Dowson at the Belfast flag protests in 2013. Photo by Press Eye
A far-right activist in Northern Ireland is raising funds to buy equipment for Scottish “night patrol” groups accused of targeting migrants, an investigation by The Detail and the Scottish investigative website The Ferret has found.
Britain First co-founder Jim Dowson, who led flag protests at Belfast City Hall in 2012, now fronts a Christian nationalist organisation called the Knights Templar International (KTI).
Mr Dowson, originally from Airdrie in Scotland, recently posted videos on KTI's TikTok account revealing his financial support for the Glasgow groups.
This includes “night patrol” group ScotsActive, providing them with stab vests, cameras and high vis jackets.
The Ferret previously reported on this and other groups, who have been accused of links to the far-right and targeting migrants.
KTI claims to have members in the UK, Eastern Europe, Canada and the United States, whom Dowson thanked for “their generosity” in financial support for the Scottish volunteer group.
Dowson stood down from Britain First in 2014. He was dubbed “the invisible man of Britain's far right” by the BBC, who ran an investigation into his activities in 2018.
The loyalist has also been using the phrase “unite the clans” in recent months, inferring that Protestant and Catholic groups should come together to fight the common “enemy” of migration from Muslim and other “third world countries”.
In online sermons he expresses the view that getting rid of “illegals” is “not enough”.
Nick Griffin, former leader of the British National Party, is also involved in the KTI organisation and appears in several of their videos .
On Saturday, about four or five hundred anti-migration protestors gathered in Glasgow, organised by far-right group Unite the Clans.
Speakers included Josh Fernie of the Homeland Party and Richard McFarlane of Patriotic Alternative who both called for re-migration of all people of colour and led chants of “send them back”. Later some protestors were filmed abusing passers by, both verbally and in one instance, throwing a traffic cone at a Just Eat delivery man.
Police made 15 arrests in Glasgow on Saturday over “significant disorder” at anti-racism and anti-immigration protests in the city. The force warned it expected to make further arrests.
Several people at the Glasgow event were spotted wearing Dowson’s Knights Templar insignia including one draped in a cape bearing its logo.
Some so-called “night patrols”, including ScotsActive and Scottish Crusade, supported the rally.
As The Ferret has previously reported, these groups claim to be peaceful activists who are looking to protect women and children. Critics argue that the night patrols have anti-immigration agendas and are using the issue to fuel far-right narratives.
A screengrab of one of KTI’s videos from Glasgow
Ahead of Saturday’s event, several thousand counter protesters, organised by Stand Up to Racism, Women Against the Far Right and others, gathered at the gates to Glasgow Green to show vocal opposition to fascist and racist ideologies.
But beforehand Dowson, filmed himself on the green in TikTok videos that appear to be targeted at US supporters. In one video he says he is in Glasgow “because there are four different groups here that we’re going to try and help”. The groups, he says, are involved in Christian patrols and “keeping the people safe” and he references meeting up with them later in the day.
In the video he claims that authorities are “filling the houses” in Calton, the area to the east of the city, “with Africans” and “undocumented males from all over the world”. He thanks Templar groups for their financial support, and asks them to “keep it coming” so that people in Glasgow can “keep their women and children safe”.
He signed off with the phrase “deus vult”, a Latin phrase which means “God wills it” and has become associated with far right, white supremacist movements, especially in the United States.
In a second video Dowson encourages supporters to visit “if you ever get the chance to come to Glasgow” claiming he is “now off to meet some of the patrol groups”. In a different video he refers to the UK’s poorer areas as “the projects”, using language intended for a US audience.
Another video features ScotsActive, who have thanked him for donations including walkie talkies, stab vests and cameras. In the video Dowson claims that Scots Active are keeping women and girls safe because neither the authorities or the police are doing so.
Police Scotland has previously told The Ferret that it does “not endorse, condone or encourage any group's activity”.
ScotsActive professes to reject racism and says its activities are all focussed on community safety.
Darren Docherty, who co-founded the group, confirmed Dowson got in touch over social media. He claimed that while he agrees with him about illegal migrants, he claimed he did not agree with everything he stood for.
“I am a Rangers fan but I don’t agree with everything my football club does,” he argued. “So just because I am a fan of the people in question doesn’t mean I agree with everything they say.”
He condemned the violence following the protest claiming “everyone should be able to state their point of view without being attacked” and said no-one should ever be attacked “over their skin colour”.
Dowson confirmed to The Ferret that, as he expresses in online sermons, he is not content with the remigration only of illegals but will all new migrants “flooding to Scotland”.
Rory MacLellan, post doctoral researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London, who has been researching the organisation since 2016, said Dowson’s group was the most recent to tap into Templar mythology to market its ideology.
In its merchandise store website it advertises “the full knight package” for $890, which includes various knight associated regalia.
“Templars in history are seen as elite, chivalrous knights and we were brought up with these stories,” he said. “So this is about a rebranding of the old right. You are not a skinhead thug anymore, you are a knight, protecting women,” he said.
He claimed that while it claimed to have money, images of a chapel renovation project appeared "shoddy" while some videos had AI backgrounds. “So you have to question how successful it is,” he added.
“Regardless, this is a group using militant, supremacist and racist language. Its books have pictures of Bulgarian militia holding kalashnikovs. It is a far right group by any measure and the fact that they are funding Scottish community groups is concerning.”
A spokesperson from Women Against the Far-Right Scotland said the patrols emerging around the country "do nothing to keep women safe”.
“Those involved are weaponising the very serious issue of violence against women and girls to spread their racist ideology and are a method to intimidate migrants, Muslims and people of colour,” they added. “But they do not care about women; in recent reports many of the men involved in far-right organising have previously been reported for domestic abuse.”
Dowson claimed that his visit to Glasgow was the first time he had been to the city for 20 years. “I didn’t recognise it,” he said, claiming that the number of foreigners on the streets was “unbelievable”.
But his issue is not simply with illegal migrants but with all migrants “who are flooding over here” including those who do so legally.
He clarified that he had “no problem” with migrants with specialist skills where there were shortages including doctors and engineers. “I don’t object to a wee Filipino nurse”, he said. “I object to the useless migrants whether or not they are legal. It’s not just Muslims - people are coming here from third world countries and many of them have very different views on how we treat women.
Asked about his views on white abusers he said: “I’m biblical and the bible is very clear, if you are an abuser you should be executed, you should be put to death.”
Karin Goodwin is a journalist with The Ferret