Unity News Network (UNN) is a conspiracy theory website headed by David Clews, a former Conservative and Labour councillor in Renfrewshire, Scotland.

Founded in 2018 by Clews and Carl Pearson, who was then UKIP’s Scottish youth leader, UNN built an audience by supporting the protest movement to free the anti-Muslim extremist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson) during his spell behind bars that year. The outlet’s following grew significantly after it began spreading conspiratorial content relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of writing, it has over 100,000 followers on Facebook, 55,000 on Twitter and almost 23,000 on Telegram.

While Pearson is no longer involved in the project, under Clews UNN has also adopted an increasingly extreme outlook. For example, the outlet has promoted the White Genocide conspiracy theory and described the West as being in the grip of “cultural Marxist degeneracy”. UNN also remains plugged into the conspiracy theory protest scene, with Clews attending various demonstrations in recent years.

Clews has also established increasingly tight links to the UK’s fascist fringe, most notably speaking at the conferences of the nazi group Patriotic Alternative (PA) in 2022 and 2023. Clews has also hosted PA leaders on UNN streams, as well as James Costello, a repeat guest who was jailed in November 2023 for eighteen hate crime offences. Other guests include former British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin. Clews has also himself appeared on PA-related streams and other fascist shows.

It is therefore unsurprising to find that the UNN chat on Telegram is swamped with open antisemitism, other forms of racism and far-right content more broadly.