08 January 2025 , 20:04
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The neo-Nazi organisation Blood and Honour, which is linked to parts of the skinhead music scene, has become the first extreme right-wing group to have financial sanctions imposed by the UK government.
Treasury ministers said they had "reasonable grounds to suspect" Blood and Honour of being involved in "terrorist activities through promoting and encouraging terrorism, seeking to recruit people for that purpose and making funds available for the purposes of its terrorist activities".
The assets freeze - which was extended to all aliases or affiliate groups including Combat 18 and 28 Radio - means nobody in the UK can provide funding or financial services to those named organisations.
This is a different government response from proscription - in which the Home Office issues banning orders on extremist groups.
Blood and Honour was founded in 1987 by Ian Stuart Donaldson aka Ian Stuart. He was the lead singer for the skinhead rock band Skrewdriver.
He said he set up Blood and Honour, which takes its name from a slogan of the Hitler Youth, because he felt the National Front was not racist enough.
Blood and Honour promotes white power ideology through music and still holds regular festivals.
Combat 18 originally served as security for Blood and Honour and ended up controlling one of its factions. 28 Radio was an online radio station.
Donaldson said at one stage: "I’ll die to keep this country pure and if it means bloodshed at the end of the day, then let it be."
He died in a car crash in September 1993 but Blood and Honour continued.
Over the last decade, six extreme right wing groups have been banned – or proscribed - by the Home Office as terrorist organisations, the first being National Action in December 2016. The list also includes Atomwaffen Division, Feuerkrieg Division, Sonnenkrieg Division, The Base and The Terrorgram collective.
But this action against Blood and Honour and its affiliates is led by the Treasury and seeks to limit the group by strictly limiting its financial capabilities.
Therefore, Blood and Honour has not been proscribed but is the first extreme-right wing organisation to face an asset freeze under the Treasury’s sanctions regime.