Ex-National Front organiser renounces far right and reveals he is gay

A former National Front organiser and prominent neo-Nazi has denounced the far-right movement and expressed a commitment to fighting racism after revealing he is gay and of Jewish heritage.

Kevin Wilshaw, 58, has promoted white supremacism since he was a teenager and worked with a number of extremist groups for decades. He joined the National Front during the group’s heyday in the late 1970s, and later the British National party, before becoming a “freelance extremist” who flirted with a string of violent fringe groups such as the Racial Volunteer Force.

Wilshaw was arrested this year on suspicion of online race hate offences and was referred to the Prevent deradicalisation programme. Currently on bail, he has admitted to acts of violence and racism including smashing a chair over a man’s head in Leeds and vandalising a mosque in Aylesbury in the early 90s.

In an interview with Channel 4 News, he said he had decided to publicly renounce the far right, which he claimed to have joined because he “didn’t have many friends at school” and “wanted to be a member of a group” that had an aim.

He said: “Even though you end up being a group of people that through their own extreme views are cut off from society, you do have a sense of comradeship in that you’re a member of a group that’s being attacked by other people.”

Wilshaw said he had decided to quit after receiving abuse from within the far-right movement over his sexuality. “It’s a terribly selfish thing to say but it’s true,” he said. “I saw people being abused, shouted at, spat at in the street. It’s not until it’s directed at you that you suddenly realise what you’re doing is wrong.”

Despite having a Jewish mother, Wilshaw wrote about his hatred of “the Jews” on his National Front application form. He told Channel 4 News he now recognised this was “the sort of generalisation that results in six million people being deliberately murdered”.

“I feel appallingly guilty, I really do feel guilty,” he said. “This is also a barrier between me having a relationship with my own family. I want to get rid of it, it’s too much of a weight.

“I want to do some damage to the people propagating this sort of rubbish. I want to hurt them, I want to show what it’s like to actually live a lie and be on the receiving end of this sort of propaganda.”

Matthew Collins, a former National Front and BNP member, now part of the anti-fascist group Hope not Hate, said they had received “a cry for help” from Wilshaw.

Collins has written about having known Wilshaw since the 80s. He said Wilshaw’s wife left him in 1996, citing Adolf Hitler as “the other man” in their relationship.

Home Office figures released on Tuesday show that the number of hate crime offences recorded by the police rose by a record 29%, to 80,393 incidents, in the 12 months to March 2017, the largest rise since the official hate crime figures started to be published five years ago.