Far-right fitness groups emerge in UK promoting racial division

Lockdown anger and looming migration crisis from Ukraine helps far-right groups to recruit, says Hope Not Hate

A Britain First rally in Kent, south-east England, where the arrival of more than 28,000 migrants in small boats last year fuelled tensions. Reuters

Fascist fitness groups have emerged as propaganda cells to promote racial division in the UK fuelled by anger over migration and the rising cost of living, according to a new report by anti-fascism researchers.

The most extreme fringes of the right-wing movement believe in the inevitability of ‘race war’ and use online fitness chat groups to recruit and spread far-right views under the banner of health and well-being, says campaign group Hope Not Hate.

Its ‘State of Hate’ annual report told of a resurgence of the anti-migrant far-right in the UK caused in part by the end of lockdown, rising living costs, the British withdrawal from Afghanistan and disenchantment with the current government.

It said established far-right groups in the UK were using discontent over migration as a rallying point for recruitment, with 125 known protests outside hotels and accommodation used by asylum seekers last year.

Many of the protests were in northern England, where the leadership of the best-known far-right political party, Britain First, is based. Extremists have also protested on the south coast of England, where more than 28,000 people arrived in small boats last year from northern Europe.

The report said migration, combined with continuing mistrust of politicians over lockdown policies, during the Covid-19 pandemic, provided far-right groups with a big opportunity to secure new followers.

Hope Not Hate chief executive Nick Lowles said: “After years in the political wilderness, the crises we’ve collectively faced over the past two years have emboldened cynical far-right activists to exploit our fears and uncertainties and return to traditional methods of campaigning.

“As hostile rhetoric around migration continued to make headlines and conspiracy theories regularly began to infiltrate mainstream media and politics, an increasingly welcome environment for authoritarianism and populism has developed.”

Hope Not Hate said the fascist fitness boom follows a trend seen elsewhere in Europe, turning an individual project of self-improvement into an ideological movement.

The groups mix “extreme fascist ideology with self-improvement and camaraderie”, which can bring people into the movement.

“Worryingly, others view it as preparation for violence towards minorities, anti-fascists and race war,” said the report.

Members post pictures of themselves on Telegram along with weight loss goals. The posts are mingled with far-right messages and postings of far-right imagery.

One administrator wrote: “When you lift alone, you lift with Hitler”, according to Hope Not Hate.

It cited the case of one fitness group on Telegram with about 30 members that vows to “fight degeneracy through honour, tradition, and brotherhood” and stages an annual hike for members of the group. Members are eventually expected to fight another member of the group as part of the regime.

The group said it fed into a long-term trend among the far-right that their goals cannot be achieved through the ballot box and want “the total overhaul of the system and the start of a race war”.

It said language in far-right forums was becoming increasingly extreme. Last year, 18 far-right activists and sympathisers were convicted of terrorism offences in the UK – double the number from 2020.