Subscription Notification
We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. Please update your billing details here
Please update your billing information
The subscription details associated with this account need to be updated. Please update your billing details here to continue enjoying your subscription.
Your subscription will end shortly
Please update your billing details here to continue enjoying your access to the most informative and considered journalism in the UK.

Accessibility Links

Skip to content
Subscribe

Far-right US cult QAnon finds a ready ear in Britain

‘Truth-seekers’ marching to halt child trafficking have roots in a pro-Trump movement linked to violence

Shanti Das
The Sunday Times
Laura Ward in central London yesterday
Laura Ward in central London yesterday
RICK FINDLER
Shanti Das
The Sunday Times

A British marketing consultant who is part of an online cult that believes Donald Trump is waging war against a cabal of devil-worshipping paedophiles is behind a radical movement that has lured 12,000 UK members in the past two months.

Laura Ward, 36, who previously used social media to sell smoothies and self-help courses, is recruiting members of the public — many of them young mothers — to Freedom for the Children UK.

From her home in Swansea, she set up a Facebook group for the campaign in July, inspired by the #SaveOurChildren protests in the US, which claimed to want to bring greater awareness of child trafficking. While it appears innocent at first glance, the movement is entwined with QAnon, a far-right group of