Hate not Hope – inside the engine of the hard left!
David Vance SubstackRead More
You have almost certainly heard of an organisation called Hope Not Hate. Newly elected Labour Leader and Prime Minister in waiting Andy Burnham certainly has – because he has recruited several of their key figures to be central to his new Government!
I want to show you in this article just how dangerous to our freedoms this organisation is, and how telling it is that Burnham places their alumni so centrally. I myself have been the target of Hope Not Hate, as I will explain later, but let’s first get the history right.
Origins: from Searchlight to Hope Not Hate
The origin story of Hope Not Hate (HNH) goes back quite a way and is illuminating. It can be seen as an offshoot of a much older entity called Searchlight. Searchlight was founded in 1964 and revived in 1975. Until March 2025, its editor was Gerry Gable. Gable began his political life in the Young Communist League and the Communist Party of Great Britain. He worked as a full‑time industrial organiser for the party before leaving over its anti‑Israel position. However, he never abandoned the militant methods he had learned there.
Searchlight operated on a simple principle: “by any means necessary.” It used surveillance, infiltration, and smears. In 1989, a young man called Nick Lowles joined the organisation as a student at Sheffield University. He did not join a charity – he joined an established operation that had been engaged in street‑level warfare against “fascists” since the 1960s. Hope Not Hate, founded in 2004, can be viewed as essentially Searchlight carefully rebranded with a charity registration number.
Two entities, one brand
The first thing to understand here is that Hope Not Hate is effectively two things. There is the Charitable Trust (a registered charity) and then the Hope Not Hate, a Limited company. Same name, same branding, same people. Different legal status. The split here is quite deliberate. Charities are banned from partisan political activity. Private companies are not.
So the charity collects taxpayer‑funded grants and public donations, then funnels that money to the company through “recharges” or large grants. The company does all the aggressive campaigning. The charity pockets the tax advantages. Over the past five years, the charity has collected almost £1m a year. Shamefully, the Conservatives granted it £141,000 in 2019. The rot runs so deep.
Thankfully the Charity Commission saw through these suspicious arrangements. It opened compliance cases in 2024 and 2025. The regulator ruled the distinction between the two arms was “not clear,” resulting in the charity renaming itself HOPE Unlimited, recruiting new trustees, overhauling its website, and facing public criticism for slow compliance.
Some politicians called it what it is: charitable status used to funnel public money into “a purely political operation with a reported history of fabricating security threats, spreading disinformation and pushing smear campaigns.”
We can reasonably conclude that this is not a charity as many might understand it. It is a camouflaged vehicle for left‑wing political agitprop.
Methods: “intelligence‑gathering” by any means necessary
Their “intelligence‑gathering” is ruthless. A guy called Harry Shukman, a Hope Not Hate “journalist,” wanted to infiltrate “right‑wing groups” for a documentary. He went to the extreme of legally changing his name by deed poll to Christopher Morton, then obtained an official UK passport in that false identity, used it to deceive targets, then switched back a year later. The Spectator exposed all this here.
That was just one operation. In 2019, Tommy Robinson’s Panorama coverage captured alleged collusion between former BBC journalist John Sweeney and Hope Not Hate to stage a “fake news hit job.” Footage showed Hope Not Hate operatives on set, directing interviews, pressuring witnesses, and allegedly pushing fabricated texts. In 2022, in Robinson’s Hope Not Hate Exposed, former HNH employee Caolan Robertson (who I have met) made explosive claims: blackmail, sexual assault, supplying illegal drugs to sources, and targeting families to extract testimony. Are HNH “researchers”, or are they operatives who treat the ends as justifying any means?
A child‑safety “expert” convicted of child sex offences
Let’s consider a guy called Liron Velleman who served as one of Hope Not Hate’s “political organisers.” He was also a Labour councillor for Barnet, and a Jewish Labour Movement member. He gave evidence to Parliament on the Online Safety Bill in 2022.
In December 2024, police caught him in a sting. He believed he was messaging a 13‑year‑old girl, sending explicit videos, requesting photos in pyjamas and bra, and pressuring her for underwear images. In January 2026 he pleaded guilty to attempting sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a child to view sexual activity. The judge called his behaviour “reckless, vile and frankly devious.” Disturbingly, he received only a suspended sentence. No prison time. This is the calibre of person that they have employed and sent to advise Parliament on child safety online. The irony is dead.
Fake news during the 2024 riots
In the aftermath of the August 2024 riots following the savage murders of the three little girls by Axel Rudakubana, Nick Lowles tweeted that white racists in Middlesbrough had thrown acid in a Muslim woman’s face. Here is his tweet.
Police investigated and confirmed that it never happened. Lowles left the tweet up anyway. Lowles later apologised, but the damage – fear and division – was already done. There is a pattern: broadcast first, fact‑check later – if ever. Even as people like Lucy Connolly and Wayne Broadhurst were sent to prison, Lowles suffered no consequences. There may be a possible explanation for this …and guess who it involves! He who is nowadays Lord Hermer!
Never was two‑tier justice more evident.
From the margins to Number 10
All of this brings us to Andy Burnham, because I have to advise you that he has wilfully surrounded himself with former HNH senior activists.
He has appointed Alison Phillips, a current board member of Hope Not Hate Limited and former CEO of Labour Together, to the crucial position of Director of Transition in No. 10 (North and South).
He has also appointed Matthew McGregor, a former Director of Campaigns and Communications at Hope Not Hate, to the crucial role of Director of Political Strategy in No. 10. And you thought Morgan McSweeney was bad!
Here is what Zia Yusuf revealed about him.
For additional context, Anna Turley, a former HNH director, is already Labour Party Chair! So Labour is riddled with HNH alumni.
A group under active Charity Commission scrutiny has former members now helping run Andy Burnham’s office.
Phillips has openly declared pride in supporting Hope Not Hate’s mission and pushing “diversity of ethnicity” in newsrooms. They have evolved from attacking the state to controlling it.
What Hope Not Hate really is
Hope Not Hate emerged from the same militant leftist milieu as Searchlight and has maintained close ties to Labour‑aligned campaigning networks. Its structure – a registered charity alongside a separate limited company with the same branding and overlapping personnel – allows it to combine charitable funding and tax advantages with aggressively partisan political activity.
HNH has been accused of using deceptive methods, colluding with state broadcasters, and pursuing smear campaigns; some former insiders have made still more serious allegations. One person described as a HNH political organiser, Liron Velleman, was later convicted of child sex offences.
Its most senior figure, Nick Lowles, demonstrably spread a false claim about an acid attack during the 2024 riots, which police confirmed never happened.
HNH ran a piece here which mentions me. It suggests I promoted QAnon‑related content without understanding what it meant. I was also mentioned in their 2020 annual report here. I am touched by their interest but would gently point out that I don’t have 170,000 Twitter followers, I have 310,000. Bless.
Those of us who have watched this network for years recognise its pattern: presenting itself as a neutral anti‑hate charity while operating as a highly partisan political actor.
Seeing key figures with close HNH links now positioned around Andy Burnham should give anyone who values impartial charities and open debate serious cause for concern. Free Speec
h is in peril before Burnham enters Downing Street.
Finally, here’s a thought from Bev Turner at GB News…
