Covid lockdown saw far right extremists prey on the vulnerability of people struggling in isolation with a recruitment drive.
Many - particularly the young - fell victim to their hidden messages of hate but one group has been fighting to free them from poison and has enjoyed astonishing success.
In the wake of the pandemic charity Exit Hate has recorded a 330 per cent surge in people trying to escape the far right and says “extremism is on the rise but so are we”.
The Mirror has spoken to two former members of the far right who now work with the charity - John, whose real name isn’t being used, and Darren Carroll, who helped found the English Defence League.
After years of perpetuating racism, both sought to escape the groups and online spaces they had become so entangled with, and now help others do the same.
The Mirror also spoke to Sarah, John’s mum, about what she went through as she lost her son to the far right, and could only watch as he eventually ended up as a “foot soldier” for the EDL and Britain First.
Over lockdown, the charity found that more and more Brits were exposed to extremist propaganda and were less resilient to it.
Exit Hate highlighted a common tactic of the far right, using genuine mainstream grievances as a 'Trojan Horse' to indoctrinate people.
Dr Lewys Brace, a senior lecturer in computational social science and extremism researcher, told The Mirror how online the far right utilises a grey space of memes and chat rooms where material shared isn’t always explicitly far right, but instead offers a pathway to increasingly extreme content.
Nigel Bromage, founder of Exit Hate, told the Mirror extremists manipulated "human appeal" during the lockdowns, playing on the emotion of people missing family and friends, and on anti-lockdown/government critical messages.
During lockdown people clicked on their posts more willingly, opening the door to extremism and being slowly drawn in.
But they were left horrified when it dawned on them what they had gotten into.
Others sought help when their online far-right involvement threatened to become real, as extremists asked for driver's licenses or ID so they could link them up locally with others.
Since last April, 15 per cent of the people they have helped are young females, something that has been growing every year.
Today, they find the gender split of people they support is almost even with 55 per cent male and 45 per cent female, but a high number of the people they help, as high as 37 per cent a year, have autism or associated conditions.
Nigel told the Mirror that hardcore extremists targeted people with these conditions and the charity wanted more research into the issues.
Increasingly, Exit Hate also finds itself supporting people involved in left-wing extremism and Islamist extremism as well.
Darren, from Luton, lost both his parents when he was just 13, leading to his life going “off the rails”, into football hooliganism, and then, in 2009, it led the now 57-year-old into the far right.
A self-described patriot, he went to see a parade of soldiers returning home, but was “rooted to the spot” when a group led by radical Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary, protested the troops.
Darren said: "I thought to organise a demonstration to welcome the troops back through, get some banners made, to show them you’re welcome in Luton.”
This demonstration turned violent and Darren found himself “reverting to type”, organising groups of men as he did in his hooligan days, as their second demonstration turned violent too.
He said: “[The EDL's growth] was organic, there was a lot of feeling that people were aggrieved.
“At the time it was just rolling anger, the signs [of racism] were there to begin with … but about four demonstrations in, you had people turning up comfortable revealing who they were.
“I remember maybe the fifth demonstration, people unzipping their jackets and showing off these t-shirts and there were hardcore Nazis there.”
But there was a turning point during one demonstration, when Darren saw two ladies approaching him who “reminded me of me mum”, so he gave way to them but one spat in his face and called him “Nazi scum”.
The incident shocked Darren into realising how other people viewed him he said: “I never considered people seeing me as that, do people really view me as a Nazi?
“My mum would’ve admonished me for what I did … it grew and grew to a point I didn’t like myself. It was like could I end up as a Nazi?”
Over time this began to eat away at Darren, even as he kept attending demonstrations. He was eventually able to disentangle himself from the far right, eventually doing an interview with his local newspaper, which ended up with Nigel reaching out to him and starting the work with Exit Hate he does today.
Another person who helps out Exit Hate is John.
He became involved in the far right as a teenager, when he was just 14, a friend at school would show him what he later realised was far right “propaganda” and one post resonated with John, who's uncle is a soldier who struggled when returning to the UK.
It said: “If you think British soldiers shouldn’t be on the street, share this post”.
John said: “I asked to be added to the group. Straight away people were coming to me saying things like John, the only reason your uncle is struggling so much is because the government is sending millions in foreign aid or to build mosques.”
What he now recognises were “fake news stories” would “build the base layer of my far right ideology”.
Over time the group, and others he joined, would “drip-feed” him more intense propaganda and in the real world he became more involved too.
It began with small steps like wearing white shoe laces or bringing a St George's Cross into school, but culminated in them repeatedly racially abusing a member of staff, because of their Asian heritage.
But throughout this time, mum Sarah, whose real name is also not being used, whilst worried about his declining behaviour, had no idea her son was falling further into the clutches of the far right.
John became entrenched in the far right during the last years of school and joined college, making a new group of friends who he kept his extreme opinions from at first.
“After every [ISIS] attack I would start slowly showing more of my true opinions and they’d come to the surface but after the Manchester Arena Attack everything completely changed." John said.
He continued: “I didn’t care who knew anymore. I was openly sharing far right propaganda, delivering hate speeches in college.”
Sarah was terrified of what her son was doing, but as he was so reluctant to share any more information, she offered to attend a demonstration with him to observe and learn more about what was going on.
The mum said: “I dropped John off and watched him walk up to the group of people, some of who looked respectable. I thought maybe it wouldn’t be that bad.
“Then my world fell apart. I watched my son marching and singing racial slurs … that’s when reality hit. That’s when I knew something was very very wrong.”
Following the revelation of John’s horrific beliefs, Sarah said their relationship hit an all time low and because of how “disrespectful” he was to family and friends she began isolating herself.
But John eventually began to consider leaving the far right after being introduced to Prevent, a key part of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy which aims to tackle the causes of radicalisation and stop people becoming, or supporting, terrorists.
He was matched with a Prevent mentor and from the off the two really struck a chord. A key moment was when his mentor asked him to download an app which had a translated copy of the Quran.
From his time on far right forums and social media, he had amassed 20 quotes he had thought were from the Quran that were various declarations of war on the west.
John said: “It turned out that all but one of them was completely fake. And the one that wasn’t, was four or five words in an entire paragraph that was taken out of context.
“At that point I realised I’d been lied to and manipulated.”
Once he was out, John described the “weight of the world” being lifted from his shoulders, as he began to try and repair relationships.
But John wasn’t done there, after being invited by his Prevent mentor to speak to others in the organisation about his story he made such an impression he was asked to do so again and again.
Through this, he eventually came into contact with Exit Hate, and now both he and Sarah work with the charity to help people escape extremism.
If you know someone who might be affected by the issues touched on in this article, or want to find out more about Exit Hate and their work click here to find out more
