BBC investigation exposes 'far-right' group in secret filming

He also said: “If somebody was to start shooting migrants, I would not be surprised.”

After watching the footage, barrister Ms Nagesh said: “This could very easily be characterised as an offence of incitement to racial hatred.”

When he was confronted about the comments, Mr Watkins told the BBC he had not meant what he said and had only been joking.

The secret footage also showed how Patriotic Alternative is actively trying to get its anti-immigration message out on social media.

The group’s founder, former BNP activist and “race traitor” Mark Collett, has made a comeback on the video-sharing site YouTube in recent years

Mr Collett’s channel has almost 150,000 subscribers. He’s added almost 50,000 since his last channel was deleted by YouTube in 2019 for violating the platform’s hate speech policies.

During the undercover investigation, Dan met one of Mr Collett’s online supporters who went by the name of Ted, who said he had set up more than a dozen fake accounts to try and influence people on Facebook and Twitter, using “sockpuppetry” to create a false sense of support for the far-right group’s views.

“Ted” said: “You can get more influence with a sneaky, underhand approach than being out there with a loudspeaker.”

Dame Sara told the BBC that social media companies need to be held more accountable for their role in disseminating extremist views.

“This is not an area where the government can wash its hands,” she said. “There’s a lot more that the companies need to do, self-regulation clearly hasn’t worked.”

The BBC’s undercover reporter came across people within Patriotic Alternative who expressed extremist views and advocated violence against migrants.

But there are also some members – though not all – who assert they are non-violent and not extremist, according to Dame Sara Khan. The footage reveals how the group is trying to get its message out via social media, but it also shows the limitations of trying to police hate speech online. It’s currently not clear what the government will do in response to this investigation. Campaigners say there needs to be a clear and urgent call to action to better tackle far-right views.