Hollyoaks' Leela Lomax has stood up to Stuart Sumner and his extremist group in powerful new scenes for the show.
Leela (Kirsty-Leigh Porter) has been left in despair by her brother Ste Hay's decision to join up with dangerous Stuart and Jonny Baxter, who've been slowly and subtly grooming him since the start of the year.
Although Ste (Kieron Richardson) has been warned that he's involved with a far-right group, he is refusing to cut ties with Stuart and Jonny after their months of manipulation.
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Thursday's E4 first look episode (June 6) saw Leela head over to see Ste, but she was horrified to stumble across a far-right meeting hosted by Stuart.
Addressing his associates, Stuart gave a manipulated version of Ste's feud with the Maaliks – blaming Misbah for Tegan's death, and falsely claiming that Peri is being brainwashed by the family.
Stuart insisted it was time to take to the streets on a protest march to show they were "proud to be English".
After listening in, Leela made her presence known and told the group: "I am English too and I'm very proud. Do you know why? Because we are multi-cultural. Because we are tolerant. And because we are completely opposite to everything you stand for.
"Do you know what? You bring nothing but shame on this country."
When Ste kicked Leela out of the house, she urged him to see that Stuart and Jonny had an ulterior motive for letting a gay man join their bigoted group – pointing out that he was a "poster boy" for good publicity.
Ste denied this and insisted he belonged with Stuart and the others, prompting an emotional Leela to reply: "If this is who you really are, then I've got to admit to myself that you are a racist, Ste."
The latest developments in the storyline pave the way for Ste setting up his own protest march in the village next week, which spirals badly out of control. Kieron Richardson, who plays Ste, has described this moment as another major turning point for his character.
Hollyoaks bosses are working with the Home Office and Exit UK on the extremism storyline, which will ultimately see Ste try to remove himself from the group later in the year.
Executive producer Bryan Kirkwood recently told Digital Spy: "The story isn't going in one direction until the end. It will change direction and hopefully take the audience with it.
"There's a very clear point in the story where Ste is confronted by what Stuart and Jonny represent – and we get our boy back.
"It's not going to be easy. We're not going to tie it up with a bow and say 'all's well that ends well'. There's a change of gear in the storyline and where it leads Ste will take a respectful amount of time."
Hollyoaks airs weeknights at 6.30pm on Channel 4, with first look screenings at 7pm on E4.
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