The rise and fall of Britain’s first neo-Nazi terrorist group

How a mobile phone hidden in an airing cupboard helped counterterror police ‘dismantle’ National Action, Lizzie Dearden reports

Alex Davies speaking at a 2016 National Action demonstration in York, in front of a banner containing the words ‘Refugees not welcome: Hitler was right’ (CTPWM)

On 4 May 2017, shortly before 10am, counterterror police stormed a nondescript flat in the Birmingham suburb of Moseley.

They were looking for Alex Deakin, a 22-year-old neo-Nazi suspected of putting up racially inflammatory stickers reading “White Zone” and “Britain is ours – the rest must go” around Aston University’s campus.

Deakin’s friend answered the door to police and claimed he was not there, but officers found him hiding in an airing cupboard.