Proudly draped in a union flag, working class rapper Danny Bones mesmerises millions with his straight-talking views on mass immigration and the decline of Britain.
In his most popular track, This Is England, he leads crowds carrying St George’s crosses through burning streets amid a dystopian imagination of the UK.
As police cars burn to blackened shells, Bones sings in the chorus: ‘This is England – don’t ask why,’ before describing a nation he claims is ‘falling’ and where ‘benefits are rampant, but borders are open.’
But for all the real political concerns about immigration, national identity and broken Britain that he shares with his dedicated followers, Bones himself does not exist.
The chisel-jawed, deep-toned rapper is in fact an AI-generated persona created by an anonymous influencer ‘collective’ called The Node Project, as a campaign tool for the far-right party, Advance UK.
Democracy advocates believe it is the first time a registered party in the UK has used AI to proliferate its policies – with some concerned that Bones could be just the start of a new trend towards using tech tools to sway the electorate.
Advance UK commissioned and paid The Node Project to create multiple videos that reference immigrants, Muslims and ethnic minorities, an investigation by The Daily Mail and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found.
Across Spotify, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, Danny Bones’ tracks and clips have been viewed millions of times.
The content includes the party’s main campaign film used during the recent by-election in Gorton and Denton, Greater Manchester.
Advance UK was founded last year by former Reform UK co-deputy leader Ben Habib and positions itself to the right of Nigel Farage’s party.
In the run-up to the by-election, the party released a two-minute video across its social media channels that was viewed hundreds of thousands of times and until recently appeared as the flagship video on its website.
The film features sweeping scenes of British history – Anglo-Saxon warriors, Second World War soldiers and the Beatles crossing Abbey Road – accompanied by a dramatic narration celebrating the country’s heritage and against an instrumental version of a Danny Bones track.
Both Advance UK and the Node Project confirmed the party had paid for the production.
The Node Project has also developed another AI persona – a purple-haired character called Amelia – who appears in several Danny Bones videos and standalone clips.
The character was originally created by the political and media literacy organisation Shout Out UK for a Home Office-funded video game designed to discourage extremism among young people.
But the character was later adopted by online far-right communities and has since appeared alongside Danny Bones’ content.
Experts warn this type of AI-generated political content could become increasingly common as tools for creating music, video and synthetic voices become easier to use.
Matteo Bergamini, founder of Shout Out UK, told the Daily Mail that figures such as Amelia and Danny Bones represent a growing phenomenon of AI characters being used to promote political messaging.
‘The fact that this stuff can be created en masse and pushed out to really shape any particular narrative – be it political, social, or health related… what we are potentially seeing is the breakdown of the information ecosystem if this is allowed to carry on.’
Very little is publicly known about the group behind Danny Bones.
The Node Project does not appear to be registered as a company, and its website lists its address as a penis museum in Reykjavik – a reference sometimes used by anonymous online users.
When contacted, the group described itself as ‘a small group of creatives’ experimenting with AI storytelling and ‘entirely’ rejected claims its material was Islamophobic.
In a statement, it said: ‘The Node Project is a creative project built around fictional characters, music, visual storytelling and world-building.
‘Danny Bones is a fictional concept character within that creative world. Amelia is also a fictional recurring character within the same broader body of work.
‘The project’s aims are artistic and cultural. It is rooted in creative independence, countercultural artistic tradition and the idea that art should challenge conventions rather than simply conform to them.
‘It is not a political party vehicle or campaign operation.
‘We reject the characterisation of The Node Project or its content as “Islamophobic” entirely. That is a very serious label and it is not an accurate or fair description of its output.’
Since being presented with the investigation, TikTok banned the Node Project’s account for breaching its rules on hateful content. Instagram removed several posts, while Spotify said the tracks did not violate its policies.
The UK’s Electoral Commission said it expects campaigners to make clear when political content has been generated using artificial intelligence, but confirmed it does not regulate such material directly.
