In an embarrassing episode for the council, deputy lord mayor Chris Robinson, accepted an invitation to a safety walk from the newly-formed far-right group Staffordshire Patriots to support homelessness and discuss town centre crime earlier this month. After learning of the group’s links, he issued a statement distancing himself from them.
“I had no idea that this event was connected to the Staffordshire Patriots group, and would not have attended had I known. I was told this was an event to help homeless people, a cause I keenly support, organised by a local gym. The Stoke-on-Trent I am proud to represent is a welcoming, tolerant city with no place for division or hatred.”
Established just last month, the group is part of a wider network featuring 28 affiliate groups, including Derby and Coventry in the Midlands and another in Greater Manchester. It has already built up a sizeable following, with 24,000 followers on Facebook and 17,000 on Instagram, with some of its reels getting upwards of 480,000 views. Its content promotes free self-defence lessons, veteran support events and walks in parks where trouble has been reported.
Members wear hoodies featuring a mounted knight, English and British flags and a cross, alongside local symbols including the Staffordshire knot and bottle kilns.
The group is led by Mike “Micky” Dickinson, a van driver and former amateur boxer posting under various social media accounts including “Time to Talk Mike”, which claims to offer “real talk” about Britain, mental health and community. Searchlight Magazine notes that he has quickly pivoted these platforms into a “relentless digital engine to promote far-right content”, and in one recent post in which he talks of “relentless attacks” and “my family home being doxxed”, he asks people to donate “to help veterans and struggling families.”
Dickinson is a close associate of Daniel Thomas (“Danny Tommo”), widely known as Tommy Robinson’s primary right-hand man, who is due to stand trial next March over an alleged incident in which he livestreamed himself apparently stabbing and slashing a dinghy in the English Channel.
Early morning marches in Muslim communities
Staffordshire Patriots is a regional offshoot of Patriot Platform, for which Dickinson acts as a key regional recruiter. The network has recently organised anti-immigration marches in Dover and Portsmouth. On 11 October, supporters marched again in Sheffield, with Stoke’s Dickinson leading the protest against Lindburg Coach Travel, which the group suspected was transporting asylum seekers.
The coach company had initially put coaches on standby for occasional Home Office operations, but following the subsequent backlash, it pulled out on 7 October, four days before the Sheffield depot protest took place.
Dressed in black with some wearing balaclavas or face paint, around 100 people marched through the streets of Darnall, a predominantly Muslim community, from 5.30am to 7am. They left graffiti on the ground claiming the company had “blood” on their hands. Lindburg has reported that its staff has replaced “significant abuse” from members of the public following the targeted action.
A day after the march, Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) organised an emergency unity meeting in Darnall that was attended by 200-300 anti-racists and community members. South Yorkshire Police said they had received no prior notification of the march. The force subsequently confirmed that it was investigating whether statutory requirements had been met and whether any criminal offences had been committed.
