LONDON (Reuters) -Britain used counter-terrorism laws to freeze the assets of “Blood and Honour”, an entity which it described as an “extreme right wing group” in what it said was a first use of its domestic sanctions regime to target far-right terrorism.
The government said on Wednesday that all assets and economic resources in Britain belonging to, owned by or controlled by Blood and Honour must be frozen, adding that the sanctions designation extended to the group’s 28 Radio and Combat 18 aliases.
British police have warned for some time about the rise in far-right extremism and there have been substantial numbers of terrorism arrests linked to such ideologies in recent years.
“The designation of Blood and Honour is a clear signal that the UK works proactively to stop terrorist financing and will take action against any who try to exploit the UK financial system for this activity,” the statement said.
The government said it 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”.
Combat 18 is a shadowy group formed in the mid-1980s, drawing members from far-right groups, and was banned in Germany in 2020.
(Reporting by Muvija M, writing by Sarah Young, editing by William James)
