Conservative-run anti-Ulez Facebook groups hosted racist and Islamophobic posts

TRIGGER WARNING: This story includes offensive language containing profanity, violence and racism. 

Conservative Party operatives are running a network of Facebook groups opposing London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) that have become a platform for widespread racism and Islamophobia, as well as conspiracy theories and celebrations of criminal damage, an Unearthed investigation has found.

Reporters who joined some of these private groups found dozens of Islamophobic and racist posts and comments, with members describing the capital’s Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan, as a ‘terrorist sympathiser’ and a ‘Khaki Punt’, and claiming that “lying is a way of life” for people of Pakistani heritage.

In at least two of the groups members shared images displaying the notorious white supremacist slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” Others shared antisemitic videos and images falsely alleging conspiracies by Jewish people to attain world domination.

Reporters also found widespread posts documenting and celebrating criminal vandalism by self-described ‘bladerunners’ – people who intentionally destroy Ulez enforcement cameras.

Unearthed’s investigation identified a network of 36 private Facebook groups set up across London and the southeast to oppose the expansion of the Ulez – a daily charging system that is intended to discourage people from driving more-polluting vehicles in the capital.

While the groups do not describe themselves as being run by the Conservative Party, three people with close professional ties to the party are admins on almost all of them. Other admins include Tory councillors, campaign managers and a borough mayor.

“These extreme anti-Ulez groups [are] whipping up hate and spreading misinformation for short-term political gain” – Georgie Laming, Hope Not Hate

Unearthed reporters joined six of the larger groups and trawled posts dating back to the start of the year. For the biggest group – based in Hillingdon, west London – reporters analysed posts dating back to last June.

Members of groups analysed by Unearthed included prominent Conservative politicians such as Susan Hall, the party’s candidate for London mayor, justice select committee chair Sir Bob Neill, and Steve Tuckwell, the MP who took over Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge constituency in last summer’s by-election, as well as numerous other local Tory MPs and councillors.

There is no suggestion that any of these politicians posted or engaged with unacceptable content. Several of the politicians contacted by Unearthed said they had been unaware of any such posts.

Georgie Laming, director of campaigns and communications at the anti-extremism group Hope Not Hate, said: “These Facebook groups go much further than criticising Ulez policy and endorse vandalism, violence and contain deeply Islamophobic and racist comments about the mayor of London.”

She told Unearthed it was “deeply concerning” to see that Susan Hall and other Conservatives were members of “these extreme anti-Ulez groups” which appeared to be “whipping up hate and spreading misinformation for short term political gain”.

“Their presence in these groups could be seen as an endorsement of the hateful and violent rhetoric within them,” she added.

Responding to the investigation’s findings, a Conservative Party spokesperson said the party “unequivocally condemns all discriminatory language, and never encourages nor condones vandalism or criminal activity.”

He added: “The Conservative Party is reviewing its processes and policies regarding Facebook groups.”

Unearthed contacted Hall and Tuckwell for comment, but neither had responded by time of publication.

Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds said the investigation had uncovered “appalling racism”, adding that Hall’s presence in the groups, she thought, suggested she has “tacitly endorsed antisemitism, Islamophobia, violent threats and incitement to criminal damage”.

Sir Bob, who represents the outer London constituency of Bromley and Chislehurst, said he was grateful to Unearthed for drawing his attention to the issue, and as a result he had left the Facebook group Bromley say No to Ulez Expansion.

He added: “I don’t believe these posts represent the majority of people who are opposed to Ulez but they are completely inappropriate and I would not tolerate or condone such comments.”

The ‘war on motorists’

Opposition to the Ulez expansion has become a key plank of the Tory campaign to win control of City Hall in next week’s May 2 mayoral election.

Conservative candidate Susan Hall has promised to “stop the war on motorists” and scrap the latest expansion of the Ulez on “day one” if she is elected.

But the importance of the Ulez to the party goes beyond the mayoralty. The Tories’ surprise success in last summer’s Uxbridge by-election was widely credited to their ability to capitalise on anti-Ulez sentiment in the constituency. The by-election came shortly before Khan’s planned expansion of the Ulez to outer London boroughs like Hillingdon, where Uxbridge is located. Tuckwell was able to cling onto the seat by 495 votes.

In the wake of this success, Rishi Sunak moved to scrap or weaken a series of green policies, in a bid to create dividing lines with the Labour Party ahead of this year’s general election. Reporting on Sunak’s anti-green U-turn, the BBC commented that Uxbridge had “undoubtedly” been “a lightbulb moment at Tory HQ”.

The network of Facebook groups analysed by Unearthed was built in the run-up to last year’s Ulez expansion. More than two-thirds of them – 28 – were set up within two days of each other in January 2023, each with a similar name, and aimed at residents of a different London borough. There was a second flurry of activity in March, when a further seven groups were set up in a single day, mostly targeting commuter belt counties like Kent, Essex and Surrey.

The groups’ names – which all follow the format “Bromley say no to Ulez expansion” or “Kent say no to Ulez expansion” – suggest grassroots organising, and do not give any indication that they are Conservative-run.

However, three people linked to the Conservative party are admins on all or most of the groups.

Rachel Cromie, an admin on all 36 groups, is a Tory councillor from Haywards Heath, in Sussex, and her current register of interests lists the Conservative Party as her employer. According to an earlier register of interests found by Unearthed, in 2019 she was head of operations for Kanto Systems, a political consultancy linked to Thomas Borwick. Borwick was formerly a consultant at Cambridge Analytica, which became the focus of a major scandal over its use of Facebook user data for targeted ads and political influencing.

Cromie did not respond to Unearthed’s request for comment.

According to reporting by Open Democracy, in 2019 the Conservatives ran a number of paid ads for groups presenting the Ulez as a Labour-imposed tax on the poor. One of these groups was “run by Kanto Systems Limited”.

There is no suggestion that Kanto Systems or Thomas Borwick were involved in setting up or running the network of anti-Ulez groups revealed by Unearthed.

A Conservative activist, who served as campaign manager to a Midlands MP in the 2019 general election and campaigned for the Tories in the Uxbridge by-election, is an admin on 34 of the groups. The Conservative Party did not respond when asked to clarify whether this individual, who Unearthed is not naming, currently works for the party.

A Conservative Party employee, who Unearthed is not naming, has been a digital campaign manager for the organisation since February this year, is an admin on 27 of the groups.

Of the 82 admins across the groups, 46 have clear links to the Conservative Party, including councillors, local party officials, campaign managers and in one case a mayor. Others have stood for the party at local elections.

Unearthed also identified numerous Conservative politicians who had joined their local groups, including some who had used them actively to communicate with the members.

The official Facebook account of mayoral candidate Susan Hall is listed as a member of at least six of the groups and has interacted on two of them. Reporters did not come across any instances of Hall interacting with racist, Islamophobic or otherwise troubling content.

The groups now have a combined membership of over 38,000 people.

Unearthed joined six of the groups in the past month, focussing on the larger pages with over 1,000 members each. Five of these were aimed at outer London boroughs, while the sixth – Kent – came from the group of pages aimed at surrounding counties.

Reporters reviewed posts dating back to January 2024, or in the case of the largest of these groups, Hillingdon, to June 2023.

All six groups have rules stating that hate speech and degrading comments about race, religion and culture will not be tolerated. But these rules appear to be regularly flouted.

‘Overrun by foreigners’

Reporters found numerous Islamophobic and racist posts in the groups, many of them directed at Khan. These included a commenter claiming England is “overrun and being run by a load of foreigners”, descriptions of the capital as “Londonistan” and suggestions that Britain was being “taken over” and subject to “third world people” and “third world problems”.

A white supremacist slogan was posted in both the Bromley and Kent groups: an image with the words, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children”. The meme shared in these groups falsely attributes the quote to Winston Churchill, but in reality it was coined by David Lane, a member of a white supremacist terrorist group called The Order. Often referred to as the “14 Words”, it is the best-known slogan of the white supremacist movement.

There were two antisemitic posts found in the Hillingdon group, of images and videos arguing that Jewish people aimed to “attain world dominion” and wanted to “control the world”.

Elsewhere on the group, one commenter wrote that if Sadiq Khan drove “English speaking” cabbies out of London, they would be “replaced by second rate Uber service where women will not be safe, (just consider the Rotheram and Rochdale grooming gang culture).” The comment was written in direct response to a post by Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP Steve Tuckwell, who had shared an article he wrote for the the Daily Express arguing that Khan’s “war on motorists will drive black cabs out of London”.

“I don’t believe these posts represent the majority of people who are opposed to Ulez but they are completely inappropriate” – Sir Bob Neill MP

Other comments posted in the Kent group call Khan a “disease [sic] terrorist without bombs” and argue that “his agenda is to turn London into a caliphate.”

On the same group, one member responded to news that Khan was leading in the polls by writing that there were “so many muslims [sic] in London that this how we will be taken over by Muslim ideology”. Meanwhile, on the Bexley group, someone shared a Youtube video alleging that “Islamists” were “taking over Britain”.

Unearthed found multiple cases of users expressing violent hatred of the mayor. In Bexley, a user wrote: “Seriously can’t believe khan [sic] hasn’t been taken out yet… if dark forces can take out Princess Diana I’m sure they can take out this money grabbing little parasite”.

In the Bromley group, one commenter wrote of Khan: “I just want to rip his head off and shit down his neck”. In Hillingdon, a commenter said they would pay to get Khan “popped”, while another shared a video of Khan being burned in effigy.

There were several derogatory images displayed in the groups, including one that used a photo of Khan’s face over a urinal. In the Croydon group, one member responded to news that Labour leader Keir Starmer had extended an “olive branch” to Khan by writing: “The whole olive tree should be inserted into him & without any vaseline”.

‘Blade Runners needed urgently’

Celebration of criminal damage was a recurrent theme across the groups analysed by Unearthed, with frequent posts, comments and videos celebrating the vandalism and destruction of Ulez cameras.

Many of the posts praise the efforts of masked protesters, who style themselves as “bladerunners”, who have been destroying and defacing the cameras. Praise and encouragement of the destruction of cameras were prevalent, with comments such as “what goes up must come down”.

After a member of the Barking and Dagenham group posted a photo of workmen replacing a camera, a poster commented: “they will be sorted very soon after”. Another added: “8 men to repair one hero to take it out”. Another member of the same group shared a video of a masked campaigner who appears to be taunting and harassing an enforcement officer.

In the Bexley group, a user shared a photo of an enforcement van with its tyres slashed, noting “two flat tyres and sprayed camera”. Another user responded: “Well done to whoever that was”. A poster shared on the Kent group read, “Blade Runners Needed Urgently”.

Last September local site Inside Croydon reported that policing minister Chris Philp was a member of the Croydon anti-Ulez group, and that the group was hosting posts celebrating criminal damage against Ulez cameras. Unearthed found several more recent posts on the same group celebrating or calling for vandalism, including comments saying that newly erected Ulez cameras “won’t be there long” and “off with it’s [sic] head.” .

Philp, who is MP for Croydon South, told Unearthed that he completely condemned law breaking, criminal damage, and “unacceptable personal abuse or threats towards Mayor Sadiq Khan”.

He added that he had not posted on the Croydon group since summer 2023, did not generally look at the “thousands of posts by others in there”, and had nothing to do with its creation or administration.

“I cannot be held responsible for content posted by other people in Facebook groups which I do not administer,” Philp said. “However, to be completely clear on the matter I will remove my official page from the group.”

Croydon’s Conservative mayor Jason Perry said although his political Facebook page was listed as an admin on the Croydon group, he did not “play an active role” in moderating the page.

Perry told Unearthed he disagreed with “any and all criminal damage, violence, and discriminatory speech” and the group rules were clear that hate speech and encouraging illegal activity was not allowed.

“My moderating team do their best to remove any posts which break the rules and have removed many posts and comments since the group was created,” he added. “However, they are volunteers and cannot be expected to catch every comment in such an active and large group.”

A ‘city extermination agenda’

The groups also often included conspiracy theorist material or disinformation. A poster in the Barking and Dagenham group repeatedly suggested that Ulez cameras are weapons systems used for facial recognition or part of a “city extermination agenda”.

Users in several groups posted materials about the Great Reset, a World Economic Forum Covid-19 response that became the subject of a conspiracy theory alleging that global elites were seizing on the pandemic to install a totalitarian world order.

Others posted misinformation about green issues, including a video in Bromley which suggested that the purpose of electric vehicles is “not to save the world from climate change” but rather “to impose control.” There were also widespread posts about plans by Sadiq Khan to introduce a “pay per mile” road charging system – a policy that Khan has ruled out.

Jennie King, director of climate research and policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told Unearthed that as climate conspiracies have become more mainstream, groups have been able to co-opt the debate and centre more violent or extreme agendas.

“Gradually, shared spaces online become weaponised with content the average user may never have encountered or sought out otherwise,” she said. “In this instance, a group where people were debating – or even opposing – Ulez turned into a vehicle for Islamophobic ideas and outlandish, unsupported claims.

“This is not a foregone conclusion, but the risk does exist and should be taken seriously,” King added.

Actively moderated

Each of the six groups have set guidelines asking users to not to spread hate speech. In the Hillingdon group admins’ rules state that members should not post “illegal activity or encourage others to break the law”, and that members who disrespect these rules risk being “permanently banned.”

In Bromley, where content encouraging criminal damage has been posted, group rules explicitly state that they “will not allow any form of promoting or encouragement of criminal activity including damage to or theft of cameras or signage,” and “any breach of this rule will result in a member being banned or suspended.”

There are suggestions that some groups are actively moderated by admins. A local councillor wrote on one of the most active groups last August that the admins were “declining and accepting posts” and would “continue to decline posts that encourage or promote criminal activity”. He added that anyone who “uses discriminative language will be removed from the group without warning”.

Methodology

This investigation is based on an analysis of six private anti-Ulez Facebook groups, in which Unearthed monitored content from January 2024 to April 2024, or since June 2023 in Hillingdon, where the Uxbridge by-election took place.

Unearthed joined six of the largest Facebook groups using assumed identities. The groups monitored were Hillingdon, Croydon, Bexley, Bromley, Kent and Barking & Dagenham. The reporters monitored and documented evidence of hate speech, criminal damage and vandalism, conspiracy theories, disinformation, climate denial and abusive comments.

Unearthed defined hate speech as violent, threatening or discriminatory speech or images directed towards a person on the basis of an individual or group’s characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

Abusive comments were defined as threats, calls for violence, depictions of individuals in degrading or offensive settings.

Unearthed also monitored and documented instances in which politicians are group members, and documented instances when they have commented on the groups.