ABSTRACT
Research suggests that far-right extremists pose a threat to Western liberal democracies. In an attempt to explore the nature of this threat, this chapter focuses on New Far-Right extremism from a United Kingdom (UK) perspective. The New Far Right can be defined as post-fascistic groups that adopt a more liberal, democratic, and co-operative approach than traditional Far-Right groups. However, although they may be less fascistic, these New Far-Right groups have still been involved in different forms of violence. This chapter focuses on three British New Far-Right groups: the For Britain movement, the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA), and PEGIDA UK. There has been some research based on these groups, but little is known about the demographics of the supporters and how these may relate to violence. This research, therefore, aims to answer the question: what does the New Far-Right recruitment pool look like in the UK and how do the demographics link to violence? A quantitative demographic analysis was conducted using three variables: gender, education level, and sexuality. The results of this study are in line with previous research on the topic and show that low educated, heterosexual men constitute the main recruitment pool of these three groups. These findings can be linked to violence through a belief in conspiracy theories and high levels of hypermasculinity and homophobia.
