The National Rebirth Party had been promising their first national meeting of 2026 for weeks. Venue: somewhere in the West Midlands. Date: yesterday. Further details: none. Apparently the element of surprise was central to the strategy.

It was not, as it turned out, quite central enough. By the time NRP members had finished hanging their Nuremberg-style flags at the Albany Theatre – a community theatre which had, until recently, been under the impression it was hosting something rather more wholesome – we had established where they were gathering and made it public. People began phoning the venue…

Incoherent

The gathering of around 50 began with the usual round of speeches: David Smaller from Leeds and the party’s Deputy Leader, kicked off the proceedings, but having just arrived from a local pub, sounded a trifle, er, incoherent.

Following him was Luke Jahn, speaking about how the government was the problem, not the left. 

He was succeeded by Jonathan Mainprize the Branch Leader from Hull who spoke about the birthrates of non-European nations.

Last was Piers Mellor from London.

And so, after barely an hour, came the first coffee break.

However, by the time attendees returned the venue knew exactly who their guests were, and delegates were informed by David Smaller that they had been told to clear off.

Yerbury was engaged in frantic negotiations with the venue management but they were not budging.

Cleared off

And so they cleared off, tails comprehensively between their legs, back to a local pub where they had originally assembled, to lick their wounds.

Ever the motivational speaker, Yerbury treated the retreating faithful to a passionate address about how this sort of setback was simply the price of the journey to power.

One imagines the reception was mixed, especially amongst those who had travelled considerable distances to witness what was supposed to be an auspicious moment in the party’s journey to greatness.

Photographs of those arriving at the venue provided their own entertainment.

Sartorially-challenged Portsmouth organiser Luke Jahn (top photo, with cigarette) had dusted of his Herman Goering great coat especially for the occasion. But he really needs to do something about that moustache. 

And the father-and-son team going by the names of David and Daniel Eccott from Nottingham also graced proceedings with their presence, though they didn’t get to do the double act which has so thoroughly bored participants at other recent NRP gatherings.

Also present was Harrison Leworthy, until recently a leading member of the White Vanguard, a group of performative, openly Hitler-worshipping neo-nazis which he led with Kai Cunningham before it split last year.

Equally surprising was the attendance of Mike Lynton, a fascist from the west country who is, somewhat awkwardly, a paid-up member of the rival Homeland Party, and indeed its South West organiser.

Whether he had cleared this particular day trip with his comrades – or, as now seems possible, erstwhile comrades – is unclear, but they have apparently been making their feelings known with some enthusiasm.

One can only hope the NRP at least made him feel welcome during the hour they had together.

Election candidate

Two further footnotes of interest emerged from the wreckage. First, Yerbury, who has spent months lecturing the wider far right that parties should refrain from contesting elections until they have built genuine local support, announced that the NRP will be standing a candidate in Hull’s local elections in May.

Hull, we might observe, is not somewhere known for harbouring a mass base of NRP support.

The candidate will be local activist and former For Britain member, Barry McGrath.

Second, there was considerable chatter about Steve Laws, the Patriotic Alternative-aligned online agitator, who appears to have recently been charged with criminal offences, a development he has thus far chosen to keep to himself, though not, it seems, altogether successfully.