Links are being made between a far-right nationalist group and a banner flown over the Etihad Stadium during the Liverpool and Manchester City match.
The group, named Patriotic Alternative, claim to believe that 'native British people' will become a minority by the year 2066. They claimed responsibility for posting leaflets in letter boxes and handing them out in town centres across the North West last weekend, the MEN reports.
Despite not taking responsibility for the plane being flown over Manchester, the wording of the banner is the same as the phrasing on the leaflets. The group's deputy leader, Laura Towler, also posted an article about the incident on social media platform Telegram. Some activists who support the group also appear to have retweeted a video of the banner.
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Football fans were left in 'disgust' after spotting the sign which read "British to be minority by 2066" during Liverpool's Premier League clash with Manchester City on Sunday. Residents in Manchester claim to have had flyers posted through their letter boxes this weekend titled "White's [sic] to be a minority by the year 2066 or sooner."
The nationalist group named Patriotic Alternative claimed responsibility for the flyers on Twitter, claiming activists across the country had posted thousands of leaflets.
The group claims to have been founded in 2019 by Mark Collett, who according to Companies House is based in Manchester.
A countdown to the year 2066 is plastered on Patriotic Alternative's website with this April having been labelled by the group as "drama month" - perhaps suggesting why activists have been more prevalent in the community in recent days. One woman, who lives in Burnley with her partner, says 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 extremely concerned.
She said: "The front of the leaflet was very similar to what it said on that banner over the Etihad. 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."
The woman said her partner had been left feeling 'uneasy' and 'unsettled' about going out after receiving the leaflet. She added: "He's just moved here and it's not the most welcoming feeling if you go and pick that up from your front door.
"We are having a baby and thinking about the world they are going to be born into is worrying. We are going to have a non white child so it makes me upset and angry to see. 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."
A tweet posted by user EnglishMan'66, who claims to be an 'English Civil Rights Activist' said: "Today a team of Patriotic Alternative activists delivered 2,790 leaflets in Burnley."
In another tweet, on April 8, he wrote that the group had been active over "DRAMA" month, handing out leaflets in Essex.
The banner which was flown across the Etihad on Sunday prompted confusion and anger from football fans, who posted pictures and videos of the plane as it flew over the stadium. "Words fail me" was the verdict from one viewer, while another claimed the message "makes absolutely no sense whatsoever."
One football fan pointed out that "British is already the minority. There's like 7 billion other people". "2066 is oddly specific," another pointed out. 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.
