THE jury in the trial of three men accused of being members of banned neo-Nazi group National Action has been given a majority direction.

Jack Renshaw, 23, of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, has admitted plotting to murder MP Rosie Cooper but denied being a member of National Action after it was proscribed.

Renshaw, 23, bought a machete, carried out research online and revealed his plan at a meeting in a Warrington pub in July 2017.

He wanted to kill Ms Cooper for National Action and "white Jihad" while taking revenge on Lancashire Police, who he believed was persecuting him, jurors were told during the trial which has been running since February.

The plot was foiled by a whistle-blower who reported the danger to Hope Not Hate, an organisation set up to combat right-wing political racism, the Old Bailey heard.

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Renshaw of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, has admitted preparing an act of terrorism but has denied being a member of National Action after it was banned in December 2016.

He is on trial at the Old Bailey alongside Andrew Clarke, 34, from Prescot and Michal Trubini, 36, of Dutton Court, Howley, who also deny membership of the proscribed organisation.

Mrs Justice McGowan told an Old Bailey jury she would accept a verdict on which 10 of them were agreed following two weeks of deliberations.

Convicted National Action leader Christopher Lythgoe, 32, and his close associate Matthew Hankinson, 24, were present at the Friar Penketh pub on Academy Way along with the defendant Clarke when Renshaw outlined his plan, yet none of them tried to talk him out of it, he said.

The other defendant, Trubini, had been at the pub beforehand but left before Renshaw arrived, the court heard.

Mr Atkinson, prosecuting, told jurors how National Action had been engaged in a "campaign of virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic propaganda" aimed at starting a "race war" since 2013.

It actively sought to recruit and radicalise young people through violent imagery and hate-filled language on social media and in provocative demonstrations, he said.

It was banned over its support for the murder of Batley MP Jo Cox in June 2016.

The case continues