174. 'White Supremacist' Ethan Stables announced online that he was planning to carry out an attack on an LGBTQ+ event at a pub in Cumbria.[1] Stables was convicted in February 2018 of preparation of terrorist acts (S.5 Terrorism Act 2006), as well as for making threats to kill and possession of explosives, and was later sentenced to an indefinite hospital order on 30 May 2018.
Politicians and other public figures
175. Many who adhere to Extreme Right-Wing (XRW) ideologies rail against the so-called 'establishment.' Anti-establishment narratives suggest the establishment is complicit in the so-called betrayal of the 'white race', presenting immigration policies as examples of the government sanctioning the demise of a 'white' cultural heritage. MI5 judges that:
an increasing mainstreaming of these principles, coupled with a widespread crisis of authority, increases the ERWT threat to figures associated with the establishment, for example MPs.[2]
176. This is a tangible threat in the UK, as borne out by the murder of Jo Cox MP by Thomas Mair in 2016, and the conviction of National Action member Jack Renshaw of plotting to murder Rosie Cooper MP. It is notable that a higher preponderance of female politicians are targeted by the Far Right, both here in the UK and across Europe. In July 2019, it was reported that the television news programme Newsnight had carried out a study in conjunction with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue looking at the nature of public commentary on prominent political figures across Europe which found that "abuse of female politicians is rife online—and much of it is being directed by established Far-Right groups and figures. The investigation revealed evidence that female [political] figures receive proportionately more abuse than their male counterparts—and that a significant proportion of it takes the form of misogynistic and violent anti-female vitriol".[3]
177. JTAC assesses that an attack which targets MPs is *** and that the primary threats come from Islamist terrorism and ERWT.[4] In December 2020, MI5 was ***.[5]
178. There has been evidence of Far-Right 'hackers' using cyber attacks to release the personal information of their political opponents (a practice known as 'doxxing'). In November 2018, a hacker known as 'Johannes' targeted a number of German public figures, politicians and online personalities (all of whom had voiced support for refugees or criticised the Far Right) and designed an 'advent calendar' whereby he released the personal details of a single individual each day, gradually building up to the release of details pertaining to Chancellor Angela Merkel and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.[6] MI5 advised that ***.[7]
- ↑ ***.
- ↑ MI5 Strategic Intelligence Group paper, 27 June 2019.
- ↑ 'A web of abuse: How the Far Right disproportionately targets female politicians', BBC News, 15 July 2019.
- ↑ JTAC paper, 21 October 2021.
- ↑ JTAC paper, 14 December 2020.
- ↑ Julia Ebner, Going Dark: the Secret Social Lives of Extremists, 2020, pp. 231–232.
- ↑ Oral evidence - MI5, 28 April 2021.
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