Peter Marriner, who has died at the age of 77, was an undercover informant in the extreme right for many years, and one of those extraordinary people, true heroes of the anti-fascist movement, to whom we owe an enormous debt of gratitude for their courage and self-sacrifice.

But the story of his initial introduction into the fascist movement is both extraordinary and appalling. We have told this story before, in Searchlight, but with Peter’s identity disguised. Now he has agreed that, finally, it may be told in full.

As a young lad aged 14, Peter was a bit left wing and in 1962 skipped off school to London to attend a CND lobby of Parliament. After the event he wandered around Westminster, eventually stopping off at a burger bar close to the tube station.

There he was approached by a middle-aged man who began chatting with him and told him there was another rally coming up in the near future he might be interested in. Would he like to come? Peter, young and curious, said he would.

National Socialist Movement

And that is how, a couple of weeks later, he ended up attending Colin Jordan’s “Free Britain From Jewish Control” National Socialist Movement rally at Trafalgar Square.

The man who had approached him was Alf Flockhart, a lifelong fascist and supporter of Oswald Mosley. Before the war, aged only 17, Flockhart had been the BUF’s Shoreditch organiser, the youngest district leader in the movement.

Detained under Defence Regulation 18b he was one of the first fascists released after the war and one of the first invited by Mosley to join the small select group plotting their post war comeback.

Violent paedophile

In time he became Assistant Secretary of Union Movement and, after Jeffrey Hamm was effectively demoted in 1949, he took over running the organisation.

But there was an even darker side to Alf Flockhart. He was a violent paedophile with a taste for young boys.

In the 1950s he was jailed, twice, for offences against young boys. Both were assaulted in Union Movement headquarters, where Flockhart lived in an upstairs flat. The youngest was only 12 years old. Mosley, loyal to his man, ignored the first conviction but had to act after the second, and Flockhart was expelled from UM. For a while.

When, in 1962, Flockhart began grooming Peter Marriner in that London café, he was still technically an outcast from UM. That was why, to introduce him to far right politics, Flockhart suggested Peter go to the NSM rally in Trafalgar Square.

A few months later, however, Flockhart was welcomed back by Mosley into the Union Movement fold. And where he went, Peter went as well. For the next two years Peter was groomed and sexually abused by Alf Flockhart.

Tormented

For Peter it was, in one sense, a relief. He already knew that he was gay but was tormented by the belief that he was some kind of freak. Now he knew there were other people with similar feelings of attraction to their own sex.

Added to that were the glamourous soirees that he was taken to, attended by Mosley and celebrated followers like the novelist Henry Williamson. Peter had read Tarka the Otter as a boy.

A few months later, however, Flockhart was welcomed back by Mosley into the Union Movement fold. And where he went, Peter went as well. For the next two years peter was groomed and sexually abused by Alf Flockhart

When Peter got involved, Flockhart lived in west London, not far from Arnold Leese House, the Princedale Rd headquarters of Jordan’s National Socialist Movement. During one of his stays at Flockhart’s house, Peter walked over to the NSM HQ and introduced himself.

Soon he was one of their very youngest members, and a frequent visitor to Princedale Rd.

Then, when Peter was 16, Flockhart tired of him and he was dumped, without ceremony or explanation, and passed on to another Union Movement paedophile where, for a while, the abuse continued. The full story of Alf Flockhart is told here at Oswald Mosley’s Dirty Secret.

In his late teens Peter drifted out of the fascist orbit and thought he had left it behind. Until, that is, in his 20s, he attended Birmingham Polytechnic to study for a politics degree.

Special Branch

One night, rather late, an officer from the West Midlands Police Special Branch turned up at his home with a favour to ask. They knew from their files that Peter had been involved with the extreme right when he was younger.

The police were concerned about the growth of British Movement, the successor to Jordan’s National Socialist Movement to which Peter had belonged, which under Michael McLaughlin was recruiting amongst working-class youngsters and showing potential to become a threat to public order and racial harmony.

Investigating British Movement

It was building a particular presence in the West Midlands. Would Peter mind dipping a toe into BM and produce a report on what they were up to and their prospects for further growth? His earlier involvement in the NSM would likely ease his introduction.

Bu there was a problem. In the meantime, Peter had returned to his left-wing roots. He was a now a prominent member of the Labour Party in Ladywood; he was chairman of the local constituency party and its election agent.

The police assured him it would just be a one-off job. Peter agreed, made contact with BM Leader Mike McLaughlin, and reported back to SB that he didn’t give much for BM’s prospects of serious growth.

More serious involvement

But their concerns were not entirely assuaged, and they prevailed upon him to go to the occasional BM meeting in the West Midlands and continue keeping an eye in the organisation.

Reluctantly, he agreed and little by little, encouraged by Special Branch, his involvement became more and more serious.

It was a difficult balancing act. Peter was a very public face of his local Labour Party but also now becoming increasingly involved in BM where his name was starting to crop up in both internal and public literature. It did not go unnoticed.

More tangible results

After about two years of this, a fellow student at the Poly contacted Searchlight editor Maurice Ludmer and Peter was invited to Maurice’s house for a meeting.

At the time Peter was not convinced that the information he was providing to Special Branch was being used as effectively as it might, so he readily agreed to help Maurice and Searchlight, believing this would provide more tangible results.

But he didn’t tell Maurice that he was already working for Special Branch, merely that he was a genuine Labour Party member who was collecting information on the far right for his academic purposes.

In fact, we did not learn about his role with Special Branch till shortly before Maurice’s death in 1981.

Top class information

For many years Peter provided us with absolutely top class, invaluable inside information not just about British Movement, but about neo-Nazi paramilitaries including Column 88 into which he was recruited.

He also became very close to Lady Jane Birdwood which gave him easy access to the circle of extreme right anti-immigration activists around her.

Peter’s most significant achievement, though there were many, was helping get a dangerous group of armed British Movement members locked up.

In April 1979 he attended a Hitler birthday party at the Birmingham flat of BM member Rod Roberts who boasted to Peter of his ability to obtain weapons and that he was assembling a small arsenal for use in the ‘coming race war’.

Peter warned Special Branch, but nothing appeared to be happening. Then, having been given a genuine pistol by Roberts, Peter took it to his next meeting with his SB handler and dropped it into his lap.

In October, early in the morning, West Midlands police bomb squad officers crashed through the doors of Roberts and another BM member, Harvey Stock. Later, West Mercia police raided the Worcestershire farm of Roberts’ parents where, hidden in a pigsty, they found a sub-machine gun, anti-riot guns, revolvers, rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition and false papers.

Legitimate gun dealers were also arrested along with Robert Giles, another BM member, who was charged separately in relation to a Mauser machine pistol found at Robert’s flat.

At trial, Roberts pleaded guilty to ten firearms offences and got seven years, Cox got two. Giles got a suspended sentence. You can read the full story at A Searchlight mole and a nazi weapons hoard.

Peter was the main source of inside information coming from the Midlands region to Searchlight throughout that period, and numerous BM and NF events were disrupted as a result.

But it had all threatened to unravel in mid-1977, when Brian Walden, the sitting Labour MP for Peter’s Ladywood constituency, resigned and triggered a by election. Peter was still the constituency election agent. Also standing was Socialist Unity, a left-wing coalition run by the International Marxist Group.

Exposed

The IMG had obtained a couple of nazi publications bearing Peter’s name and, unable to resist the temptation to get some dramatic publicity for their campaign, decided to expose him as a “fascist infiltrator in the Labour Party”.

Maurice soon heard about this, and the IMG was begged not to do it. But they refused saying ‘It’s too good to miss’. Then they called a press conference to denounce Peter as a fascist infiltrator in the Labour Party. It was utterly disgraceful.

But Searchlight was now presented with a real crisis. The least bad option was to go along with the notion that Peter was a nazi infiltrating the left, and try to keep him in place as our informant. This was put to to Peter and he, somewhat ruefully, agreed.

Stood story on its head

The next issue of Searchlight carried a three-page article entitled ‘Peter Marriner – Labour’s fascist infiltrator’, which purported to expose Peter as a true nazi for many years who had been trying to infiltrate the Labour Party and other left-wing groups.

Of course, this stood the real story on its head, but it was essential to secure our informant and further establish his far-right credentials.

And it did have the desired effect: in Peter’s own words later, “we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat”. His standing on the far right, and the extent to which he was then trusted, increased immeasurably and he was a highly treasured source for years to come.

A high price

He was particularly close to leading racist activist Lady Jane Birdwood and former National Front Activities Organiser Martin Webster. From both he obtained highly valuable information over many years.

But it all came at a high price for Peter. After Ladywood he lost many good friends in the Labour Party and the wider community who believed that he was a genuine fascist and shunned him. His life changed dramatically, and not for the better.

Once again, we have to acknowledge and pay tribute to the sacrifice and courage of those like Peter who infiltrate the far right. Seldom do we fully appreciate the extraordinary personal price they sometimes pay in giving up the life they would like to lead and taking on a persona that they despise.