Convicted neo-Nazi attended violent Southport protest, ITV News understands

ITV News' Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo outlines why there are suspicions that a man jailed for his membership of National Action was at the protest in Southport last week

A convicted neo-Nazi who was jailed for membership of Britain's first far-right terror group to be banned since the Second World War is thought to have been at the protest in Southport which turned violent last week, ITV News understands.

Matthew Hankinson from Newton-le-Willows was jailed in 2018 for his membership of National Action, the far-right organisation outlawed two years earlier due to its celebration of the murderer of Jo Cox, the MP.

He was described by the judge, Mr Justice Jay, as a "neo-Nazi who glorifies and revels in a perverted ideology, has a deep hatred of ethnic minorities and Jews and has advocated violence to achieve your objectives".

Hankinson was released from prison last year after completing his sentence.

Members of National Action were also jailed for plotting to kill the West Lancashire Labour MP Rosie Cooper in 2017.

Social media posts written in his name last week claimed there was a "strong Moral (sic) argument for killing corrupt police officers..." and shared videos of a burning police vehicle on the streets of Southport.

Hankinson's alleged presence at the demonstration would challenge claims by some far-right organisers that the protests were led by ordinary people frustrated about immigration, rather than by political extremists.

Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and is accused of stoking the riots, claimed in a social media post last week that Keir Starmer was trying "to use legitimate concerns of [the] public to tarnish millions of people as 'far-right thugs'."

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