A NEO-NAZI extremist group who targeted Swindon as a recruiting ground are to be outlawed by the government.

National Action will be added to the list of banned terrorist organisations in the coming months - the ban would make it illegal to be a member of the group or to arrange support or funding for it.

In August, London-based members of the extremist group made their way down the M4 to meet fellow far right youth from the South West.

The meeting was said to be aimed at building ties between regional factions.

A wall along the Moorings, behind the Westcott Place Garage, was sprayed with racist graffiti including swastikas, references to fascism and a depiction of Adolf Hitler next to the word ‘hero.’

The group was also behind a spate of criminal damage around the town centre and Old Town during the summer where stickers inciting hatred and proclaiming Swindon as a ‘white zone’ were left on lampposts and other street furniture.

In an update distributed to members in October, the group also claimed to have carried out a 'whites-only' food distribution to Swindon’s homeless, although there is no conclusive proof as to whether this ever happened.

National Action have risen up the list of groups causing a concern to the authorities after they were linked with the man found guilty of the far-right motivated murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox.

Members of the group were also seen in the public gallery during the high-profile trial last week of a man who sent abusive anti-Semitic messages on social media to Jewish MP, Luciana Berger.

It is the second time that Ms Berger has been the target of such abuse by the group, in 2014 one of their members was jailed for tweeting a picture of her that had been defaced by a swastika.