Neo-Nazi Kevin Wilshaw quits far-right movement after revealing Jewish heritage and coming out as gay

A white supremacist made astonishing revelations about his Jewish heritage and publicly came out as gay while announcing he is leaving the far-right movement.

Kevin Wilshaw, a well known National Front organiser in the 1980s who was active as recently as earlier this year, disavowed the movement while admitting to past violent acts.

Wilshaw, who admitted to writing about his hatred for "the Jews" in his application form to join the National Front, revealed his mother was Jewish. "She was part Jewish, maiden name was Benjamin, we have Jewish blood on that side," he told Channel 4 News.

He added: "That term 'the Jews' is the global faceless mass of people you can't personalise it, not individuals. That's the generalisation that leads to 6 million people being deliberately murdered."

Wilshaw said that he did not have many friends at school and "wanted to be a member of a group of people that had an aim, and I thought getting involved in that kind of thing would be comradeship".

He said despite being part of a group with extreme views that was cut off from society, there was still a sense of comradeship. Wilshaw admitted to hurting people, "not unprovoked," but denied ever approaching minorities and harming them.

"I'd never do that, but I have seen incidents where people were singled out because they were black by a group of people," he said. "It turned my stomach, I rejected that, I pushed it to the back of my mind."

According to Channel 4 News, Wilshaw was arrested for vandalising a mosque in Aylesbury in the early 1990s and again in March 2017 for online race hate offences. After participating in the National Front, Wilshaw joined the British National Party (BNP) and toyed with extremist fringe groups such as the Racial Volunteer Force.

Wilshaw said that he did not realise to true enormity of his hateful actions until he was the target of abuse for being gay. "It's a terribly selfish thing to say but it's true, I saw people being abused, shouted at, spat at in the street—it's not until it's directed at you that you suddenly realise that what you're doing is wrong."

He said he feels "appallingly guilty" and has had issues having a relationship with his own family.

Wilshaw said he wanted "to do some damage" to "the people who are propagating this kind of rubbish—want to hurt them, show what it's like for those who are living a lie and be on the receiving end of this type of propaganda, I want to hurt them."

The reformed white supremacist acknowledged that his life will not be easy since coming out against the movement. "I'm going to find it difficult, granted, to fill a void that has occupied my life since childhood."