Alan Leggett (AKA Active Patriot), from Grimsby in Lincolnshire, is one of the most prominent “migrant hunter” activists in the UK.

Previously an acolyte of Stephen Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson), Leggett made a similar attempt to transform himself into a so-called “citizen journalist”. Like Lennon, Leggett has organised public documentary airings, playing a film about “Muslim grooming gangs” on a portable screen, often outside police stations around the north of England, to tiny audiences. However, Leggett’s decision to film the screenings themselves meant he was able to produce a large quantity of content for his social media channels. This helped to propel him to greater prominence during that period, despite falling out with many figures across the far right.

In 2022, Leggett began targeting migrant accommodation in earnest, making at least 38 trips to film and harass both occupants and staff. A close associate of Amanda Smith (AKA Yorkshire Rose), the pair made many such visits together. In 2023, Leggett made at least 27 migrant accommodation visits and also appeared at a number of anti-migrant protests throughout the year, including in Dover, Hull, Lincoln and Skegness.

Early that year, Leggett suffered the banning of his YouTube account, along with subsequent ones he attempted to set up, before being charged with racially-aggravated threatening abusive words or behaviour after he filmed a suspected grooming gang case in Bradford in September 2022. That August saw Leggett found guilty of malicious communications involving a video dating back to 2020. In October, Leggett was sentenced for a different malicious communications charge dating back three years, and was subjected to a long list of sanctions, including a 10-month prison sentence suspended for two years and a 15-year restraint order.

In the first quarter of 2024, Leggett kept up a fairly consistent video output through his X/Twitter account, predominantly at temporary asylum accommodation sites around the Midlands and the North East. Following the end of his police order banning him from the site, Leggett returned to lurking around RAF Scampton, the location of a long-running anti-migrant campaign. In the summer, Leggett headed to the northern French coast with Nigel Marcham (AKA Little Veteran) and another migrant hunter who had a stint in the Territorial Army. The trio made videos interviewing migrants sleeping rough and waiting to make the journey across the Channel, as well as harassing a French NGO on the beach early one morning.

When the 2024 riots broke out, Leggett took to social media to fan the flames and push his anti-immigration agenda. This included posting clips of arson and criminal damage from around the country, alongside comments such as “PEOPLE HAVE HAD ENOUGH”. In mid-August, Leggett’s house was raided by police, supposedly in relation to his social media output. According to his associate Smith, Leggett was temporarily banned from using the internet, was made to adhere to a curfew, was ordered to hand in his passport to police and instructed to sign on at a police station twice a week. Smith also claimed police had seized over 40 items from Leggett’s flat, including three phones.

In early November, Leggett was notified that he was being investigated under the Regulatory Investigative Powers Act (RIPA) 2000, requiring him to provide police with the passcodes to his devices. Later that month, Leggett indicated via X/Twitter that he was considering ceasing migrant hunting and moving to help his local homeless community instead, starting an online fundraiser for a mobile food van. Nevertheless, his social media output remains split pretty evenly between the two topics.