Supporters of Britain’s biggest far-right group Patriotic Alternative are filmed calling England star Raheem Sterling a ‘chimp’ and ‘n*****’ – as top government adviser calls for organisation to be banned
- The footage was captured at an annual meeting in the Peak District in July 2021
- They also joked about shooting sport stars taking the knee in support of BLM
- Independent adviser Sara Khan implored the government to ban the group
Supporters of Britain’s biggest far-right group were filmed racially abusing footballer Raheem Sterling, while a top government adviser called for the organisation to be banned.
In a new edition of Channel 4’s Dispatches, reporters go undercover to find out how extremist groups are planning for the future, while targeting people living in some of the country’s most deprived areas.
During the episode, members of Patriotic Alternative can be heard describing the England and Manchester City forward as a ‘chimp’ and a ‘n*****’.
Patriotic Alternative was created by Mark Collett in 2019 and claims to recruit more than 200 members per month.
The footage was secretly filmed at an annual meeting in the Peak District in July 2021, just before the UEFA European Football Championship final, The Times reported.
Supporters of Britain’s biggest far-right group Patriotic Alternative are filmed calling England star Raheem Sterling (pictured) a ‘chimp’ and ‘n*****’
They also joked about shooting sport stars taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM), with one saying: ‘No kneeling for n*****s.’
Another added: ‘When they’re taking the knee, just like that [gunshot motion and noise] . . . f***ing back of the head.’
No 10’s independent adviser for social cohesion and resilience and the first counter-extremism commissioner, Dame Sara Khan, implored the government to ban the group.
‘They are fundamentally helping to create a climate that is conducive to terrorism and violence,’ she told the show.
No 10’s independent adviser for social cohesion and resilience and the first counter-extremism commissioner, Dame Sara Khan (above), implored the government to ban the group
Sterling previously admitted the racist abuse he suffered at Chelsea in December 2018 forced him to speak out on the issue.
Sterling was abused when he retrieved a ball in front of the Matthew Harding stand during Manchester City’s 2-0 Premier League defeat at Stamford Bridge that year.
The Blues conducted an investigation and banned a fan for life as well as issuing sanctions against five other supporters for their behaviour during the match, despite the Crown Prosecution Service deciding not to initiate any criminal prosecutions.
But the incident made Sterling realise as soon as the night after that it was not an isolated event and had been slowly gathering pace since his professional debut for Liverpool and England in 2012.
Sterling was abused when he retrieved a ball in front of the Matthew Harding stand during Manchester City’s 2-0 Premier League defeat at Stamford Bridge
Sterling then accused sections of the media of helping to ‘fuel racism’ with their portrayal of young black footballers.
‘I am a person, I can take it myself,’ he told ITV Sport. ‘I am ok and comfortable in my own skin, but then sleeping on it that night and going home, I was just looking at little scenarios that have happened to me in my career and I was just like ”Nah, it is more than that”.
‘It is something that has been building up over time that I am spoilt this, I love money, I love bling, putting these perceptions in people’s brains. I felt that was something that can make people really dislike you.
‘The next day I had a thought to myself and said I had to put something out there.’ Asked if enough was enough, he replied: ‘Literally.’
Dispatches: The Enemy Within — Inside Britain’s Far Right is on Channel 4 tomorrow at 8.30pm