History of the British National Party

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right political party in the United Kingdom formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982 and was led by Nick Griffin from September 1999 to July 2014. Its current chairman is Adam Walker. The BNP platform is centred on the advocacy of "firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home",[1] as well as the repeal of anti-discrimination legislation. It restricted membership to "indigenous British" people until a 2010 legal challenge to its constitution.[2]

Foundation: 1982

Photograph of people carrying Union Flags, demonstrating outside a factory.
National Front march from the 1970s. The movement from which the BNP would emerge by 1982.

The British National Party

Charing Cross Hotel.[7] The fifty extreme-rightists in attendance agreed that they would establish a new political party, to be known as the British National Party.[7]

Tyndall was to be the leader of this new party, with the majority of its members coming from the NNF, although others were defectors from the NF,

National Socialist Movement during the early 1960s and then founded his own Greater Britain Movement in 1964.[12]
Most of the BNP's leading activists, such as Charles Parker, David Bruce, Richard Edmonds, and John Peacock, had previously been senior figures in the NF.[13] Tyndall later remarked that there was "scarcely any difference [between the BNP and NF] in ideology or policy save in the minutest detail".[10] He described the party as being the third serious attempt to build such a movement in Britain, following those of the NF and Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists before that.[10] Under Tyndall's leadership the party was Neo-Nazi in orientation and engaged in nostalgia for Nazi Germany.[10]

The British National Party

National Front (NF) two years before.[14] The NF had organised marches in an attempt to raise its profile, which sometimes led to violent clashes with political opponents such as the Anti-Nazi League.[15] Following a poor showing at the 1979 general election, internal factional division heightened within the NF. This culminated in chairman John Tyndall leaving the party in 1980,[16] and founding the New National Front (NNF), which became the BNP two years later.[17] According to Spearhead, a magazine produced by Tyndall, the split within the NF was initially intended to be temporary.[16] Members of Tyndall's NNF wished to modernise and break with fascism, blaming the old NF for its lack of popular appeal.[18]

Tyndall's new BNP absorbed the membership of the

neo-nazism,[19] and which had itself earlier split from the NF.[20] Also joining were members of the Constitutional Movement, another NF splinter group who had distanced themselves from fascism and violent subcultures such as football hooliganism.[21] These smaller nationalist parties attempting to modernise their image joined Tyndall's NNF through the Committee for Nationalist Unity (1981), which acted as a front to draw members from similar modernising nationalist organizations.[22] However, despite Tyndall's attempt to distance the BNP from fascism, several individuals of the disintegrating British Movement were allowed to join.[23] At its formation in 1982, the BNP had 2500 members, most of whom had joined from the Constitutional Movement through the Committee for Nationalist Unity.[24][25][26] Eddy Morrison and his minor Leeds-based nationalist party merged with the BNP later that year.[27]

Early years: 1983–1990

Rather than seeking electoral victories, the BNP focused on long-term institutional growth.[28] At the 1983 election, its membership was below 2000,[29] and by 1988 this had dropped to 1000.[30] It adopted a key tactic of the NF, that of street marches and rallies, believing that these attracted publicity and new recruits as well as boosting the morale of existing members.[28] The BNP's first march took place in London to mark Saint George's Day 1982, with 400 to 500 activists in attendance.[28] These marches often involved clashes with anti-fascist protesters and resulted in multiple arrests, thus cementing the connection between the BNP and both political violence and older fascist groups in the public eye.[31] As a result, BNP organisers began to prefer holding indoor rallies, although street marches continued to be held throughout the mid-to-late 1980s.[31] In 1986, Tyndall and John Morse were imprisoned for inciting racial hatred.[32]

The BNP's early appearance in the electoral arena was "irregular and intermittent",[33] and for the first twenty years of its existence, it faced consistent electoral failure.[34] Such failure was shared by other Neo-Nazi parties across Europe; while European populations were often highly critical of immigration, they were unlikely to endorse overt racial prejudice, and they rarely supported the idea of overthrowing the liberal democratic system of governance.[35] When it did take part in elections, it was largely in the hope that the concomitant publicity would bring them new recruits.[35] Throughout this period, the party suffered from low finances and personnel.[35] In the 1983 general election it stood candidates in 54 seats although was only able to launch campaigns in five of them.[34] Of these candidates, 40% had previously stood for the NF at the 1979 general election.[13] The BNP gained 14,000 votes and averaged a vote share of 0.6% in the seats it had contested, however had been able to air a party political broadcast for the first time.[36][37]

"Through the streets now we are marching
Like an army as to war
For the cause of race and nation,
With our banners to the fore.
Into battle, into battle, into battle BNP!
Into battle BNP!"

— BNP marching song, 1982[13]

After the

social housing.[40] However, following an anti-BNP campaign launched by local religious groups and the Anti-Nazi League it lost this seat during the 1994 local elections.[41] In the 1997 general election, it contested 55 seats and gained an average 1.4% of the vote.[42][43]

In the early 1990s, the paramilitary group Combat 18 (C18)—its name a reference to Adolf Hitler—was formed to protect BNP events from anti-fascists.[45] In 1992, C18 carried out attacks on left-wing targets like an anarchist bookshop and the headquarters of the Morning Star.[46] Tyndall was angered by C18's growing influence on the BNP's street activities,[47] and by August 1993, C18 activists were physically clashing with other BNP members.[48] In December 1993, Tyndall issued a bulletin to BNP branches declaring C18 to be a proscribed organisation, furthermore suggesting that it may have been established by agents of the state to discredit the party.[49] To counter the group's influence among militant British nationalists, he secured the American white nationalist militant William Pierce as a guest speaker at the BNP's annual rally in November 1995.[50]

Anti-BNP placards and banners at a protest against the party in 2007

In the early 1990s, a group of "modernisers" emerged within the party who favoured a move towards a more electorally palatable strategy and an emphasis on building grassroots support to win local elections.

Bangladeshi communities,[53] and for the party to promote rural issues to gain traction in the countryside.[54]

The modernisers produced a magazine titled Patriot in which they stressed the importance of "suits, smiles and good presentation".

National Front—which had been achieved by both distancing themselves from anti-democratic ideas and towards populism and by switching focus from biological racism to the perceived cultural incompatibility of different racial groups.[55] The modernisers succeeded in introducing some reforms: the BNP's newspaper for instance changed its slogan from "For Race and Nation" to "Voice of the British People".[53] The party nevertheless did not lose its racial nationalist ideology and retained its links to violence-prone extra-parliamentary extreme-right groups such as Blood & Honour.[56] Tyndall opposed many of the modernisers' ideas and sought to stem their growing influence in the party,[57] declaring that "we should not be looking for ways of applying ideological cosmetic surgery to ourselves in order to make our features more appealing to the public".[58]

In 1983, Tyndall sought to make an electoral impact by fielding 53 candidates in the

Flemish nationalists of the radical Odal Group, which succeeded the Order of Flemish Militants.[22]

The BNP had been founded in opposition to the NF's perception as a group thoroughly infiltrated by homosexuals. Indeed, when Tyndall resigned from the NF in January 1980 he cited the Directorate's 'failure to remove the taint of homosexuality from the party's leadership [which] has caused widespread defections from the party' as a major motivating factor.[4] Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the BNP's publications frequently contained articles which suggested the presence of a national 'queer plot' to unsettle the heterosexual white nationalist cause, and the British nation more generally, not least via the HIV/AIDS virus. Indeed, the party produced stickers which read 'protect us from AIDS: outlaw homosexuality'.[4]

Tyndall attempted to distance the party from neo-nazism and the skinhead subculture,[62] claiming that the party's more moderate image attracted 3,000 enquiries for membership after the 1983 general election.[63] However, despite an increase in membership and media exposure, the BNP continued to poll very low in council elections, ranging from 1 - 3%, the sole exception being a council by-election in Sunderland in 1984, where the party polled 11.7%.[64]

In 1986, Tyndall and

Rudolf Expertise. In 1989, the BNP had 800 members.[70]

Gains at local level, 1990s

The British National Party in the early 1990s picked up in its membership and support through the decline of the

Lady Birdwood were noted candidates who unsuccessfully stood for election.[75][76] Following this, BNP candidate Derek Beackon—a last minute replacement for Eddy Butler—won the party its first local council seat in 1993 from Labour, during a local-by election for the Isle of Dogs, Tower Hamlets.[14] The seat was fought on a "Rights for Whites" platform, in which it was alleged black families were being favoured in local housing initiatives.[22] In May 1994, as local elections approached, the BNP hoped to hold its seat, but was defeated by Labour. However the BNP polled well elsewhere in London, particularly in the neighbouring borough of Newham where a BNP candidate came within 65 votes of being elected.[77] Eddy Butler remarked on the results at the time: "Compared with results achieved by nationalist candidates in the recent past, our votes were nothing short of phenomenal.".[78] John Tyndall also succeeded in retaining his deposit at a parliamentary by-election at Dagenham
in June 1994, a first ever for the BNP.

In the aftermath of Beackon's electoral victory and losing his seat the following year, the British National Party clashed with paramilitary organisation,

Neo-Nazi[81] paramilitary organisation Combat 18.[80] That same year, the BNP proscribed membership of the group[75] and claimed it had been infiltrated by MI5.[82] In September 1995, Tyndall maintained that in response to the BNP's victory in Millwall, C18 had been 'created' by the State security services in order to wreck the BNP and its electoral support.[83] Nick Griffin, who later became British National Party chairman, stated in Spearhead during 1999 that members of Combat 18 had been a faction of the British Movement some years earlier, from which they were expelled, but never part of the BNP. He claimed that it had "been known for some years that MI5 encouraged or even ordered the setting up of C18 in order to disrupt and discredit the BNP after historic electoral success in Millwall in 1993", and also that The Observer had confirmed that Combat 18 was a state-sponsored "honeytrap" right from the start. It was revealed around this time that another Searchlight mole, Tim Hepple, had infiltrated the BNP, proving controversial in far-left circles, since he was the primary organiser of the Dewsbury incident in 1989.[84] However, Hepple also worked as a Searchlight mole amongst the radical left as an "agent provocateur".[85] According to author Larry O'Hara, Hepple attempted to get Green Anarchist to publish works by radical nationalists, with the intention of publishing an exposé in Searchlight that they were "working with fascists"—thus leaving them open to attack from all sides.[85] This happened to Class War.[85] Political opponents claimed that "racist incidents" occurred around the BNP's headquarters and instigated a "close down the BNP" march in October 1993.[86][note 5] In 1995, Bexley Council shut down the BNP headquarters.[90] The same year, relations were built up with William Luther Pierce's US-based National Alliance.[91]

In August 1995, Tyndall committed the party to contesting 50 seats at the next general election.

Holocaust Denial writing in The Rune that the Holocaust was a "mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie, and latter-day witch-hysteria". He was consequently prosecuted under the Public Order Act at the instigation of Alex Carlile MP.[97] These claims some British National Party members believed were losing the appeal and ideology of the party, Newland considered them to be the views of "Nazi cranks".[98] However, according to Tyndall in his "July Members' Bulletin", the BNP's support was increasing with between 2,500 and 3,000 membership enquiries just prior to the 1997 general election.[99] The party managed to save two deposits in this election, Tyndall with 7.26 per cent and Dave King with 7.5 per cent, in the East End of London and Canning Town.[100] However it has been alleged that Dave King benefited from voter confusion since he shared the same surname as Oona King, the winning Labour candidate.[99]

A dark blue banner, featuring a white circle, with the letters BNP in red.
A party banner associated with the BNP since the 1990s

Following the 1997 general election, the BNP once again suffered a setback. At local elections in May 1998, the BNP fielded five more candidates than in 1994 but its average vote fell from just over 13% to a derisory 3.28%. In Tower Hamlets, its average share of the poll slumped by almost half.[43] At the end of 1998, membership stood at 1,100.[43] Having gone from the verge of a major electoral breakthrough to the point of stagnation, the party held its first leadership election.

Griffin leadership, identity nationalism, growth years 1999 to 2007

In September 1999, Nick Griffin, supported by Tony Lecomber, stood against Tyndall for leadership of the BNP.[101] John Tyndall only received 411 (30%) of the votes, giving Griffin the majority with 70%.

9/11 the BNP made further political capital.[105]

Nick Griffin MEP, chairman of the BNP

At local level, the BNP continued to improve on its electoral results in 2002–03,

Barking and Dagenham council.[116]

In December 2006, it was revealed that a Guardian journalist, Ian Cobain, had worked undercover in the BNP for seven months, becoming the party's central London organiser.[117][118] Among the accusations made by the paper was that the BNP used "techniques of secrecy and deception ... in its attempt to conceal its activities and intentions from the public". It asserted that the BNP operated with a "network of false identities" and organised rendezvous points to allow members to be directed to "clandestine meetings". Party members were directed to avoid "any racist or anti-semitic language in public". Cobain also claimed that the membership in central London had expanded beyond the party's traditional range, now including "dozens of company directors, computing entrepreneurs, bankers and estate agents, and a handful of teachers".[117] Following the report, the campaign group Unite Against Fascism called for ballerina Simone Clarke to be dismissed from the English National Ballet, because her views on immigration were "incompatible with a leading arts institution such as the English National Ballet" and because she had "used her position to support a party which fosters division".[119] Clarke said: "the BNP is the only party to take a stand against immigration".[119] The BNP was investigated by the Electoral Commission in 2007, after The Guardian revealed that it had set up a front organisation to raise money from sympathisers in the United States.[120] Later in 2007, three BNP councillors resigned. In Epping, Terry Farr resigned after suspension for writing abusive letters to Trevor Phillips.[121] In Sandwell, James Lloyd was disqualified for not attending any meetings.[122] In Blackburn, Robin Evans left the party and wrote a letter to his former colleagues denouncing it as a party of drug-dealers and football hooligans. Evans remains a councillor, describing himself as a "national socialist".[123]

In late 2007, several BNP officials, including councillor Sadie Graham and head of administration Kenny Smith, had pressed for the expulsion of three senior officials—treasurer John Walker, his deputy Dave Hannam and director of publicity Mark Collett—who they accused of bringing the BNP into disrepute. The BNP later accused Graham and Smith of being "far left" infiltrators.[124] In December Graham and Smith launched a blog detailing their complaints against the trio.[125] They were dismissed from their positions by Nick Griffin. During the ensuing dispute, members of BNP security seized a computer from Graham's home. Griffin claimed that they were recovering party property, while Graham claimed that it was her own. A number of BNP councillors later resigned the whip after Councillor Nina Brown claimed that BNP Security had misled her into giving them the key to Sadie Graham's home.[126]

A number of BNP officials resigned in support of Smith and Graham, or were expelled. These included the head of the Young BNP.[127] The BNP leadership said that the significance of the dispute was exaggerated and that it would quickly blow over.[128][129] In late December 2007, the dissidents began to refer to themselves as the "Real BNP". They said that they would stay within the BNP and campaign for a change of leaders. In January 2008, the group launched a new website called "Voice of Change", "an umbrella group to assist candidates who wish to stand as independent nationalists in the local elections in May 2008, and in any local by-elections throughout the year". They aimed to challenge Nick Griffin's leadership, calling him "tyrannical", "arrogant" and surrounded by "yes men".[127]

The constitution of the BNP has been criticised by members for giving far too much power to the chairman and for not being easily accessible by the membership.[130] In 2007, a leadership challenge by a Tyndallite faction led by Christian (Chris) Jackson succeeded in forcing an election, which was however lost. The following year saw the resignation or expulsion of scores of activists from a different wing of the party and an unsuccessful bid for the leadership by Councillor Colin Auty.

In the 2008 London mayoral election, after years of growing support (33,569 (2.0%) in 2000 and 58,407 (3.1%) in 2004), the BNP received 69,710 (3.2%) of the vote and was fifth in the London mayoral election. It also finished fifth with 130,714 votes (5.3%) in that year's London Assembly election ( compared with 47,670 (2.8%) in 2000 and 90,365 (4.71) in 2004); its candidate Richard Barnbrook won a seat in the London Assembly.[citation needed]

Major electoral breakthrough, European Parliament, 2007 to 2010

Question Time

In the

United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal, there was media speculation that the BNP could do well in the polls, as voters sought an alternative party to register their protest.[138] Nick Griffin claimed that the success of the British National Party was down to its modernisation, having kept things "simple" and ditched the fringe in the movement who were concerned with "... genetics, Zionism and historical revisionism".[139]
He also claimed the party's success was down to the fact the mainstream parties in Britain never discussed immigration, while the British National Party openly did and were not scared to do so:

"The Labour Party, the Lib Dems and the Tories, by leaving the door to Britain open, has forced people to turn to a party which speaks openly about the problem of immigration."[133]

At the end of 2009, the party's membership was 12,632, its highest.

Young BNP (British Nationalist Youth Movement). The party's financial resources had also increased from £726,455 (in 2006) to £1,983,947.[139]

In 2009, Nick Griffin appeared on the BBC's

.

Electoral peak and subsequent decline: 2010–

The British National Party in the 2010 general election fielded a record 338 candidates, polling 563,743 votes, but won no seats. Nick Griffin came third in the Barking constituency, where the party the same year in the local elections lost all of the 12 councillors it held on the borough.[140] In total, 26 BNP councillors lost their seats, leaving the party with 28 seats overall. In aftermath of the elections, the party further suffered from infighting over concerns over the finances and leadership of the party.[141]

In aftermath of the elections, the party suffered from infighting over concerns regarding finances and Griffin's leadership.[141] A day prior to the general election, the BNP official website was also closed and replaced with a posting from its Simon Bennett, the party's website manager, accusing Griffin and James Dowson, the BNP election fundraiser, of being "pathetic, desperate and incompetent".[142] Membership of the party also declined after the general election, leading to breakaway groups Britain First (2011–present), Britannica Party (August 2011–present), the British Democrats (9 February 2013–present), Liberty GB (5 March 2013–present) and the British Freedom Party. However, the BFP later de-registered as a political party in December 2012.

Following disappointing election results in 2011, and a General Members Meeting which did away with the virtually insurmountable nominations' requirement for a leadership election, a leadership election took place in 2011. Griffin secured a narrow victory, beating fellow MEP Brons by nine votes of a total of 2,316 votes cast.[143]

In October 2012, Brons left the party, leaving Griffin as its sole MEP.[144] In the 2012 and 2013 local elections, the BNP won no council seats and witnessed a large drop in terms of their average vote.[145][146][147]

In June 2013, Griffin visited Syria on a "peace mission" along with members of

Syrian conflict.[149]

Nick Griffin also announced that he would step down as leader in 2013.[150] Three senior BNP members subsequently challenged Griffin for the leadership of the party. Having failed to secure enough support to trigger a leadership ballot, both Eddy Butler and Richard Barnbrook were expelled from the party some months later.[151]

Nick Griffin lost his European Parliament seat in the May 2014 European election. Two months later, in July, Griffin lost a leadership contest and was succeeded by Adam Walker as acting chairman who had been banned from the profession for life after allegedly verbally abusing his students.[152] In October, Griffin was expelled for the party owing to disparaging remarks he made to a fellow member,[153] and for allegedly "trying to cause disunity".[154]

In January 2015, a

HOPE not hate report estimated that membership of the party numbered 500,[155] from 4220 in December 2013.[156] At the general election in 2015, the BNP fielded eight candidates, down from 338 in 2010. The party's vote share declined 99.7% from its 2010 result.[157]

A

right-wing populist UKIP.[158] This sentiment was echoed by UKIP National Executive Committee member and former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton, who also said in 2014 that UKIP attracted "decent" BNP voters,[159] And in the same year UKIP leader Nigel Farage expressed his pride in allegedly gaining one third of BNP voter support.[160]

In January 2016, the Electoral Commission deregistered the British National Party as a legal political party, after it had failed to complete its annual registration,[161] meaning that its candidates could not have been identified on ballot papers as being endorsed by the BNP.[162] A month later, the party was re-registered.[163]

Adam Walker sought re-election in the 2019 British National Party leadership election in June 2019,[164] since the party constitution required a leadership election to occur at least once every four years. His only opponent was the BNP press officer and national spokesman David Furness.[165] The results were announced by the returning officer, David O'Loughlin, on 29 July 2019 at an unnamed venue in north west London. Walker won 308 votes (64.71%) to Furness' 161 (33.82%) and was re-elected BNP leader. There were 7 spoiled ballot papers (1.47%).[166] Furness' name has since been removed across the BNP website, and he later joined the British Democratic Party.[167]

During Walker's second term as chairman (2019–2023), the BNP has experienced a collapse in its membership, as a large number of nationalist activists once affiliated with the party have begun coalescing around the

British Democrats. The BNP has also been essentially inactive since 2019, and have not put forward a single candidate in any elections since 2019, with the only evidence of any activity whatsoever being the occasional post on its website or Twitter account. The primary source of the party's income has come in the form of money from wills left by ex-supporters.[168] Although the party constitution required for a leadership election to occur in July 2023, no candidates appeared to have stood forward, or at least none reached the eight endorsements required from voting members in order to launch a candidacy, so Walker was presumably re-elected by default.[169][170][171]

Notes

  1. a 1960s party initiated by John Bean, which became part of the National Front
    . Tyndall was a leading member of the 1960s BNP and a founder of the present party.
  2. National Front
    . Tyndall was a leading member of the 1960s BNP and a founder of the present party.
  3. ^ According to academic Martin Harrison in The British General Election of 1983, the BNP broadcast "was less heavily anti-black than the National Front's".
  4. ^ There were overtures at a possible BNP and NF Flag Group reunification as the Nationalist Alliance. It was Andrew Brons of the NF Flag Group who attempted to engineer this.[61] It came to nothing after Martin Wingfield, one of the NF Flag Group leaders, rejected the possibility in The Flag magazine. Wingfield had a long-standing grudge with BNP chairman Tyndall.[61]
  5. Mail on Sunday.[86]

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Bibliography