Far right seeking donations for those jailed over riots

Far-right activists are trying to raise funds for people jailed over their roles in the summer riots, describing them as political prisoners, in an attempt to generate support by giving money to their families.

- Ben Quinn

More than £14,000 has been raised by one leading group, which has been promoting the start of its "gifting" of funds to families of "political prisoners".

A leader of Patriotic Alternative (PA) recently met a teenager in HMP Hull who had been jailed for racially aggravated harassment during the disorder, his wife told supporters. The white-nationalist group is sharing names and prison addresses of some of those jailed and encouraging supporters to write to them.

An ex-prison governor who led an independent government review of Islamist extremism in prison said he hoped a strategy was already in place when it came to managing the threat posed by the far right in prisons.

Ian Acheson, who reviewed the threat of radicalisation in jails in 2016, cautioned against a move towards viewing the many hundreds who were convicted of criminal offences in the riots as a single group susceptible to far-right ideas, a narrative that could be welcomed by extremists.