The National Support Detachment (NSD) is a street-oriented organisation headed by former Patriotic Alternative member Alek Yerbury. Having established himself as the figurehead of a small but prolific band of fascists in northern England, Yerbury hopes to harness the wider anti-migrant groundswell into a formal political movement.

Alek Yerbury

Yerbury was privately educated in Adelaide, Australia before serving in the British Army. He joined PA Yorkshire in the autumn of 2021 and became a regular public speaker, resulting in a slew of negative press for his sartorial resemblance to Adolf Hitler.

Yerbury is motivated by an intense hatred of politicians and left-wing activists, and believes migration to be “a symptom” of a Marxist conspiracy. HOPE not hate has previously exposed his appalling statements about the murder of Jo Cox, a Yorkshire MP assassinated by a nazi in 2016. We also found others in which he advocated the use of firearms on migrants, the internment of his political enemies in forced labour camps and much else.

The oddball activist split with PA in February 2023 after a spat with the leadership over the organisation of an anti-migrant march in Skegness, Lincolnshire. He has instead allied himself with a circle of former English Defence League (EDL) activists in Yorkshire, many of whom loathe PA leader Mark Collett.

The NSD

Yerbury launched the NSD in April, a fringe outfit that seeks to act as a “support to nationalism in Britain, through organised efforts to overcome the tactics of deplatforming, intimidation and suppression practiced [sic] by the hard left”. Yerbury has sought to incorporate faux-military trappings into the NSD, in the apparent hope of establishing a far-right cadre primed for confrontation with leftwing activists.

Recruiting Scott Pitts as the NSD’s “Officer Commanding” in Lincolnshire, the pair work closely with Yorkshire Patriots, an EDL splinter led by David Smaller (AKA David Sunderland), to the point where the line between the two groups is often unclear. Other activists include the Seacroft-based Paul Leeming, who has a lengthy criminal record, and Simon Scott, who was involved in the EDL in the early 2010s before gravitating towards the openly nazi North West Infidels and National Front.

Another ally is Katie Fanning (AKA Bubba Paris), a Manchester-based ex-UKIP official and former associate of PA. She is well known among UK white nationalists for her online output and her lawsuit against the Open University for supposed discrimination against white students.

While Yerbury and Fanning have frequently collaborated with other far-right groups, rifts between the pair and PA have deepened considerably in recent months, further dividing the Yorkshire far right.

Anti-Migrant Organising: From Protests to Elections

Yerbury has proved an energetic organiser, and the NSD/Yorkshire Patriots grouping has arranged or supported numerous protests this year, seeking to steer anti-migrant anger towards a wider, conspiratorial far-right worldview.

The largest was a 10 June demo that brought roughly 100 fascists and hooligans to the streets of Leeds. This included members of PA and its splinters, alongside longer-standing nazi groups including the National Front, the British National Socialist Movement, Blood & Honour (B&H), Combat 18 and the “Infidels” network.

However, other protests have seen turnouts smaller than 50, largely composed of the same travelling far-right activists who are reliably outnumbered by counter-protestors. Turnouts have been disappointing even in Skegness and Lincoln, where Yerbury and his allies have made a long-term effort to co-opt local campaigns.

Recently, he and his allies have sought to emulate the successful campaign against a planned asylum accommodation site in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire. Yerbury and Pitts have helped organise an ongoing protest camp at RAF Scampton, a former airbase earmarked to house asylum seekers in Lincolnshire. However, the camp has been marred by squabbles, arrests and reports of drug and alcohol abuse, with Yerbury stating that he has been “absolutely disgusted by the sheer amount of whinging” from other activists. However, at time of writing, the camp continues.

Shifting towards electoral politics, Yerbury has registered a party based on “the principle of racial, social and cultural unification, and the principles of a militarised society” that seeks to contest national elections. He has proactively established links to existing anti-migrant campaigns across the UK, hoping to hold regular public meetings and to cultivate candidates. His initial application for the “Great British National Workers Party” was rejected by the Electoral Commission in December on the grounds that the name was too similar to an already registered party. Yerbury was eventually successful in registering the National Rebirth Party in February.