New revelations have exposed a secret Home Office campaign that used a pop boyband to deliver anti-extremism messages to schoolchildren in Muslim communities across northern England.
The Covert School Tour
In 2016, the pop group Mr Meanor embarked on a school tour throughout northern England, visiting locations including Bradford, Burnley, Manchester and Huddersfield. The trio, consisting of members Marcel Wildy, Jordan Hyams, and Jake Kirby, performed their single Think About It, which contained explicit anti-radicalisation messaging.
The song's lyrics directly referenced terrorist attacks, including the lines: "Cause 9/11 changed how we view these things / People wanna terrorise / And 7/7 left behind way more broken lives / Right before our eyes." According to the music video description on YouTube, the band hoped the song would "inspire people to challenge those who push violence and hatred in today's society."
Secret Government Involvement
While publicly presented as an initiative by the Warrington-based charity The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace, news site PoliticsHome has revealed the entire campaign was orchestrated by government figures. The charity was established in memory of two young victims of a 1993 IRA bombing.
The covert operation involved communications company Breakthrough Media, which had previously worked with the Home Office's Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU). A 2016 Guardian investigation described RICU as a "shadowy propaganda unit" operating within the government's counter-radicalisation programme Prevent.
Evidence of the government's involvement emerged through LinkedIn posts by former contractors and the documented connection to Breakthrough Media, which had created numerous websites, videos and social media pages to counter ISIS propaganda when the terror group was at its peak.
Campaign Legacy and Response
The Mr Meanor Instagram page has remained inactive for nearly nine years, with only a single "blackout" post appearing in 2020 during the George Floyd protests. Despite the band's efforts, the Official Charts Company shows no record of their anti-extremism single appearing in the UK top 100.
There is no indication that the band members themselves were aware of the secret government funding behind their school tour. All proceeds from the single were directed to the Foundation for Peace.
In response to the revelations, a Home Office spokesperson stated: "This campaign was delivered under the previous government and has now been discontinued." The statement confirms the programme's existence while distancing the current administration from the controversial tactics.
