A far-right nationalist group appears to be linked to a banner which was flown over Manchester City's stadium. Football fans spotted a sign which read "British to be minority by 2066" during Sunday's Premier League match against Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium.
People in the North West told the Manchester Evening News similar leaflets were posted through their letter boxes over the weekend, with messages such as: "White's [sic] to be a minority by the year 2066 or sooner". One woman, who is pregnant with a mixed-race baby, said the flyer had left her and her partner "disgusted".
A nationalist group named Patriotic Alternative claimed responsibility on Twitter for the flyers. The organisation said activists across the country had posted thousands of leaflets warning people of "mass immigration" and "falling white birth rates". The Manchester Evening News reports that no-one has yet claimed responsibility for the banner. You can get more great story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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The group states it was founded in 2019 by Mark Collett, who according to Companies House is based in Manchester. The group's deputy leader, Laura Towler, posted an article about the banner on social media platform Telegram and some of its activists appear to have retweeted a video of the banner.
The group's projection appears to have come from comments made by population expert Professor David Coleman, of Oxford University, who said in 2010 that white British people would become a minority in Britain by 2066 if current immigration levels were to continue.
The professor said the demographic group would make up less than half the population in "little more" than 50 years, the Independent previously reported. Mr Coleman said the decline would be caused by "record-breaking levels of immigration" and the "migration of thousands of British nationals abroad".
One woman, who lives in Burnley with her partner, said they discovered one of the "white Britons to be a minority" leaflets on their doorstep on Saturday afternoon. She said the flyer had left her and her boyfriend, who is black, feeling concerned.
"The front of the leaflet was very similar to what it said on that banner over the Etihad," said the woman, who wanted to remain anonymous. "It's a very weird and specific date and its shows an image of people from different ethnic backgrounds on the front of it.
"On the back it said that the country can’t cope with the rising number of migrants and that we are overcrowded. They talked about nobody being able to access social housing anymore and that it was ruining our beautiful countryside. It said immigration was affecting wages and increasing the cost of living.
"I got angry and actually ripped it up into pieces. There were bits of it that were really quite scary to read. We were concerned that other people might not have got this and that we were specifically targeted as my partner just moved to the area but then we saw the story about the plane over the football game.
"We are in a scary world as it is right now. There are vulnerable people around here who might read that flyer and really take that information on board and that is a real concern."
An account called EnglishMan'66, dubbing himself an "English civil rights activist", wrote last week in a tweet: "For 'DRAMA' Month, Patriotic Alternative activists have been leafleting the length and breadth of Britain to spread awareness of the ethnic cleansing of the Native British people within our own homeland. Today, an activist delivered 445 leaflets in Canvey Island, Essex."
The banner which was flown across the Etihad on Sunday prompted confusion and anger from football fans on social media. One pointed out: "British is already the minority. There's like 7 billion other people". It comes less than two years after a controversial banner was flown over the same stadium during City's game against Burnley. On that occasion "White Lives Matter Burnley" was the message displayed.
Patriotic Alternative was approached by the Manchester Evening News for comment on the banner. A spokeswoman said the group "consider it our aim to raise awareness" about their claims around British people. For more sport-related news click here.
