https://www.channel4.com/news/neo-nazi-national-front-organi
ser-quits-movement-comes-out-as-gay-kevin-wilshaw-jewish-her
itage

Paraic O'Brien Correspondent

A white supremacist active as recently as the start of this
year says today he is publicly renouncing 40 years of hate.
Speaking on Channel 4 News he comes out as gay for the first
time and admits to a violent past.

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After a lifetime of involvement with the far-right Kevin
Wilshaw announces on Channel 4 News that he is leaving the
movement at the same time publicly coming out as gay.

The well known National Front organiser in the 1980s was
still active in white supremacist groups earlier this year
including speaking at events.

But tonight on Channel 4 News he explains for the very first
time why he is publicly disavowing the movement sharing his
secrets, explaining how he was both a Neo-Nazi and of Jewish
heritage , while admitting to violent acts and what
motivated his hatred.
Jewish heritage

Kevin Wilshaw also opens up about his Jewish mother.

"She was part Jewish, maiden name was Benjamin, we have
Jewish blood on that side.

On an application form to join the National Front, he wrote
about his hatred of "the Jews".

"That term 'the Jews' is the global faceless mass of people
you can't personalise it, not individuals. That's the
generalisation that leads to 6 million people being
deliberately murdered.

"I didn't have many friends at school, I wanted to be a
member of a group of people that had an aim, and I thought
getting involved in that kind of thing would be comradeship.
"

"Even though you end up being a group of people that through
their own extreme views are cut off from society, you do
have a sense of comradeship in that you're a member of a
group that's being attacked by other people."
Coming out

"On one or two occasions in the recent past I've actually
been the recipient of the very hatred of the people I want
to belong to ... if you're gay it is acceptable in society
but with these group of people it's not acceptable, and I
found on one or two occasions when I was suspected of being
gay I was subjected to abuse."

Mr Wilshaw admits that being a Nazi who is gay but with a
Jewish background is a contradiction.

"It's a terribly selfish thing to say but it's true, I saw
people being abused, shouted at, spat at in the street it's
not until it's directed at you that you suddenly realise
that what you're doing is wrong."

"You have other members leading National Front who are
overtly gay. And nobody could see the contradiction of it
that you have an overtly gay person leading a homophobic
organisation, makes no sense."

"Then you have someone like Nicky Crane, one of the hardest
people who would be gay."

"Even when people found out, they'd rationalise it, 'He's
not really gay' or 'gay and ok'."
Violent attack

He said he had hurt people, "but not unprovoked, in defence.
In a by-election in Leeds I smashed a chair over someone's
head."

But he denied ever having approached minorities and
assaulted them.

"I'd never do that, but I have seen incidents where people
were singled out because they were black by a group of
people. It turned my stomach, I rejected that, I pushed it
to the back of my mind."

Mr Wilshaw was arrested for vandalising a mosque in
Aylesbury in the early 1990s and in March this year he was
arrested for online race hate offences.
Extremist as recently as the start of this year

He joined the BNP after being part of the National Front and
flirted with dangerous fringe groups like the Racial
Volunteer Force.

Mr Wilshaw says he remembers meeting David Copeland the
Brixton and Soho nail bomber. More recently he took to
social media and until the start of year was still speaking
at rallies.

Former National Front activist Matthew Collins, who now
works for the anti-racist group Hope not Hate said: "One of
things we noticed is there was someone who was struggling,
he was becoming more and more extreme."

"We almost expected the phone call and a cry for help, and
that's what he's done."
'I want to hurt extremists'

"I feel appallingly guilty as well, I really do feel guilty,
not only that, this is also a barrier to me having a
relationship with my own family, and I want to get rid of
it, it's too much of a weight."

"I want to do some damage as well, not to ordinary people
but the people who are propagating this kind of rubbish
want to hurt them, show what it's like for those who are
living a lie and be on the receiving end of this type of
propaganda, I want to hurt them."

Fearing some level of revenge, Mr Wilshaw says "one or two
would want to sort me.. they'd see it as betrayal."

"I am going to find it difficult, granted, to fill a void
that has occupied my life since childhood."