Founded in 2002, the English Democrats is a far-right party that calls for the creation of an English parliament. Its chairman is Robin Tilbrook, a solicitor and perennial failure at the ballot box. Tilbrook frequently promotes the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory and has denounced the Jewish financier George Soros for his apparently “evil record and baneful influence”. 

Following the collapse of the British National Party (BNP) in the early 2010s, the English Democrats attracted former members of the fascist party, and at one point Tilbrook estimated that a tenth of its membership originated from the BNP. To followers of the English Democrats, Tilbrook frequently promotes a book written by Nick Griffin which claims that Jews control the media. 

A friend of Mark Collett, the leader of the fascist Patriotic Alternative (PA), Tilbrook has also appeared on PA livestreams and advised audiences on how to avoid scrutiny from the Prevent counter-radicalisation programme. 

In September 2023, the party announced an alliance with UKIP, registering the “Patriots Alliance” with the Electoral Commission. Two candidates stood under the name in the 2024 general election. 

However, in June 2024, HOPE not hate revealed that the English Democrats had also struck a secret deal with PA. Collett, under pressure from his members for his failure to register PA with the Electoral Commission as a political party, offered his members the chance to stand in the general election under the banner of the English Democrats. Four candidates took up this deal, and ultimately none of them polled higher than 1% of the vote. The so-called “migrant hunter” turned fascist activist Steve Laws also represented the party in Dover & Deal, receiving just 185 votes (0.4%).

In 2009, the party established the Workers of England Union (WEU), a trade union popular among conspiracy theorists and the far right. While WEU claims that it is “not affiliated to any political party”, Tilbrook sits as WEU Chairman, and the WEU General Secretary is Stephen Morris, a perennial candidate for the English Democrats party in Greater Manchester. Niall McCrae, a far-right activist and conspiracy theorist, is a representative of WEU and addressed the PA conference last October to advertise the organisation.