The local far-right in Exeter were very excited by the arrival of Nick Tenconi to lead the newest iteration of their now regular march through the city.

So much so that they completely abandoned their laughable ‘unity’ message.

Background

Devon had, for the most part, been fairly quiet in terms of major far-right street activity in the early 2020s, outside of the racist riot in Plymouth in August 2024 (also led by Nick Tenconi), and the involvement of Devon-based fascists in anti-refugee activity in Kernow.

That all changed in summer 2025, with the wave of far-right protests outside hotels housing refugees, including the Hampton at Exeter airport. The individuals that marched through Exeter on the 17th of January first encountered each other in and around these protests, and have been continually organising for street action since.

The Hotel

Despite acknowledging that the hotel was only housing women and children, the nascent fascist movement in and around Exeter, organising in the ‘Our Exeter Our Plymouth’ Facebook group, made plans to begin protests outside.

As you can see, Nigel Murfin was concerned about damaging the image of his party, Britain First, by protesting outside of a hotel housing only women and children, but as soon as other local fascists were ready to turn up and abuse – as he himself says – innocent children, he was happy to get involved, and subsequently went on to become one of the main tormentors of these children and their mothers.

Initially attracting a pitiful turnout that was heavily outnumbered by various antifascist and community groups that mobilised to defend the refugees, the far-right eventually built an alliance to present a sizeable force outside the hotel each week.

These protests were led by Murfin and Marie Townsend, regional organiser for Britain First in the South West – as well as YouTube auditors/grifters Troy Bamford and Reece Grant, ReformUK members such as Dutch Dudgeon, Tory councillor Alison Sheridan (now of ReformUK), and Pete Heal.

All of these characters made attempts to intimidate refugees who were trying to leave the hotel to walk to the nearest bus stop – some of whom were carrying babies and young children.

Without the presence of local antifascists, it is likely that Pete Heal – in particular – would have presented a real threat of physical violence to these vulnerable people.

Many of the refugees were in tears after being confronted by Murfin and Heal. As they gained in confidence, they would scan the buses arriving, and shout abuse at any non-white faces that happened to be on board. Heal took to performing regular ‘cut-throat’ gestures at both antifascists and refugees.

The new wave

In the background at first, only attending for a few minutes to an hour at a time, was someone antifascists in Devon would get to know well over the next few months – Jordan Rowe. Jordan is now the driving force behind the new ‘patriot’ movement in south Devon, centred on Torbay and Exeter – the South West Patriots Alliance (SWPA). The group have formed alliances with Britain First, as well as the other new south-west ‘patriot’ groups, Flag Force Plymouth and Bristol Patriots, often supporting each other at their own local events.

Rowe has been heavily involved – on a local level – in Operation Raise the Colours, organising the erection of flags in Cranbook and Exeter through his friends at South West Crane Hire, and leading a doxxing campaign against the owner of a business that was pictured removing a flag.

Jordan is registered as a player at Heavitree United FC in Exeter, and his far-right politics may come as a surprise to many of his neighbours and fellow players in this affluent, multicultural district.

Rowe is an admin on the heavily-infiltrated SWPA Facebook page, alongside two other prominent members of the new wave of fascists in Devon – Matt Dean and Charlie Finney, and with their support, is the main organiser for the far-right marches through the city that began in September 2025.

Finney is a wannabee football hooligan who posts adverts for his business – The Removal Man Torbay – through the same Facebook accounts as he posts his far-right views – whereas Dean claims to be an ‘educated ethno-nationalist historian racist’. His partner – Ellie Castle – seemingly shares his views and has been sighted alongside him at multiple far-right events. We do wonder how her colleagues and customers at St Leonard’s Pharmacy in Exeter will feel when they discover this.

Ellie, like Matt and Charlie, first came onto our radar through her attendance at the Great British National Strike in Exeter, which was also attended by Devon’s most nationally-prominent fascist, Mike Lynton of Homeland, who has been noticeably absent from far-right street activity in the county ever since.

Jordan, Matt and Charlie have been key to the growth of the local far-right movement, progressing from standing in the background at the GBNS and at the hotel housing refugees, to attempting to intimidate local businesses and activists, and to now organising and leading these regular BNP/EDL-style marches through Exeter city centre.

The others

Also making an appearance in Exeter was the very-Devon Troy Bamford of Barnstaple, a veteran of the refugee hotel protests. Troy is of especially limited intelligence, and, as previously mentioned, is yet another YouTube grifter – a look back on his YouTube channel shows previous harmless interests in Urbex, film reviews, and peeing on pregnancy kits whilst streaming the results.

Troy’s newest hobby is screaming abuse at vulnerable refugees through a megaphone.

Bamford arrived at the UKIP march only to find that someone had plastered posters of his face all over the city, identifying him as a ‘cowardly Nazi’ – and was then inadvertently doxxed by other far-right YouTube grifters who livestreamed images of the posters. Troy was then overheard – in the background of one of these livestreams – calling his Mum to tell her their address had been exposed.

Britain First were represented on the march by Chris John of Torquay, who attended, as always, dressed as a Crusader or Knights-Templar (or something), and fascist thug Nick Hubble of Exeter, who, as usual, looked as if he’d been ‘hitting the slopes’.

Hubble, like Bamford, is a relative of Nigel Murfin.

For this march, Hubble had eschewed his usual Union Jack suit for a BFD (Britain First security) jacket. Hubble was recently involved in attacking antifascists in Birmingham, as well as attempting to intimidate local PSC activists by turning up outside their homes.

Most recently, he was arrested for assaulting an SUTR activist that was attempting to stop Hubble and friends harassing refugees.

Also making his first appearance in over a year was ReformUK member Frankie Rufolo, of Quran burning fame.

Newly on our radar following UKIP’s visit is Exeter-based Sam Smith, aka ‘Sam da Smix’ / ‘Da Smix MC’

Veteran Exeter fascist Thomas Dunne (aka BIGBALLS) was also present. Thomas has previous links to Turning Point UK, going back to at least September 2024, when they interviewed him regarding ‘two tier policing’. Dunne was arrested in 2017 for wearing a burqa and pretending to pray in Debenhams in Exeter.

Absentees

Noticeably absent was previously mentioned west-Exeter YouTube grifter Reece Grant, aka Stop the Boats Audits. Reece has only recently escaped the terms of his bail for ‘racially motivated behaviour and language’, after he attempted to break into the refugee hotel at night – it appears he’s worried about the consequences of attendance, as he attempts to weasel his way into Danny Tommo’s inner circle for his ‘invasion’ of France.

At the time of writing, Grant has just been arrested by French police after attempting to intimidate people in Calais.

We do wonder what guests at Great Fulford will think about having this racist working around them whilst they enjoy their visit.

Reece’s father is Jason Grant aka Prisoners No Longer Accepted, another piece-of-shit YouTube grifter, based in south London.

Finally, we can circle back to Nigel Murfin of Northam, north Devon, absent from the UKIP march due to being barred from entering Exeter – following a racially motivated public order offense committed at the Hampton hotel.

If you have any further information about far-right activity in Devon, please get in touch at antifascistresearchcollective161@riseup.net

Guest post by DARG