# UK sanctions Blood and Honour in first financial freeze against an extreme-right group
The British government has imposed financial sanctions on the neo-Nazi organisation Blood and Honour, marking the first time an extreme-right group has been hit with an asset freeze under the UK Treasury’s sanctions regime.
According to the Treasury, ministers had reasonable grounds to suspect the group of involvement in terrorist activity through promoting and encouraging terrorism, trying to recruit people for that purpose, and making funds available for those activities. The restrictions were extended to aliases and affiliate groups, including Combat 18 and 28 Radio, meaning no one in the UK may provide funding or financial services to the named organisations.
The move is distinct from a proscription order. Under UK law, proscription is handled by the Home Office and bans an extremist organisation outright, while sanctions are a Treasury measure designed to choke off a group’s financial capability. In this case, the government has chosen the latter route rather than a terrorism ban.
Blood and Honour has been part of Britain’s far-right subculture for decades. The group was founded in 1987 by Ian Stuart Donaldson, the lead singer of the skinhead band Skrewdriver. BBC News said Donaldson created the network after deciding the National Front was not racist enough for his politics. The group takes its name from a slogan used by the Hitler Youth, and it has long promoted white-power ideology through music and associated events.
The BBC report also placed the sanctions in a wider legal context. Over the last decade, six extreme-right organisations have been proscribed by the Home Office as terrorist groups, beginning with National Action in December 2016 and including Atomwaffen Division, Feuerkrieg Division, Sonnenkrieg Division, The Base, and The Terrorgram collective. Blood and Honour now becomes the first extreme-right organisation to face a Treasury asset freeze instead.
The inclusion of affiliates matters because it broadens the financial restrictions beyond the parent group. Combat 18 originally served as security for Blood and Honour before controlling one of its factions, while 28 Radio was an online station associated with the network. By extending sanctions to those names as well, the Treasury has targeted the structure around the organisation, not just the core label.
The action signals a different kind of state response to far-right extremism: not a criminal conviction, and not a straightforward ban, but a financial squeeze meant to make support and operations harder to sustain. For a group that has survived for decades through music, identity, and transnational links, the sanction is a notable escalation in official pressure.
