An undercover investigation by ITV News has revealed how a white supremacist group masquerading as a fitness club has been secretly working to build a far-right militia, holding training sessions in plain sight. ‘Active Club England’ is following a blueprint established by neo-Nazi networks in the US and Europe, using extreme fitness and fraternity as a front to recruit and radicalise members for a so-called "race war". Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Active Club has had a presence in America and Europe for four years.
00:06It's here too and it's growing.
00:09On the face of it, fitness and fraternity are what drive it.
00:15But since the summer riots, we've been watching the group's growth
00:19and hearing its dissent towards violent, racist rhetoric.
00:22Preparing for a race war steps away from MI6.
00:27More than 100 hours of undercover footage recorded by ITV News
00:31tell the story of how this fascist fight club has radicalised
00:35and recruited for a race war.
00:39The training is intense.
00:41The members, guarded, secretive, but in plain sight.
00:46Their views are clear.
00:48I am being racist.
00:50They'll develop over the coming months.
00:53A week after training and boxing,
00:55we're invited to another session near Milton Keynes.
00:58We're driven from the station to a village hall a few miles away.
01:02And in the car, the group's ambitions become clearer still.
01:17In fact, it was Lance who vetted ITV News two months earlier.
01:21The mysterious leader who conducted a half-hour telephone interview
01:25before allowing us to join the group.
01:34We enter the village hall where the training war happened
01:37and there we discover that alongside the London branch,
01:40there are members from around the country.
01:42During training, a familiar voice.
01:51Here is Lance, the national leader, coming into view,
01:54putting on his shoes, tying his laces.
02:01They pose with a St George's flag.
02:03But look what happens next.
02:05One by one, they perform a Nazi salute.
02:08What they call a Roman.
02:14But then a warning from Lance, keen to draw a line
02:17between the group's private persona and public image.
02:22Because this is what was published on social media a few hours later.
02:26Members with their arms crossed or by their sides.
02:31By the next meeting in Vauxhall, our fifth session...
02:36..it becomes clear the group is growing more serious.
02:39They've circulated fitness standards,
02:42which new members must meet within six months.
02:45Failure, they say, will lead to dismissal.
02:48They discuss a plan to rent an indoor gym
02:51where they'll be able to bring weapons.