at least early 2015, organising training camps and attending a series of “White Man March” events as NA attempted to seize control of the streets. This included a disastrous outing in Liverpool, in which Hey and other NA activists were overwhelmed by anti-fascists and forced to take refuge in the left-luggage section of Lime Street station.
Hey also addressed NA’s annual conference in 2016, but withdrew from activism before the group’s ban that December.
Hey’s involvement in the violent extreme right runs deeper. During the period covering his involvement with NA, he was also a leader of the UK branch of the Misanthropic Division (MD), an international neo-Nazi network closely linked to the paramilitary Azov Battalion in Ukraine.
MD, which aimed to recruit fascists to fight in Ukraine following the Russian invasion in 2014, had a small presence in the UK that was closely linked to NA.
The Guardians of Great Harwood are one of many similar groups across the UK – some of them recently formed. These groups often purport to focus on community safeguarding, and particularly on the safety of women and girls. This can be particularly powerful in places where community trust in police to deal with issues like sexual assault and anti-social behaviour has declined.
Despite this community safety branding, however, many of these groups have associations with, or even welcome as members, individuals with concerning backgrounds and ideologies. Anti-migrant and racist agendas are common within these groups.
GGH, as one example, claims that they have community safety in mind; their Facebook page boasts uniforms, body cameras and DBS checks for all volunteers. In reality, their purported concern for the safety of women and children is undermined by their offer of training from a former instructor of a neo-Nazi terrorist organisation.
HOPE not hate contacted the Guardians of Great Harwood for comment. They responded:
“The Guardians of Great Harwood have no affiliation with Jimmy Hey or his company APEX MMA. No directors, trustees or volunteers are receiving any training directly or indirectly from Jimmy Hey or his company APEX MMA.
Jimmy is a local business man who came forward to donate his own time and business location to provide a short cause of training on basic self defence and conflict resolution for women and children which aligned with one of the core principles of Guardians of Great Harwood of tackling the nation increase of school bullying, domestic violence and VAWG in general.”
Prefer to listen? Click the play button to hear the audio version. Harry Shukman Reform UK is staffed by oddballs and enigmas, but none odder…
