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{{short description|British fascist political party founded in 1982}} | |||
{{Infobox_British_Political_Party | | |||
{{For|other parties of the same name|British National Party (disambiguation)}} | |||
{{pp-move|small=yes}} | |||
party_articletitle = British National Party| | |||
{{pp-vandalism|small=yes}} | |||
party_logo = ] | | |||
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}} | |||
leader = ] | | |||
{{use dmy dates|date=May 2023}} | |||
chairman = ] | | |||
{{Infobox political party | |||
foundation = 1982 | | |||
| name = British National Party | |||
ideology = ], ]<ref> Nick Griffin, Accessed ] ] </ref>| | |||
| native_name = | |||
position = ]| | |||
| native_name_lang = | |||
international = Multilateral ties, see "affiliates" section| | |||
| logo = File:British National Party.svg | |||
european = ] | | |||
| logo_size = 230px | |||
europarl = n/a | | |||
| caption = | |||
colours = ], ] and ]| | |||
| colorcode = {{party color|British National Party}} | |||
headquarters = PO Box 287, Waltham Cross, Herts, EN8 8ZU | | |||
| abbreviation = BNP | |||
website = | |||
| leader1_title = ] | |||
| leader1_name = ] | |||
| leader2_title = | |||
| leader2_name = | |||
| founder = ] | |||
| founded = {{start date and age|df=y|7 April 1982}} | |||
| registered = | |||
| legalised = | |||
| dissolved = | |||
| split = {{nowrap|{{hlist|]|]}}}} | |||
| predecessor = | |||
| merged = | |||
| successor = | |||
| headquarters = ], ], England<ref>{{Cite web |title=View registration: British National Party |url=http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/English/Registrations/PP3960 |publisher=]}}</ref> | |||
| newspaper = ''Identity'' | |||
| student_wing = | |||
| youth_wing = ] | |||
| womens_wing = | |||
| membership_year = 2015 | |||
| membership = {{decrease}} 500<ref name="Independent membership article">{{Cite web |last=Bolton |first=Doug |date=15 April 2015 |title=General Election 2015: The BNP has almost vanished from British politics |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/general-election-2015-the-bnp-has-almost-vanished-from-british-politics-10176194.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417033148/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/general-election-2015-the-bnp-has-almost-vanished-from-british-politics-10176194.html |archive-date=17 April 2015 |access-date=19 April 2015 |website=The Independent}}</ref> | |||
| ideology = {{unbulleted list | |||
|]<ref name="bnpelection2004" /><ref name="informaworld.com">{{Cite journal |last=Copsey |first=Nigel |year=2007 |title=Changing course or changing clothes? Reflections on the ideological evolution of the British National Party 1999–2006 |journal=] |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=61–82 |doi=10.1080/00313220601118777 |s2cid=145737620|issn = 0031-322X}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Copsey|2004}}</ref><ref name="bnplondonbomb">{{harvnb|Wood|Finlay|2008}}</ref> | |||
|]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bonnett |first=Alastair |year=1998 |title=How the British Working Class Became White: The Symbolic (Re)formation of Racialized Capitalism |journal=] |volume=11 |issue=3 |page=316 |doi=10.1111/1467-6443.00066}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Back |first1=Les |last2=Keith |first2=Michael |last3=Khan |first3=Azra |last4=Shukra |first4=Kalbir |last5=Solomos |first5=John |year=2002 |title=New Labour's White Heart: Politics, Multiculturalism and the Return of Assimilation |journal=] |volume=73 |issue=4 |page=445 |doi=10.1111/1467-923X.00499}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gerstenfeld |first1=Phyllis B. |last2=Grant |first2=Diana R. |last3=Chiang |first3=Chau-Pu |year=2003 |title=Hate Online: A Content Analysis of Extremist Internet Sites |journal=] |volume=3 |page=29 |doi=10.1111/j.1530-2415.2003.00013.x|s2cid=6763505 }}</ref> | |||
|]<ref name="goon">{{Cite journal |last=Golder |first=M. |year=2003 |title=Explaining Variation in the Success of Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe |journal=Comparative Political Studies |volume=36 |issue=4 |page=432 |doi=10.1177/0010414003251176 |s2cid=55841713}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Evans |first=Jocelyn A. J. |date=April 2005 |title=The dynamics of social change in radical right-wing populist party support |journal=] |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=76–101 |citeseerx=10.1.1.199.7394 |doi=10.1057/palgrave.cep.6110050 |s2cid=7805751}}</ref> | |||
|]{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=7}} | |||
|]<ref name="goon" /> | |||
|]{{sfnm|1a1=Szczerbiak|1a2=Taggart|1y=2008|1p=102|2a1=Woodbridge|2y=2011|2p=107}} | |||
}} | |||
| position = ]{{sfnm|1a1=Driver|1y=2011|1p=132|2a1=Bottom|2a2=Copus|2y=2011|2p=146|3a1=Copsey|3y=2011|3p=1|4a1=Messina|4y=2011|4p=165|5a1=Trilling|5y=2012|5p=5}}{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=1|2a1=Copsey|2y=2011|2p=1|3a1=Goodwin|3y=2011|3p=xii}} | |||
| religion = | |||
| regional = | |||
| european = ]{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=88}} | |||
| international = | |||
| colours = {{color box|Red|border=silver}} ] {{color box|White|border=silver}} ] {{color box|{{party color|British National Party}}|border=silver}} ] | |||
| slogan = | |||
| anthem = | |||
| seats1_title = | |||
| seats1 = | |||
| seats2_title = | |||
| seats2 = | |||
| seats3_title = | |||
| seats3 = | |||
| seats4_title = | |||
| seats4 = | |||
| website = {{URL|https://bnp.org.uk}} | |||
| country = the United Kingdom | |||
}} | }} | ||
:''This article is about the modern party. For the 1960s BNP, ].'' | |||
The '''British National Party''' ('''BNP''') is |
The '''British National Party''' ('''BNP''') is a ], ] ] in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in ], ], and is led by ]. A ], it has no elected representatives at any level of ]. The party was founded in 1982, and reached its greatest level of success in the 2000s, when it had over fifty seats in ], one seat on the ], and two ]. It has been largely inactive since 2019. | ||
Accounts filed with the ] for the year 2005 state the BNP had a paid-up membership of 6,502 (up slightly from the previous year), and recorded an annual loss of £94,711 leaving the party with debts of £52,512.<ref>; Report by the BBC</ref> | |||
Taking its name from that of a ], the BNP was created by ] and other former members of the fascist ] (NF). During the 1980s and 1990s, the BNP placed little emphasis on contesting elections, in which it did poorly. Instead, it focused on street marches and rallies, creating the ] paramilitary—its name a coded reference to ] leader ]—to protect its events from ] protesters. A growing 'moderniser' faction was frustrated by Tyndall's leadership, and ousted him in 1999. The new leader ] sought to broaden the BNP's electoral base by presenting a more moderate image, targeting concerns about rising immigration rates, and emphasising localised community campaigns. This resulted in increased electoral growth throughout the 2000s, to the extent that it became the most electorally successful far-right party in British history. Concerns regarding financial mismanagement resulted in Griffin being removed as leader in 2014. By this point, the BNP's membership and vote share had declined dramatically, groups like ] and ] had splintered off, and the ] had supplanted it as the UK's foremost far-right group. | |||
According to its , the BNP "stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples", and is "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948". To achieve this aim, the BNP advocates the use of "firm but voluntary incentives" to remove ] from the UK.<ref></ref> Membership of the party is restricted to "Indigenous ]." | |||
Ideologically positioned on the extreme-right or far-right of British politics, the BNP has been characterised as fascist or ] by ]. Under Tyndall's leadership, it was more specifically regarded as ]. The party is ], and it once espoused the view that only ] should be citizens of the United Kingdom. It calls for an end to non-white migration into the UK. It called initially for the compulsory expulsion of non-whites but, since 1999, it has advocated voluntary removals with financial incentives. It promotes ] and the ], calling for global ] and condemning ]. Under Tyndall, the BNP emphasised ] and ], promoting the ] that ] through both ] and international ]. Under Griffin, the party's focus switched from anti-semitism towards ]. It promotes ], ], and a transformation away from ], while its social policies oppose ], ], and ]. | |||
The BNP denies that it is ], however, stating that it is merely standing up for the ] British ]. The party believes that racism is a part of human nature and describes its supporters as "]".<ref> ''op cit''</ref> | |||
Operating around a highly centralised structure that gave its chair near total control, the BNP built links with far-right parties across Europe and created various sub-groups, including a record label and trade union. The BNP attracted most support from within ] working-class communities in northern and eastern England, particularly among middle-aged and elderly men. A poll in the 2000s suggested that most Britons favoured a ban on the party. It faced much opposition from anti-fascists, religious organisations, the mainstream media, and most politicians, and BNP members were banned from various professions. | |||
Opposition to the BNP includes politicians as diverse as ] and ] , and is a primary aim of such groups as ] and ]. | |||
==History== | == History == | ||
{{main|History of the British National Party}} | |||
===Founding of the modern BNP=== | |||
The modern BNP has its roots in the '''New National Front''', founded in 1980 by the late ], a former chairman of the ] (NF) and veteran ] ideologue. Tyndall was a member of the previous (1960s) ], which itself was one of the organizations that eventually became the NF, and was Chairman of the Front for most of the 1970s. Following the ] Tyndall came under heavy criticism after the party's strategy of nominating a large number of candidates was perceived to have failed. He resigned from the Front in January 1980 after failing to oust its National Organiser, ]. The New National Front called for an "Anglo-Saxon Alliance" of the UK, Germany and the USA.<ref>Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley, ''Encyclopaedia of British and Irish Political Organizations'', Pinter, 2000, p. 661</ref> | |||
===John Tyndall's leadership: 1982–1999=== | |||
===First general election=== | |||
]s, demonstrating outside a factory.|A ] march from the 1970s, the movement from which the BNP emerged by 1982]] | |||
In 1982, the New National Front and a faction of the then-disintegrating ] led by ] merged to form the new British National Party. Tyndall was elected leader and Hill became his deputy. The launch was announced in a press conference in the spring, and on ], the party had its inaugural march in London.<ref>Ray Hill with Andrew Bell, "The Other Face of Terror'', Grafton, 1988. ISBN 0-586-06935-6</ref> At its first general election, in ], the party sponsored 53 candidates, three more than was required to obtain a Party Election Broadcast on television. The broadcast went out on ] and consisted of Tyndall, flanked by two ]s, speaking to camera. Images of the ] were shown as Tyndall's speech attempted to encourage nationalism (one observer noted that the "emphasis was less heavily anti-black... than the Front's"<ref>Martin Harrison in ''The British General Election of 1983'', Macmillan 1983, p. 155</ref>). The giving of television time to the BNP was controversial and was debated on the following edition of ''Right to Reply'' on Channel 4. | |||
The British National Party (BNP){{refn|The name British National Party had been used in politics by four organisations,{{sfn|Husbands|1983|p=19}} most notably by the ] which became the ] and by ] initiated by ], which became part of the ]. Tyndall was a leading member of the 1960s BNP and a founder of the present party.|group=note}} was founded by the extreme-right political activist ]. Tyndall had been involved in ] groups since the late 1950s before leading the far-right ] (NF) throughout most of the 1970s. Following an argument with senior party member ], he resigned from the NF in 1980.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1pp=21–23|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=24}} In June 1980 Tyndall established a rival, the New National Front (NNF).{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=23}} At the recommendation of ]—who was secretly an ] spy seeking to sow disharmony among Britain's far-right—Tyndall decided to unite an array of extreme-right groups as a single party.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1pp=24–25|2a1=Trilling|2y=2012|2p=59}} To this end, Tyndall established a Committee for Nationalist Unity (CNU) in January 1982.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=25}} In March 1982, the CNU held a conference at the ] in London,{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=25}} at which 50 far-right activists agreed to the formation of the BNP.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=25}} | |||
The BNP was formally launched on 7 April 1982 at a press conference in ].{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=26|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=36}} Led by Tyndall, most of its early members came from the NNF, although others were defectors from the NF, ], ], and ].{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1pp=25–26|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=36}} Tyndall remarked that there was "scarcely any difference in ideology or policy save in the minutest detail",{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=37}} and most of the BNP's leading activists had formerly been senior NF figures.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=36}} Under Tyndall's leadership the party was neo-Nazi in orientation and engaged in nostalgia for ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=37}} It adopted the NF's tactic of holding street marches and rallies, believing that these boosted morale and attracted new recruits.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=43}} Their first march took place in London on ] 1982.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=43}} These marches often involved clashes with anti-fascist protesters and resulted in multiple arrests, helping to cement the BNP's association with political violence and older ] groups in the public eye.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=44}} As a result, BNP organisers began to favour indoor rallies, although street marches continued to be held throughout the mid-to-late 1980s.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=44}} | |||
During the campaign Tyndall stated that the only significant differences between the BNP and the National Front lay in the fact that his party would bar homosexuals from high office, and that he was hopeful the two could reunite.<ref>"Tyndall's race policy", ''The Times'', ] ], p. 5</ref> The party's candidates won 14,621 votes: it was noted that the BNP's average vote was less than the National Front and that in the two constituencies where both stood, the NF was clearly more popular.<ref>] and ], ''The British General Election of 1983'', Macmillan 1983, p. 354</ref> | |||
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|quote=Through the streets now we are marching.<br />Like an army as to war.<br />For the cause of race and nation.<br />With our banners to the fore.<br />Into battle, into battle, into battle BNP!<br />Into battle BNP!|source=— BNP marching song, 1982{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=36}}}} | |||
===Mid-1980s=== | |||
Unknown to the party, Ray Hill was actually working for the anti-fascist group ''Searchlight'' and observers have suggested that the party's relatively low profile in its early years may have been related to his sabotage.<ref>Barberis, McHugh and Tyldesley, ''op cit'', p. 594</ref><ref>Richard Thurlow, "Fascism in Britain", I.B. Tauris, 1998, p. 258</ref> The party held a rally in ] on ], ], having notified the police of their intentions; the police decided not to tell the Bradford Community Relations Council, and were present in large numbers at the rally.<ref>"Police kept rally secret", ''The Times'', ] ], p. 2</ref> | |||
In its early years, the BNP's involvement in elections was "irregular and intermittent",{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=39}} and for its first two decades it faced consistent electoral failure.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=9}} It suffered from low finances and few personnel,{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=41}} and its leadership was aware that its electoral viability was weakened by the anti-immigration rhetoric of ] Prime Minister ].{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=49|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=42}} In the ] the BNP stood 54 candidates, although it only campaigned in five seats.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=9}} Although it was able to air its first ], it averaged a vote share of 0.06% in the seats it contested.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=31|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=41–42}}<ref name="eightthree">{{Cite news |title=1979–1983 |publisher=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/programmes/2001/bnp_special/roots/1979.stm |url-status=live |access-date=4 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090322033430/http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/programmes/2001/bnp_special/roots/1979.stm |archive-date=22 March 2009 |series=Under the skin of the BNP}}</ref> | |||
With the disintegration of the National Front, the BNP had friendly relations with the Support Group faction, and also attempted to recruit members of the dissolved ] (an attempt that did not see success, as the BNP's authoritarian policy did not appeal to the libertarians of the FCS). The increase in the deposit required of Parliamentary candidates hindered the party during the ] when it received 553 votes having put up 2 candidates. However, the party formed some strong international links. | |||
After the ] raised the electoral ] to £500, the BNP adopted a policy of "very limited involvement" in elections.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=42}} It abstained in the ],{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=41|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=9}} and stood only 13 candidates in the ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=9}} In ] the BNP gained one council seat—won by ] in the East London district of ]—after a campaign that played to local whites who were angry at the perceived preferential treatment received by Bangladeshi migrants in ].{{sfnm|1a1=Gable|1y=1995|1p=263|2a1=Copsey|2y=2008|2pp=51, 62–65|3a1=Bottom|3a2=Copus|3y=2011|3p=144|4a1=Goodwin|4y=2011|4p=xii}} Following an anti-BNP campaign launched by local religious groups and the ], it lost this seat during the ].{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=66|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2pp=xii, 47|3a1=Trilling|3y=2012|3pp=29–32}} In the ], it contested 55 seats and gained an average 1.4% of the vote.{{sfnm|1a1=Sykes|1y=2005|1p=131|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=9}}<ref name="copsey73">{{harvnb|Copsey|2004|p=73}}</ref> | |||
In the early 1990s, the paramilitary group ] (C18){{refn|The "18" in its name is derived from the initials of ].<ref>{{Cite news |title=1992 - 1993 |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/programmes/2001/bnp_special/roots/1992.stm |url-status=live |access-date=26 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626193632/http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/programmes/2001/bnp_special/roots/1992.stm |archive-date=26 June 2018 |series=Under the skin of the BNP}}</ref> A and H are the first and eighth letters of the ].|group=note}} was formed to protect BNP events from anti-fascists.{{sfnm|1a1=Gable|1y=1995|1p=262|2a1=Sykes|2y=2005|2p=132|3a1=Copsey|3y=2008|3p=66|4a1=Driver|4y=2011|4p=136}} In 1992, C18 carried out attacks on left-wing targets like an ] bookshop and the headquarters of the '']''.{{sfn|Sykes|2005|p=132}} Tyndall was angered by C18's growing influence on the BNP's street activities,{{sfn|Gable|1995|p=263}} and by August 1993, C18 activists were physically clashing with other BNP members.{{sfn|Gable|1995|p=264}} 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.{{sfnm|1a1=Gable|1y=1995|1p=267|2a1=Sykes|2y=2005|2pp=135, 136|3a1=Copsey|3y=2008|3pp=67, 68}} To counter the group's influence among militant British nationalists, he secured the American white nationalist militant ] as a guest speaker at the BNP's annual rally in November 1995.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=69}} | |||
===Early 1990s=== | |||
After some financial troubles, the party's national headquarters were established at ] in south-east London in 1989, above a bookshop operated by the party. In the early 1990s the party saw a growth in popularity mainly in London and the urban ], and especially in the borough of ] in the inner East End where increasing immigration from ] in an area of housing pressure led it to campaign for "Rights for whites" (a campaign directed by ]). At two by-elections in 1990, the party came in third, and on ], ] the party won 20% of the vote in a by-election in Millwall ward. | |||
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=John Tyndall was both greatest asset and its greatest drawback. His persistence, rock-like reliability and leadership had kept the movement going, but with almost imperceptible growth since its 1982 foundation.|source=— Senior BNP member John Bean{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=75}} }} | |||
A second by-election in Millwall in September 1993 saw a renewed BNP campaign to take the seat. The party obtained its first councillor, ], with a majority of seven votes.<ref>London Research Centre, "By-election results to the London Borough Councils 1990-94", p. 68-69</ref> Although Beackon was able to achieve little on the council before the full council elections (in which he lost his seat, after anti-fascist campaigners flooded the area), the by-election win led to a great increase in publicity for the party. The party headquarters site increasingly became a venue for anti-fascist protesters who frequently linked its presence to racial crimes in the surrounding area.<ref>See, e.g., letter to ''The Guardian'' ] ] from Richard Adams, ], ] and ]</ref> A near-riot ensued on ], ] when the police forced a 15,000 anti-BNP protest march to change its route away from outside the party building (31 people were arrested and nineteen police officers injured).<ref>Rajeev Syal and Tim Rayment, "Rioters clash with police over neo-Nazi bookshop", ''Sunday Times'', ] ]</ref> | |||
In the early 1990s, a "moderniser" faction emerged within the party, favouring a more electorally palatable strategy and an emphasis on building grassroots support to win local elections.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=46}} It was impressed by the electoral gains made by a number of extreme-right parties in continental Europe — such as ]'s ] and ]'s ] — which had been achieved by both switching focus from ] to the perceived cultural incompatibility of different racial groups and by replacing anti-democratic platforms with ] ones.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=70|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2pp=48–50}} | |||
Their slogan during this period was "Defend Rights for Whites".<ref>{{cite web | |||
The modernisers called for community campaigns among the white working-class populations of London's ],{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=46–47}} and Northern England.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=51}} While the modernisers gained some concessions from the party's hard-liners,{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=51}} Tyndall opposed many of their ideas and sought to stem their growing influence.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=53}} In his view, "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".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=45}} | |||
| last = Cohen | |||
| first = Nick | |||
| title = Fist in the kid glove | |||
| work = Race in Britain | |||
| publisher = The Observer | |||
| date = ] | |||
| url = http://observer.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,,604018,00.html | |||
| format = ] | |||
| accessdate = 2006-07-16 }}</ref> | |||
===Griffin |
===Nick Griffin's leadership: 1999–2014=== | ||
] | |||
{{mainarticle|Nick Griffin}} | |||
] joined the BNP in 1995. Griffin had been a member of the NF Directorate under Tyndall and remained after Tyndall's resignation, eventually leaving the Front in 1989, to join the ]. In 1999 he replaced Tyndall as BNP leader after a leadership election. Tyndall went on to run several articles in his magazine '']'' (which Griffin had previously edited) that were highly critical of the Griffin leadership. He was expelled from the BNP in August 2003. He continued to publish articles in ''Spearhead'' attacking Griffin and disputing the BNP's account of his expulsion.<ref>For example John Tyndall, "" in ''Spearhead'', October 2003</ref> He was readmitted to the party in December 2003 after an out-of-court settlement with Griffin, announced his intention of challenging Griffin for the leadership in July 2004, and was expelled again in December of the same year. Tyndall died on ], ]. | |||
] | |||
===Improved electoral performance and policy revamp=== | |||
Griffin began a programme of modernising the BNP's image, dropping policy of the compulsory repatriation of non-whites and replacing it with a firm encouragement for "voluntary" repatriation . This was followed by an improvement in electoral performances. This was also a time of increased voter alienation with the major parties and some have argued that this was the primary cause of the party’s triumphs. In the 2002 local elections, the BNP gained 3 seats in ] and averaged 20% of the votes where it stood councillors. The party was accused, however, of exploiting the high tensions in areas that had recently undergone racially-motivated riots . | |||
After the BNP's poor performance at the 1997 general election, opposition to Tyndall's leadership grew.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=53}} The modernisers called the party's first leadership election, and in October 1999 Tyndall was ousted when two-thirds of those voting backed ], who offered an improved administration, financial transparency, and greater support for local branches.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1pp=75–76, 101|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=55}} Often characterised as a political chameleon,{{sfn|Griffin|2011|p=201}} Griffin had once been considered a party hardliner before switching allegiance to the modernisers in the late 1990s. In his youth, he had been involved in the NF as well as ]ist groups like ] and the ].{{sfnm|1a1=Griffin|1y=2011|1p=196|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=66}} Criticising his predecessors for fuelling the image of the BNP as "thugs, losers and troublemakers",{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=71}} Griffin inaugurated a period of change in the party.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=55–56}} | |||
===2004 BBC documentary=== | |||
] newspaper headline showing its view on the BNP, following the revelations in the documentary]] | |||
Influenced by Le Pen's National Front in France, Griffin sought to widen the BNP's appeal to individuals who were concerned about immigration but had not previously voted for the extreme-right.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=123|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=67}} The BNP replaced Tyndall's policy of compulsory deportation of non-whites to a voluntary system whereby non-whites would be given financial incentives to emigrate.{{sfnm|1a1=Driver|1y=2011|1p=142|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=68}} It downplayed ] and stressed the cultural incompatibility of different racial groups.{{sfnm|1a1=Driver|1y=2011|1p=142|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=68}} This emphasis on culture allowed it to foreground ]; following the ] in 2001, it launched a "Campaign Against Islam".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=68}} It stressed the claim that the BNP was "''not'' a racist party" but an "organised response to anti-white racism".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=103}} At the same time Griffin sought to reassure the party's base that these reforms were based on pragmatism and not a change in principle.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=102|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=68}} | |||
The increased success led to increased scrutiny from the press. In ''The Secret Agent'', a ] documentary broadcast on ], ], filmmaker ] went undercover and joined the BNP for six months. His secret filming recorded party leader Nick Griffin calling Islam a "wicked, vicious faith"; party member ] confessing to assaulting an Asian man in the 2001 ]; party member ] stating that he wanted to "blow up" ]'s mosques with a rocket launcher; and council candidate ] confessing to pushing dog faeces through the letterbox of an Asian takeaway, a claim denied by the proprietor. | |||
Griffin also sought to shed the BNP's image as a ],{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=67}} by embracing a diverse array of social and economic issues.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=70}} Griffin renamed the party's monthly newspaper from ''British Nationalist'' to ''The Voice of Freedom'', and established a new journal, ''Identity''.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=114}} The party developed community-based campaigns,{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=67}} through which it targeted local issues,{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=70}} particularly in those areas with large numbers of skilled white working-class people who were disaffected with the ] government.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=73}} For instance, in ] it campaigned for lower speed limits on housing estates and against the closure of a local swimming bath, while in South Birmingham it targeted pensioners' concerns about youth gangs.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=74}} In 2006, the party urged its activists to carry out local activities like cleaning up children's play areas and removing ] while wearing high-vis jackets emblazoned with the party logo.{{sfnm|1a1=Goodwin|1y=2011|1p=74|2a1=Trilling|2y=2012|2p=134}} | |||
In his speech, Griffin stated that "For saying that, I tell you, I will get seven years if I said that outside", apparently referring to the maximum sentence for the criminal offence of ]. | |||
Griffin believed that ] and a growth in Third World migrants arriving in Britain would result in a BNP government coming to power by 2040.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=170}} | |||
The day after the documentary was broadcast, ] froze, then suspended, the BNP's bank accounts. | |||
The close of the twentieth century produced more favourable conditions for the extreme-right in Britain as a result of increased public concerns about immigration and established Muslim communities coupled with growing dissatisfaction with the established mainstream parties.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=9–10}} In turn, the BNP gained rapidly growing levels of support over the coming years.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=10}} In July 2000, it came second in the ], its best result since 1993.{{sfnm|1a1=Sykes|1y=2005|1p=139|2a1=Trilling|2y=2012|2pp=95–96}} At the ] it gained 16% of the vote in one constituency and over 10% in two others.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=10}} In the ] the BNP gained four councillors, three of whom were in Burnley,{{sfnm|1a1=Sykes|1y=2005|1p=138|2a1=Copsey|2y=2008|2p=144|3a1=Goodwin|3y=2011|3p=11}} where it had capitalised on white anger surrounding the disproportionately high levels of funding being directed to the Asian-dominated Daneshouse ward.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|pp=133–134}} This breakthrough generated public anxieties about the party, with a poll finding that six in ten supported a ban on it.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=142|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=11}} In the ], the BNP gained 13 additional councillors, including seven more in Burnley; the party received over 100,000 votes in this election.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1pp=124, 145|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=11|3a1=Trilling|3y=2012|3p=118}} Concerned that much of its potential vote was going to the ] (UKIP), in 2003 the BNP offered UKIP an electoral pact but was rebuffed.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=154}} Griffin then accused UKIP of being a Labour Party scheme to steal the BNP's votes.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=155}} It invested much in the campaign for the ], at which it received 800,000 votes but failed to secure a parliamentary seat.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=150|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2pp=12–13}} In the ], it secured four more seats, including three in ].{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=154}} | |||
] on '']'' in 2009]] | |||
The BNP's response to the programme was that it had featured "the loudest and most hot-headed BNP activists were deliberately plied with drink and subject to suggestive provocation". In the wake of the documentary the party expelled Barkham and Midgley (but not Williams). Griffin did not apologise for his own comments, stating that "it's still not illegal to criticise Islam". He and BNP member ] were subsequently prosecuted for incitement to racial hatred (see below). | |||
For the ], the BNP expanded its number of candidates to 119 and targeted specific regions. Its average vote in the areas it contested rose to 4.3%.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=11}} It gained significantly more support in three seats, achieving 10% in ], 13% in ], and 17% in ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=11}} In the ] the party gained 220,000 votes, with 33 additional councillors, having averaged a vote share of 18% in the areas it contested.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=167|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=12}} In Barking and Dagenham, it saw 12 of its 13 candidates elected to the council.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=2}} At the ], the BNP gained 130,000 votes, reaching the 5% mark and thus gaining an Assembly seat.{{sfnm|1a1=Woodbridge|1y=2010|1p=44|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=12}} At the ], the party gained almost 1 million votes, with two of its candidates, Nick Griffin and ], being elected as Members of the European Parliament for ] and ] respectively.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2011|1p=1|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=13|3a1=Trilling|3y=2012|3p=152}} That election also saw extreme-right parties winning seats for various other EU member-states.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=13}} This victory marked a major watershed for the party.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=13}} Amid ], Griffin was invited to appear on the ] show '']'' in October 2009, the first time that the BNP had been invited to share a national television platform with mainstream panellists. Griffin's performance was however widely regarded as poor.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2011|1p=4|2a1=Copsey|2a2=Macklin|2y=2011|2pp=86–89|3a1=Goodwin|3y=2011|3p=13|4a1=Trilling|4y=2012|4pp=168–169}} | |||
Despite its success, there was dissent in the party. In 2007 a group of senior members known as the "December rebels" challenged Griffin, calling for internal party democracy and financial transparency, but were expelled.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=93}} In 2008, a group of BNP activists in ] split to form the Democratic Nationalists.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=80}} In November 2008, the BNP membership list was posted to WikiLeaks, after appearing briefly on a weblog.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=21 March 2009 |title='BNP membership' officer sacked |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7956824.stm |url-status=live |access-date=23 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326060319/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7956824.stm |archive-date=26 March 2009}}</ref> A year later, in October 2009, another list of BNP members was leaked.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Booth |first=Robert |date=20 October 2009 |title=BNP membership list leaked |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/20/bnp-membership-list-wikileaks |url-status=live |access-date=20 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130130044736/http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/20/bnp-membership-list-wikileaks |archive-date=30 January 2013}}</ref> | |||
===Events in 2004 and 2005=== | |||
A 2004 joint press conference between Griffin and leader of the French ], ], sparked protests. | |||
Eddy Butler then led a challenge to Griffin's leadership, alleging financial corruption, but he had insufficient support.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=94}} The rebels who supported him split into two groups: one section remained as the internal Reform Group, the other left the BNP to form the ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=94}} | |||
The party has increasingly positioned itself against ], which Griffin has repeatedly called "wicked and vicious". In the wake of the ] ], the BNP released featuring images of the bombed Route 30 bus and the slogan "Maybe now it's time to start listening to the BNP." This move has been criticized by some as playing on people's high emotions and grief following a horrendous attack . | |||
By 2010, there was discontent among the party's grassroots, a result of the change to its white-only membership policy and rumours of financial corruption among its leadership.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=13–14}} Some defected to the National Front or left to form parties like the ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2014|p=901}} ] groups like ] had campaigned extensively in Barking to stop the area's locals voting for the BNP.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=14}} At the ], the BNP had hoped to make a breakthrough by gaining a seat in the ], although it failed to achieve this.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=2–3}} It nevertheless gained the fifth largest national vote share, with 1.9% of the vote, representing the most successful electoral performance for an extreme-right party in UK history.{{sfnm|1a1=Goodwin|1y=2011|1p=14|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2014|2p=887}} In the ], it lost all of its councillors in Barking and Dagenham.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2011|1p=3|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=3}} Nationally, the party's number of councillors dropped from over fifty to 28.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=3}} Griffin described the results as "disastrous".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=3}} | |||
] | |||
On ], ], Griffin and BNP activist ] pleaded not guilty at Leeds Crown Court to four and eight charges, respectively, of incitement to racial hatred. The charges resulted from the BBC documentary ''The Secret Agent'' (see above). John Tyndall was also due to appear in court but had died three days earlier. The case ended just over five months later on ], ]. Griffin and Collett were each acquitted of half of the charges against them with an open verdict delivered on the remaining charges. The ] announced that they would pursue a retrial on the remaining charges. | |||
=== Decline: 2014–present === | |||
After the ], the BNP republished one of the cartoons of ] on a leaflet, accompanied by a photo of Muslim demonstrators holding placards bearing murderous slogans and a "Which one do YOU find offensive?" caption. | |||
In a ], Griffin secured a narrow victory, beating Brons by nine votes of a total of 2,316 votes cast.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tingle |first=Len |date=27 July 2011 |title=BNP – the disastrous war of the roses |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14308103 |url-status=live |access-date=15 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171130054411/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14308103 |archive-date=30 November 2017}}</ref> In October 2012, Brons left the party, leaving Griffin as its sole MEP.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Quinn |first=Ben |date=16 October 2012 |title=BNP divisions exposed as Andrew Brons resigns |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/oct/16/bnp-andrew-brons-resigns-mep |url-status=live |access-date=10 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180402213707/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/oct/16/bnp-andrew-brons-resigns-mep |archive-date=2 April 2018}}</ref> In the ], the party lost all of its seats and saw its vote share fall dramatically; whereas it gained over 240,000 votes in 2008, this had fallen to under 26,000 by 2012.{{sfn|Goodwin|2014|p=135}} Commenting on the result, the political scientist Matthew Goodwin noted: "Put simply, the BNP's electoral challenge is over."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goodwin |first=Matthew |date=4 May 2012 |title=The BNP is finished as an electoral force |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/04/bnp-local-elections-electoral-force-finished |url-status=live |access-date=10 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519032306/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/04/bnp-local-elections-electoral-force-finished |archive-date=19 May 2018}}</ref> In the ], the BNP candidate came seventh, with 1.3% of first-preference votes, its poorest showing in the London mayoral contest.{{sfn|Goodwin|2014|p=890}} The 2012 election results established that the BNP's steady growth had ended.{{sfn|Goodwin|2014|p=891}} In the ], the BNP fielded 99 candidates but failed to win any council seats, leaving it with only two.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 May 2014 |title=BNP calls on members to breed more after elections disaster |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/04/bnp-members-breed-elections |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180518200907/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/04/bnp-members-breed-elections |archive-date=18 May 2018 |access-date=10 June 2018 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> | |||
In June 2013, Griffin visited Syria along with members of Hungarian far-right party ] to meet with government officials, including the Speaker of the Syrian People's Assembly, ], and the Prime Minister ].<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 June 2013 |title=Syria: BNP leader Griffin says opposition dominated by 'jihadi terrorists' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22860844 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927113305/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22860844 |archive-date=27 September 2018 |access-date=20 June 2018 |work=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=What is BNP leader Nick Griffin doing in Syria? |url=http://www.channel4.com/news/what-is-bnp-leader-nick-griffin-doing-in-syria |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140509155522/http://www.channel4.com/news/what-is-bnp-leader-nick-griffin-doing-in-syria |archive-date=9 May 2014 |website=Channel 4 News|date=11 June 2013 }}</ref> Griffin claims he was influential in the speaker of Syria's Parliament writing an open letter to British MPs urging them to "turn Great Britain from the warpath" by not intervening in the ].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wheeler |first=Brian |date=4 September 2013 |title=BNP's Nick Griffin claims he 'influenced' Syria vote |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23942041 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009042432/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23942041 |archive-date=9 October 2018}}</ref> Griffin lost his European Parliament seat in the ]. The party blamed the ] for its decline, accusing the latter of stealing BNP policies and slogans.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pitel |first=Laura |date=28 February 2014 |title=Angry BNP accuse UKIP of stealing Love Britain slogan |work=The Times |url=http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4019269.ece |url-access=subscription |access-date=30 March 2016}}</ref> In July 2014, Griffin resigned and was succeeded by ] as acting chairman.<ref name="Walker">{{Cite news |date=21 July 2014 |title=Teacher banned for life appointed to replace Nick Griffin as BNP leader |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/21/banned-teacher-adam-walker-british-national-party-leader-nick-griffin-vote-collapses |url-status=live |access-date=22 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802184146/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/21/banned-teacher-adam-walker-british-national-party-leader-nick-griffin-vote-collapses |archive-date=2 August 2016}}<br />{{Cite web |date=21 July 2014 |title=Nick Griffin deposed for banned schoolteacher as BNP founders |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nick-griffin-deposed-for-banned-schoolteacher-as-bnp-founders-9619893.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825020206/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nick-griffin-deposed-for-banned-schoolteacher-as-bnp-founders-9619893.html |archive-date=25 August 2017 |website=The Independent}}</ref> In October, Griffin was expelled from the party for "trying to cause disunity by deliberately fabricating a state of crisis".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Blundy |first=Rachel |date=1 October 2014 |title=BNP expels former leader Nick Griffin |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/bnp-expels-former-leader-nick-griffin-9768551.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519032428/https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/bnp-expels-former-leader-nick-griffin-9768551.html |archive-date=19 May 2018 |access-date=3 April 2018 |work=Evening Standard|location=London}}</ref> | |||
===Run-up to the UK 2006 local election=== | |||
Events in the run up to the ] seemed to show an increase in support for the BNP, with research carried out by the ], showing that, in the parts of ] where the BNP have put most of their resources, one in four voters is considering voting BNP with the figure at one in five in parts of ] . A government minister in the ] ] has also highlighted the increase in support by saying that eight out of ten white working class people in her London constituency of ] are “tempted” to vote for the BNP. The increase in support for the BNP has been described by some as a protest vote and others as voter alienation with the three ] parties (Labour, Conservatives, and the Liberal-Democrats) . The increase in support for the BNP was notably demonstrated by a poll released by YouGov, a British polling firm, that indicated that the BNP vote had surged to 7% in the wake of media attention, a more than ten-fold increase over the previous general election. | |||
In January 2015, membership of the party numbered 500,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Morris |first=Nigel |date=14 January 2015 |title=Green parties membership 'will overtake Ukip within a week', new research predicts |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/green-party-membership-will-overtake-ukip-within-a-week-new-research-predicts-9977866.html |url-status=live |access-date=15 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150115011229/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/green-party-membership-will-overtake-ukip-within-a-week-new-research-predicts-9977866.html |archive-date=15 January 2015}}</ref> down from 4,220 in December 2013.<ref name="British National Party page 11">British National Party ''Statement of Accounts Year Ended 31 December 2013'', page 11. Filed with the Electoral Commission (Ref No. ST0009748) on 7 July 2014. Accessed 3 October 2014.</ref> At the ], the BNP fielded eight candidates, down from 338 in 2010. The party's vote share declined 99.7% from its 2010 result.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hooton |first=Christopher |date=8 May 2015 |title=BNP sees 99.7% drop in votes in 2015 general election, party all but wiped out |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bnp-sees-997-drop-in-votes-party-all-but-wiped-out-10235624.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160123155157/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bnp-sees-997-drop-in-votes-party-all-but-wiped-out-10235624.html |archive-date=23 January 2016 |access-date=30 December 2015 |website=The Independent}}</ref> In January 2016, the ] de-registered the BNP for failing to pay its annual registration fee of £25. At this time, it was estimated that BNP assets totalled less than £50,000.<ref>{{Cite news |date=8 January 2016 |title=BNP stripped of official status as a political party by the Electoral Commission |work=]|location=London |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/bnp/12089676/BNP-stripped-of-official-status-as-a-political-party-by-the-Electoral-Commission.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180518205353/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/bnp/12089676/BNP-stripped-of-official-status-as-a-political-party-by-the-Electoral-Commission.html |archive-date=18 May 2018}}<br />- {{Cite news |last=Dearden |first=Lizzie |date=8 January 2016 |title=British National Party removed from official register of UK political parties for failing to submit form |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-national-party-removed-from-official-register-of-uk-political-parties-for-failing-to-submit-a6802621.html |url-status=live |access-date=8 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109024524/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-national-party-removed-from-official-register-of-uk-political-parties-for-failing-to-submit-a6802621.html |archive-date=9 January 2016}}</ref> According to the commission, "BNP candidates cannot, at present, use the party's name, descriptions or emblems on the ballot paper at elections."<ref name="electoralcommission">{{Cite web |title=Electoral Commission statement on removal of British National Party from register of political parties |url=http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/journalist/electoral-commission-media-centre/news-releases-donations/electoral-commission-statement-on-removal-of-british-national-party-from-register-of-political-parties |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160111073617/http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/journalist/electoral-commission-media-centre/news-releases-donations/electoral-commission-statement-on-removal-of-british-national-party-from-register-of-political-parties |archive-date=11 January 2016 |access-date=8 January 2016 |website=electoralcommission.org.uk |publisher=The Electoral Commission}}</ref> A month later, the party was re-registered.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wright |first=Paul |date=12 February 2016 |title=BNP 'back from dead' after re-registering with Electoral Commission |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/british-national-party-back-dead-after-re-registering-electoral-commission-1543515 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408053640/http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/british-national-party-back-dead-after-re-registering-electoral-commission-1543515 |archive-date=8 April 2016 |access-date=30 March 2016 |website=IB Times}}<br />- {{Cite web |last=Allegretti |first=Aubrey |date=27 January 2016 |title=BNP Re-Registers As Political Party – With Pledge To Fight 'Unstainable Housing' |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/27/bnp-political-party-uk-political-register-re-register_n_9086228.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306001744/http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/27/bnp-political-party-uk-political-register-re-register_n_9086228.html |archive-date=6 March 2016 |access-date=30 March 2016 |website=Huffington Post UK}}</ref> There were ten BNP candidates at the ].<ref>Democracy Club, ""</ref> At the ], the party's last remaining councillor—] of ]—decided not to stand for re-election, leaving the party without representation at any level of UK government.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pidd |first=Helen |date=2 May 2018 |title=As the BNP vanishes, do the forces that built it remain? |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/may/02/bnps-last-district-councillor-bows-out-but-insists-party-will-rise-again |access-date=10 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508040419/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/may/02/bnps-last-district-councillor-bows-out-but-insists-party-will-rise-again |archive-date=8 May 2018}}</ref> The BNP fielded only one candidate, David Furness, at the ] in ], where he came last.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Known candidates for each ballot in the UK Parliament elections |url=https://candidates.democracyclub.org.uk/elections/parl.2019-12-12/ |website=candidates.democracyclub.org.uk |access-date=17 November 2019 |archive-date=31 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031123547/https://candidates.democracyclub.org.uk/elections/parl.2019-12-12/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
A ] poll in April 2006 found that the majority of Britons agreed with many BNP policies, when unaware they were associated with the BNP. 59% supported the halting of all further immigration, and average support for the BNP propositions cited in the poll among those who did not know they belonged to the BNP was 55%. However, there were also certain BNP propositions were strongly opposed by those polled, including non-white citizens being inherently "less British", and the party's policy of encouraging the "repatriation" of ethnic minorities. Support also fell strongly among people who were told that the policies were those of the BNP. | |||
The BNP has been essentially inactive since 2019, and has not put forward a single candidate in any elections since 2019, with the only evidence of any activity being the occasional post on its website or Twitter account. | |||
===The UK 2006 local election results=== | |||
] | |||
On ], 2006, the results of the ] were reported by the BBC and showed what some have described as a dramatic increase for the BNP. The party presented about 350 candidates, of which 33 were initially declared to be winners: the second highest gain of any party in the elections. This more than doubled the number of seats held by the BNP (before the elections, the BNP was estimated to have held about 20 local political seats). Also noteworthy is the fact that the constituency of ] has become, according to many newspapers, the first council in the United Kingdom to have the BNP as the second-biggest party . However, the BNP were briefly the second largest party on Burnley Council in 2003. | |||
== Ideology == | |||
Critics of the BNP, however, say that the voters were simply punishing the unpopular Labour Party, rather than expressing an increased interest in supporting the BNP; they have also noted that the party's gains leave it with 53 out of over 20,000 councillors in the UK, a very low proportion.<ref> ] interview with ] on ], ] ] </ref> | |||
===Far-right politics, fascism and neo-Nazism=== | |||
] | |||
In the ] ] local elections, BNP candidates came second in a further 70 seats. | |||
Many academic historians and political scientists have described the BNP as a ] party,{{sfnm|1a1=Wood|1a2=Finlay|1y=2008|1p=707|2a1=Driver|2y=2011|2p=132|3a1=Bottom|3a2=Copus|3y=2011|3p=146|4a1=Copsey|4y=2011|4p=1|5a1=Davey|5y=2011|5p=436|6a1=Messina|6y=2011|6p=165|7a1=Trilling|7y=2012|7p=5}} or as an ] party.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=1|2a1=Woodbridge|2y=2010|2p=25|3a1=Copsey|3y=2011|3p=1|4a1=Goodwin|4y=2011|4p=xii}} As the political scientist ] used it, the term referred to "a particular form of political ideology that is defined by two anti-constitutional and anti-democratic elements: first, right-wing extremists are ''extremist'' because they reject or undermine the values, procedures and institutions of the democratic constitutional state; and second they are ''right-wing'' because they reject the principle of fundamental human equality".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=6}} | |||
BNP candidate ] initially appeared to have won a seat in the ] ward of ], but shortly after the declaration the returning officer announced that many of her votes had been double-counted and that the seat should have gone to the Labour candidate . However, as electoral law states a declaration cannot be overturned without a court order, she was declared the victor and sworn in as councillor. Ebanks finally lost her seat on ] ] when the High Court confirmed her votes had indeed been miscounted. She was immediately replaced by Labour candidate Catherine Grundy . | |||
Various political scientists and historians have described the BNP as being ] in ideology.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2011|1p=7|2a1=Davey|2y=2011|2p=438|3a1=Richardson|3y=2011|3p=39|4a1=Trilling|4y=2012|4p=6}}<ref name="bnpelection2004">{{Cite journal |last=Renton |first=David |date=1 March 2005 |title='A day to make history'? The 2004 elections and the British National Party |journal=] |volume=1 |issue=39 |page=25 |doi=10.1080/00313220500045170 |s2cid=144972650}}</ref><ref name="thurlow2000">{{harvnb|Thurlow|2000}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Copsey |first=Nigel |date=December 1994 |title=Fascism: the ideology of the British National Party |journal=] |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=101–108 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9256.1994.tb00008.x |s2cid=143846602}}<br />.<br />- {{Cite news |last=Doward |first=Jamie |date=24 August 2003 |title=Expelled BNP founder plans court battle |work=] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/aug/24/uk.thefarright |url-status=live |access-date=13 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130827060932/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/aug/24/uk.thefarright |archive-date=27 August 2013}}<br />- {{harvnb|Ignazi|2003}}<br />- {{Cite news |date=15 October 2009 |title=The BNP on Question Time is the wrong party on the wrong programme |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/oct/15/bnp-question-time-bbc-griffin |url-status=live |access-date=13 April 2013 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5khLyJViZ?url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/15/bnp-question-time-bbc-griffin |archive-date=21 October 2009}}<br />- {{Cite news |date=31 May 2009 |title=David Cameron attacks 'fascist' BNP |work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5395358/David-Cameron-attacks-fascist-BNP.html |url-status=live |access-date=13 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130812041659/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5395358/David-Cameron-attacks-fascist-BNP.html |archive-date=12 August 2013}}<br />- {{Cite news |last=Travis |first=Alan |date=16 October 2009 |title=Alan Johnson says BBC should bar 'foul' BNP from Question Time |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2009/oct/16/alan-johnson-bnp-question-time |url-status=live |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5khMe4g5o?url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/oct/16/alan-johnson-bnp-question-time |archive-date=21 October 2009}}</ref> Others have instead described it as ],{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=82|2a1=Woodbridge|2y=2010|2p=49|3a1=Messina|3y=2011|3p=175}} a term which the historian Nigel Copsey argued was more exact.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=164}} Academic observers—including the historians Copsey, Graham Macklin, and ], and the political theologian Andrew P. Davey—have argued that Nick Griffin's reforms were little more than a cosmetic process to obfuscate the party's fascist roots.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=164|2a1=Davey|2y=2011|2p=438|3a1=Griffin|3y=2011|3p=203|4a1=Macklin|4y=2011|4pp=19–20}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Copsey |first=Nigel |date=February 2007 |title=Changing course or changing clothes? Reflections on the ideological evolution of the British National Party 1999–2006 |journal=Patterns of Prejudice |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=61–82 |doi=10.1080/00313220601118777 |s2cid=145737620}}<br />- {{Cite journal |last=Edwards |first=Geraint O. |date=May 2012 |title=A comparative discourse analysis of the construction of 'in-groups' in the 2005 and 2010 Manifestos of the British National Party |url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/43917/1/WRRO_43917.pdf |url-status=live |journal=] |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=245–258 |doi=10.1177/0957926511433477 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529163950/http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/43917/1/WRRO_43917.pdf |archive-date=29 May 2014 |access-date=29 May 2014 |s2cid=145395375}} <br />- {{Cite journal |last=Rhodes |first=James |date=May 2009 |title=The Banal National Party: the routine nature of legitimacy |journal=Patterns of Prejudice |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=142–160 |doi=10.1080/00313220902793898 |s2cid=144304296}}<br />- {{harvnb|Gottlieb|Linehan|2004|pp=70–71}}</ref> According to Copsey, under Griffin the BNP was "fascism recalibrated — a form of neo-fascism — to suit contemporary sensibilities".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=82}} Macklin noted that despite Griffin's 'modernisation' project, the BNP retained its ideological continuity with earlier fascist groups and thus had not transformed itself into a genuinely "post-fascist" party.{{sfn|Macklin|2011|p=35}} In this it was distinct from parties like the Italian ] of ], which has been credited with successfully shedding its fascist past and becoming post-fascist.{{sfn|Griffin|2011|p=200}} | |||
The Birmingham ] reported that Ebanks had a black ]n father, in apparent conflict with the BNP's of white-only membership. Miss Ebanks denies this is true, and has previously spoken against inter-racial marriages. | |||
The anti-fascist activist ] referred to the BNP as a "Nazi organisation",{{sfn|Gable|1995|p=262}} while the ] published leaflets describing the BNP as the "British Nazi Party".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=61}} Copsey suggested that while the BNP under Tyndall could be described as neo-Nazi, it was not "crudely mimetic" of the original German Nazism.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=98}} Davey characterised the BNP as a "populist ethno-nationalist" party.{{sfn|Davey|2011|p=435}} | |||
==Policies, and position on the political spectrum== | |||
The BNP is generally not regarded as economically "right-wing": that is, they oppose ], instead emphasising so-called ] ]. Rather, the description of them as 'far-right' relates to their ] brand of ultra-] and ] policies, as well as their promotion of racial segregation and compulsory military service. The ] former ] Chairman ] has said that the BNP policies of "central direction of the economy, nationalisation, worker control of businesses, and opposition to capitalism and free trade" are left-wing rather than right-wing and that "nationalism, racism and anti-semitism are not uniquely of the Left or Right but can be found on either side of the spectrum". | |||
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|quote=The smart modernized veneer... is superficial; the core of the Party remains ideologically fascist, and this was nowhere more apparent than in the BNP manifesto for the 2010 General Election, which returned to a clutch of traditional fascist themes including the bond of blood, homeland, the decadence of contemporary culture, a nostalgia for folk traditions and heritage, and an emphasis on stricter discipline in education and society. During the election campaign anti-Semitism, racism and neo-Nazi sympathies were identified on candidates' social network sites.|source=— Political theologian Andrew P. Davey, 2011{{sfn|Davey|2011|p=438}}}} | |||
Since Griffin took over its leadership, the BNP has tried to moderate its ideology in line with the "Euronationalist" approach adopted by a number of ] European counterparts such as the ] set up by ]. This is a pattern of emphasis and presentation of policies cited as a factor in such parties' increased electoral successes of the 1990s and, arguably much more, the 2000s. | |||
In his writings, Griffin acknowledged that much of his 'modernisation' was an attempt to hide the BNP's core ideology behind more electorally palatable policies.{{sfn|Richardson|2011|pp=39–40}} Like the National Front, the BNP's private discourse differed from its public one,{{sfn|Wood|Finlay|2008|pp=708–709}} with Griffin stating that "Of course we must teach the truth to the hardcore... when it comes to influencing the public, forget about racial differences, genetics, Zionism, historical revisionism and so on... we must at all times present them with an image of moderate reasonableness".{{sfnm|1a1=Wood|1a2=Finlay|1y=2008|1p=708|2a1=Davey|2y=2011|2p=439}} The BNP has eschewed the labels "fascist" and "Nazi", stating that it is neither. In its 1992 electoral manifesto, it said that "Fascism was Italian. Nazism was German. We are British. We will do things our own way; we will not copy foreigners".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=76}} In 2009, Griffin that the term "fascism" was simply "a smear that comes from the far left"; he added that the term should be reserved for groups that engaged in "political violence" and desired a state that "should impose its will on people", claiming that it was the anti-fascist group ]—and not the BNP—who were the real fascists.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 July 2009 |title=Sink a couple of boats |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/andrew_marr_show/8146456.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327052302/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/andrew_marr_show/8146456.stm |archive-date=27 March 2016 |access-date=10 June 2016 |work=BBC News}}</ref> More broadly, many on Britain's extreme-right sought to avoid the term "British fascism" because of its electorally unpalatable connotations, utilising "British nationalism" in its place.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|pp=76–77}} | |||
Under ]'s leadership, for example, the party campaigned for the ] of all ethnic minorities. The party now advocates "voluntary repatriation" encouraged by government grants. This was a policy for which Griffin argued during his 1999 leadership campaign: at the time ] quoted him as saying that while, like many members, he still privately supported forcible repatriation, he believed the policy was a "vote loser".<ref>Nick Ryan, "Green and Unpleasant Land", ''The Times'', ] ]</ref> | |||
After Griffin took control of the party, it made increasing use of ] themes in order to emphasise its "British" credentials.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=70}} In its published material, the party made appeals to the idea of Britain and Britishness in a manner not dissimilar to mainstream political parties.{{sfn|Richardson|2011|p=41}} In this material it has also made prominent use of the ] and the colours red, white, and blue.{{sfn|Richardson|2011|p=42}} Roger Griffin noted that the terms "Britain" and "England" appear "confusingly interchangeable" in BNP literature,{{sfn|Griffin|2011|p=190}} while Copsey has pointed out that the BNP's form of British nationalism is "Anglo-centric".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=163}} The party employed militaristic rhetoric under both Tyndall and Griffin's leadership; under the latter for example its published material spoke of a "war without uniforms" and a "war for our survival as a people".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=165}} Tyndall described the BNP as a revolutionary party,{{sfn|Copsey|2011|p=82}} calling it a "guerrilla army operating in occupied territory".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=83}} | |||
The party's other policies include: | |||
*The ending of immigration to the UK | |||
*"A massively-funded and permanent programme, using and doubling Britain's current foreign aid budget, will aim to reduce, by voluntary resettlement to their lands of ethnic origin, the proportion of ethnic minorities living in Britain" | |||
*The removal of all illegal immigrants | |||
*The repeal of all "anti-discrimination" legislation, including the Race Relations Act. | |||
*Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the ] and the pursuit of ] economic measures. | |||
*Encouraging greater ] and ]. | |||
*Restricting ] to the support of countries receiving "repatriated" members of ethnic minorities. Griffin argued against giving unconditional foreign aid, including disaster aid, claiming 'charity' is not an acceptable use of public funds. | |||
*The introduction of ] for petty criminals and vandals, and the introduction of ] for paedophiles, terrorists and murderers. | |||
*The reintroduction of ] and the denial of some ] from ] refusing to perform national service. | |||
*The requirement that all law-abiding adults completing national service maintain a standard-issue military ] and ammunition in their home. | |||
*A mandatory jail term for anyone assaulting an ] worker. | |||
*Providing extra resources for special needs children, and reversing the closure of special needs schools. | |||
*The reunification of the United Kingdom and the ] in a '] of the nations of the ]' | |||
===Ethnic nationalism and biological racism=== | |||
Other policies include the promotion of ], funding to encourage women (in every family) to stay home and raise children not yet of school age, and increasing ] spending. | |||
{{update|section|date=March 2023}} | |||
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=The British National Party exists to secure a future for the indigenous peoples of these islands in the North Atlantic which have been our homeland for a millennia.|source=— The BNP, 2005{{sfn|Wood|Finlay|2008|p=707}} }} | |||
The BNP adheres to ] ideas,{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=8}} displaying an obsession with the perceived differences of racial groups.{{sfn|Richardson|2011|p=48}} Both Tyndall and Griffin believed that there was a biologically distinct white-skinned "British race" which was one branch of a wider ],{{sfn|Copsey|2008|pp=88, 163}} a view akin to those of earlier fascists such as Hitler and ].{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=88}} | |||
The BNP adheres to an ideology of ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=7}} It promotes the idea that not all citizens of the United Kingdom belong to the British nation.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=7}} Instead, it states that the nation only belongs to "the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh along with the limited numbers of peoples of European descent, who have arrived centuries or decades ago and who have fully integrated into our society".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=7}} This is a group that Griffin referred to as the "home people" or "the folk".{{sfn|Griffin|2011|p=191}} According to Tyndall, "The BNP is a racial nationalist party which believes in Britain for the British, that is to say racial separatism."{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=37}} Richard Edmonds in 1993 told '']'''s ] that "we are 100% racist".<ref>Quoted in Gabriel, John ''Whitewash: Radicalized Politics and the Media'', Routledge, 1998, p.158</ref> The BNP does not regard UK citizens who are not ethnic white Europeans as "British", and party literature calls on supporters to avoid referring to such individuals as "Black Britons" or "Asian Britons", instead describing them as "racial foreigners".{{sfn|Richardson|2011|p=49}} | |||
Source: BNP | |||
] | |||
==Electoral strategy== | |||
Tyndall believed the white British and the broader Nordic race to be superior to other races;{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=88}} under his leadership, the BNP promoted ] claims in support of ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=38}} Following Griffin's ascendency to power in the party, it officially repudiated racial supremacism and insisted that no racial group was superior or inferior to another.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=67}} Instead it foregrounded an "]" racial separatism, claiming that different racial groups had to be kept separate and distinct for their own preservation, maintaining that global ethno-cultural diversity was something to be protected.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=160|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=67}} This switch in focus owed much to the discourse of the French ] movement which had emerged within France's extreme-right during the 1960s.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=160}} | |||
{{Unreferenced}} | |||
At the same time the BNP switched focus from openly promoting biological racism to stressing what it perceived as the ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=68}} It placed great focus on opposing what it referred to as "]",{{sfn|Rhodes|2011|p=62}} characterising this as a form of "]",{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=160}} and stating that it promoted the interests of non-whites at the expense of the white British population.{{sfn|Rhodes|2011|p=64}} However, internal documents produced and circulated under Griffin's leadership demonstrated that—despite the shift in its public statements—it remained privately committed to biological racist ideas.{{sfn|Richardson|2011|p=49}} | |||
The party emphasises what it sees as the need to protect the racial purity of the white British.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=8}} It condemns ] and "race mixing", stating that this is a threat to the British race.{{sfnm|1a1=Goodwin|1y=2011|1p=38|2a1=Richardson|2y=2011|2p=48}} Tyndall said that he "felt deeply sorry for the child of a mixed marriage" but had "no sympathy whatsoever for the parents".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|pp=89–90}} Griffin similarly stated that mixed-race children were "the most tragic victims of enforced multi-racism", and that the party would not "accept miscegenation as moral or normal ... we never will".{{sfn|Sutton|Perry|2009|p=91}} In its 1983 election manifesto, the BNP stated that "family size is a private matter" but still called for white Britons who are "of intelligent, healthy and industrious stock" to have large families and thus raise the white British birth-rate.{{sfn|Durham|1995|p=283}} The encouragement of high birth rates among white British families continued under Griffin's leadership.{{sfn|Trilling|2012|p=85}} | |||
Because of its lack of substantial electoral support across the country the BNP is still widely considered to be at the fringes of British politics. However, media comment on some issues such as asylum-seekers is often very close to the BNP's position, and the party's chairman, Nick Griffin, has described the ]s as "one of the BNPs best recruiting agents" in the past. | |||
Under Tyndall's leadership, the BNP promoted ], calling for the forced sterilisation of those with genetically transmittable disabilities.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=90|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=38}} In party literature, it talked of improving the British 'racial stock' by removing "inferior strains within the indigenous races of the British Isles".{{sfnm|1a1=Durham|1y=1998|1pp=131–132|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=38}} Tyndall argued that medical professionals should be responsible for determining whom to sterilise, while a lowering of welfare benefits would discourage breeding among those he deemed to be genetic inferiors.{{sfn|Durham|1998|pp=131–132}} In his magazine ''Spearhead'', Tyndall also stated that "the gas chamber system" should be used to eliminate "sub-human elements", "perverts", and "asocials" from British society.{{sfn|Griffin|2011|p=190}} | |||
The BNP aims strongly to appeal to those members of the population who consider immigration a threat to jobs, a cause of rising crime, and a basis for cultural decline. Under its current policy, the party backs an immediate halt to all further non-European immigration and the voluntary resettlement of non-white people to their lands of ethnic origin by way of generous "homeward-bound" grants which would be made available to anyone who wanted to take advantage of them. | |||
===Anti-immigration and repatriation=== | |||
According to the BNP, an increasing number of former Conservative supporters are turning to the party. The party claims that their strong ] policies strike a chord with many disenchanted Conservative voters; however, in the run up to the 2004 European elections this position was also articulated by the more mainstream ] (UKIP), resulting in them receiving the majority of the anti-Europe "protest vote", rather than the BNP. | |||
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=Immigration into Britain by non-Europeans... should be terminated forthwith, and we should organise a massive programme of repatriation and resettlement overseas of those peoples of non-European origin already resident in this country.|source=— The BNP's first policy on repatriation, 1982{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=32}} }} | |||
Opposition to immigration has been central to the BNP's political platform.{{sfn|Davey|2011|p=440}} It has engaged in ] campaigns which emphasise the idea that immigrants and ethnic minorities are both different from, and a threat to, the white British and white Irish populations.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=7, 39}} In its campaign material it presented non-whites both as a source of crime in the UK, and as a socio-economic threat to the white British population by taking jobs, housing, and welfare away from them. It engaged in ], calling for white Britons to be prioritised by the UK's welfare state.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=40}} Party literature included such as claims as that the BNP was the only party which could "do anything effective about the swamping of Britain by the Third World" or "lead the native peoples of Britain in our version of the New Crusade that must be organised if Europe is not to sink under the Islamic yoke".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=164}} | |||
Much of its published material made claims about a forthcoming ] and promoted the ] about ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=39–40}} In a 2009 radio interview, Griffin referred to this as a "bloodless genocide".{{sfn|Rhodes|2011|p=64}} It presents the idea that white Britons are engaged in a battle against their own extinction as a racial group.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=158}} It reiterated a sense of urgency about the situation, claiming that both high immigration rates and high birth rates among ethnic minorities were a threat to the white British.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=161–162}} In 2010, it for instance was promoting the idea that at current levels, "indigenous Britons" would be a minority within the UK by 2060.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=157}} | |||
Currently the major emphasis of the BNP's electoral propaganda appears to be anti-Islamic, alleging widespread support of extremism and terrorism amongst the ] community. | |||
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|quote=The immigrant communities in Britain are... colonies filled with colonists. They are alien islands inside our towns and cities with their own laws and cultures. They will never integrate as they did not come here to integrate, but to re-create their own cultures in our country. The fact is that the only solution to Multi-Culturalism is not some asinine and bogus attempt to impose British cultural values on immigrants, but simply to commence repatriating them.|source=— Lee Barnes, senior BNP leader, 2005{{sfn|Wood|Finlay|2008|p=720}} }} | |||
==Electoral performance== | |||
===National parliament=== | |||
:''For full details of candidates and votes in parliamentary elections, see ]'' | |||
The BNP calls for the non-white population of Britain to either be reduced in size or removed from the country altogether.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=7}} Under Tyndall's leadership, it promoted the compulsory removal of non-whites from the UK, stating that under a BNP government they would be "repatriated" to their countries of origin.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=39}} In the early 1990s it produced stickers with the slogan "Our Final Solution: Repatriation".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=39}} Tyndall understood this to be a two-stage process that would take ten to twenty years, with some non-whites initially leaving willingly and the others then being forcibly deported.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=89}} During the 1990s, party modernisers suggested that the BNP move away from a policy of compulsory repatriation and toward a voluntary system, whereby non-white persons would be offered financial incentives to leave the UK.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=47–48}} This idea, adopted from ], was deemed more electorally palatable.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=47–48}} | |||
The BNP has contested seats in ], ] and ], and has announced plans to contest future elections in ]. No BNP candidate has ever won a seat as a ] in the ]. | |||
When Griffin took control of the party, the policy of voluntary repatriation was officially adopted, with the party suggesting that this could be financed through the use of the UK's pre-existing ].{{sfnm|1a1=Sykes|1y=2005|1p=136|2a1=Copsey|2y=2008|2p=104|3a1=Goodwin|3y=2011|3p=68}} It stated that any non-whites who refused to leave would be stripped of their British citizenship and categorised as "permanent guests", while continuing to be offered incentives to emigrate.{{sfn|Sykes|2005|p=136}} Griffin's BNP also stressed its support for an immediate halt to non-white immigration into Britain and for the deportation of any migrants illegally in the country.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=68}} Speaking on the ]'s '']'' in 2009, Griffin declared that, unlike Tyndall, he "does not want all-white UK" because "nobody out there wants it or would pay for it".<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 July 2009 |title=BNP 'does not want all-white UK' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8146585.stm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711171456/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8146585.stm |archive-date=11 July 2017 |access-date=10 June 2018 |work=BBC News}}</ref> | |||
In the ], the British National Party stood 119 candidates across England, Scotland and Wales. Between those candidates the BNP polled 192,850 votes, gaining an average of 4.2% across the several seats they stood in, and 0.7% nationwide - a 0.5% rise from the 2001 election. In those seats which the BNP stood in they were the 4th largest party.<ref> </ref> However, they did not stand nationwide, meaning that their national share of the vote was substantially lower than other minor parties and exit poll predictions of 3%. | |||
===Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia=== | |||
====General election performance of BNP==== | |||
{| Class=wikitable | |||
| Year || Number of Candidates || Percentage of vote || Total votes || Change (percentage points) | |||
|- | |||
| ]||align=center|119 ||align=center|0.7||align=center| 192,746 ||align=center| +0.5 | |||
|- | |||
| ] ||align=center|33 ||align=center| 0.2 ||align=center|47,129 ||align=center| +0.1 | |||
|- | |||
| ] ||align=center|56 ||align=center|0.1 ||align=center|35,832 ||align=center| 0.0 | |||
|- | |||
| ] ||align=center|13 ||align=center|0.1 ||align=center|7,631 ||align=center|+0.1 | |||
|- | |||
| ] ||align=center|2 ||align=center|0.0 ||align=center|553 ||align=center| 0.0 | |||
|- | |||
| ] ||align=center|53 ||align=center|0.0 ||align=center|14,621 ||align=center| N/A | |||
|} | |||
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=My experience as a campaigner against the multi-racial idea in Britain and in favour of our country's centuries-old tradition of racial homogeneity has brought home to me beyond any doubt the fact that Jews are to be found at the forefront of opposition to British racial self-preservation.|source=— Tyndall's belief that a Jewish conspiracy was behind multiracial Britain{{sfn|Tyndall|1988|pp=106–107}} }} | |||
===Local government=== | |||
Like other minority parties in the UK, the majority of the BNP's electoral success has come in local government elections. The BNP's first electoral success came in September 1993, when ] was returned as councillor for ] (in London) on a low turnout. He lost his seat in further elections the next year, although his personal vote actually increased by 30% (on a turnout of 70%). The Millwall seat was the Party's only electoral victory in John Tyndall's seventeen year reign as leader. | |||
Under Tyndall's leadership, the BNP was openly ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=38–39}} From ], Tyndall had inherited a belief that there was a global conspiracy of Jews bent on world domination, viewing the '']'' as genuine evidence for this.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=91}} He believed that Jews were responsible for both ] and international finance capitalism and that they were responsible for undermining the British Empire and the British race.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=91}} He believed that both democratic government and immigration into Europe were parts of the Jewish conspiracy to weaken other races.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=89}} In an early edition of ''Spearhead'' published in the 1960s, Tyndall wrote that "if Britain were to become Jew-clean she would have no nigger neighbours to worry about... It is the Jews who are our misfortune: T-h-e J-e-w-s. Do you hear me? THE JEWS?"{{sfnm|1a1=Billig|1y=1978|1p=128|2a1=Richardson|2y=2011|2p=53}} Tyndall added ] to the anti-Semitic beliefs inherited from Chesterton, believing that ] was a hoax created by the Jews to gain sympathy for themselves and thus aid their plot for world domination.{{sfnm|1a1=Gable|1y=1995|1p=267|2a1=Copsey|2y=2008|2p=92|3a1=Goodwin|3y=2011|3p=39}} Among those to endorse such anti-Semitic conspiracy theories was Griffin, who promoted them in his 1997 pamphlet, '']''{{sfn|Richardson|2011|p=53}} Griffin also engaged in Holocaust denial, publishing articles promoting such ideas in ''The Rune'', a magazine produced by the ] BNP. In 1998, these articles resulted in Griffin being convicted of ].{{sfnm|1a1=Griffin|1y=2011|1p=197|2a1=Macklin|2y=2011|2p=26|3a1=Richardson|3y=2011|3p=52|4a1=Trilling|4y=2012|4p=75}} | |||
In the council elections of May 2002, three BNP candidates gained seats on ] council. This was interpreted in some quarters as an indicator of the mood of the British electorate. The BNP had fielded 68 candidates nationwide. In the council elections of May 2003, the BNP increased its Burnley total by five seats, thus briefly becoming the second-largest party and official opposition on that council, a position it narrowly lost soon afterwards after the resignation of a BNP councillor who had been disciplined by the party after unruly behaviour at the party's annual 'Red, White and Blue' festival. The BNP lost the subsequent by-election to the ], which beat the BNP by a margin of 0.4% in a by-election. | |||
When Griffin took power, he sought to banish overt anti-Semitic discourse from the party.{{sfn|Macklin|2011|p=26}} He informed party members that "we can get away with criticising Zionists, but any criticism of Jews is likely to be legal and political suicide".{{sfn|Trilling|2012|p=85}} In 2006, he complained that the "obsession" that many BNP members had with "the Jews" was "insane and politically disastrous".{{sfn|Macklin|2011|p=25}} In 2004, the party selected a Jewish candidate, Pat Richardson, to stand for it during local council elections, something Tyndall lambasted as a "gimmick".{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=42}} References to Jews in BNP literature were often coded to hide the party's electorally unpalatable anti-Semitic ideas.{{sfn|Richardson|2011|p=53}} For instance, the term "]" was often used in party literature as a euphemism for "Jews".{{sfnm|1a1=Goodwin|1y=2011|1p=39|2a1=Richardson|2y=2011|2p=53}} As noted by Macklin, Griffin still framed many of his arguments "within the parameters of recognizably anti-Semitic discourse".{{sfn|Macklin|2011|p=36}} The BNP's literature is replete with references to a conspiratorial group who have sought to suppress nationalist sentiment among the British population, who have encouraged immigration and mixed-race relationships, and who are promoting the ] of the country.{{sfn|Richardson|2011|p=52}} This group is likely a reference to the Jews, being an old fascist canard.{{sfn|Richardson|2011|pp=52–53}} | |||
During these elections, the BNP contested a record 221 seats nationwide (just under 4% of the total available). They won eleven council seats in all, though Nick Griffin was unsuccessful in his attempt to gain a place on ] Metropolitan Council. In some areas, such as ], it constested all wards and failed to get a seat; in others areas such as ], parts of the ] in the ] and in ] it gained council seats. | |||
Sectors of the extreme-right were highly critical of Griffin's softening on the subject of the Jews, claiming that he had "sold out" to the ']'.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2011|p=118}} In 2006, John Bean, editor of ''Identity'', included an article in which he reassured BNP members that the party had not "sold out to the Jews" or "embraced Zionism" but that it remained "committed to fighting... subversive Jews".{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=94}} Under Griffin, the BNP's website linked to other web pages that explicitly portrayed immigration as part of a Jewish conspiracy,{{sfn|Richardson|2011|pp=53–54}} while it also sold books that promoted Holocaust denial.{{sfn|Richardson|2011|pp=54–55}} In 2004, secretly filmed footage was captured in which Griffin was seen claiming that "the Jews simply bought the West, in terms of press and so on, for their own political ends".{{sfn|Richardson|2011|p=52}} | |||
Prior to the ], the BNP had stated that it believed it could win "between one and three seats" in the 2004 ]ary elections, almost certainly including the "North West England" European Parliamentary constituency. {{Citation needed}} In fact, although their share of the vote increased to 4.9%, they failed to win a single seat. The Party also hoped to pick up an increased share of the vote in the ] of England, where its strongly ] policies were believed to be most popular. However, in that region it gained only 3.0% of the vote, coming 6th. | |||
] | |||
Many researchers have put the electoral successes of the BNP down to voters' casting a 'protest vote' against the perceived incompetence of local councils, and disillusionment with the mainstream parties, rather than as positive support for the BNP's policies . However, the BNP's consistent good polling in some areas has led some to question this analysis.{{citation needed}} | |||
Copsey noted that a "culture of anti-Semitism" still pervaded the BNP.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=162}} In 2004, a London activist told reporters that "most of us hate Jews",{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=162}} while a Scottish BNP group was observed making ]s while shouting "Auschwitz".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=162}} The party's ] candidate compared the ] to ], while their ] candidate stated her refusal to buy from "the ]s that run ]".{{sfn|Richardson|2011|pp=50–51}} In 2009, a BNP councillor from ] resigned from the party, complaining that it still contained Holocaust deniers and Nazi sympathisers.{{sfn|Macklin|Virchow|2011|p=220}} | |||
Griffin informed BNP members that rather than "bang on" about the Jews—which would be deemed extremist and prove electorally unpopular—their party should focus on criticising ], an issue that would be more resonant among the British public.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=85}} After Griffin took over, the party increasingly embraced an Islamophobic stance, launching a "Campaign Against Islam" in September 2001.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=68}} In ''Islam: A Threat to Us All'', a leaflet distributed to London households in 2007, the BNP claimed that it would stand up to both ] and "the threat that 'mainstream' Islam poses to our British culture".{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=41}} In contrast to the mainstream British view that the actions of militant ] — such as those who perpetrated the ] —a re not representative of mainstream Islam, the BNP insists that they are.{{sfn|Wood|Finlay|2008|p=710}} In some of its literature it presents the view that every Muslim in Britain is a threat to the country.{{sfn|Wood|Finlay|2008|p=721}} Griffin referred to Islam as an "evil, wicked faith",{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=166}} and elsewhere publicly described it as a "cancer" that needed to be removed from Europe through "chemotherapy".{{sfn|Trilling|2012|p=143}} | |||
In December 2003, a councillor from another party (a Conservative on ] council) defected to the BNP for the first time , . He was followed in August 2004 by another Conservative, on Mirfield Council , and an independent member of Keighley town council in March 2006 . Conversely, other BNP councillors have resigned or left the party . For example, Burnley councillor Maureen Stowe, who said, "I could never understand why all those people were calling the BNP fascists. Well I do now." | |||
The BNP has called for the prohibition of immigration from Muslim countries and for the banning of the ], ] meat, and the building of new ]s in the UK.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=69}} It also called for the immediate deportation of radical ] preachers from the country.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=69}} In 2005, the party stated that its primary issue of concern was the "growth of fundamentalist-militant Islam in the UK and its ever-increasing threat to Western civilization and our implicit values".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=69}} To broaden its anti-Islamic agenda, Griffin's BNP made overtures to the UK's Hindu, Sikh, and Jewish communities; Griffin's claim that Jews can make "good allies" in the fight against Islam caused controversy within the international far-right.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|pp=41–42}} | |||
The party's biggest election success was a gain of 51.9% of the vote in the Goresbrook ward of ] on ] ]. However, the turnout was just 28.8%, and the councillor Daniel Kelley retired just 10 months later, claiming that he had been an outcast within the council. A new election was held on ] ], in which this time the Labour candidate gained 51% of the vote, and the BNP came second with 32%. . | |||
===Government=== | |||
In the ], the BNP more than doubled its number of councillors, increasing the number from 20 to 52. The biggest gain was in ] where the BNP won 11 of the 13 seats it contested. A twelfth seat was awarded to the BNP, following a High Court petition. The BNP also won 3 seats in ], 3 in ], 3 in ], 2 seats in ], 2 in ], and single seats in ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]. The Solihull seat was in the ] ward and was won by a majority of just 19 votes. They were initially declared to have won the Birmingham seat of ] but this was due to a counting error and subsequently overturned in court. | |||
Tyndall believed that liberal democracy was damaging to British society, claiming that liberalism was a "doctrine of decay and degeneration".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=83}} Under Tyndall, the party sought to dismantle the UK's liberal democratic system of parliamentary governance, although was vague about what it sought to replace this system with.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=40}} In his 1988 work ''The Eleventh Hour'', Tyndall wrote of the need for "an utter rejection of liberalism and a dedication to the resurgence of authority".{{sfn|Griffin|2011|p=190}} Tyndall's BNP perceived itself as a revolutionary force that would bring about a ] in Britain, entailing a radical transformation of society.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=84}} It proposed a state in which the Prime Minister would have full executive powers, and would be elected directly by the population for an indefinite period of time.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=85}} This Prime Minister could be dismissed from office in a further election that could be called if Parliament produced a ] in them.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=85}} It stated that rather than having political parties, candidates standing for election to the parliament would be independent.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|pp=85–86}} During the period of Griffin's leadership, the party downplayed its anti-democratic themes and instead foregrounded ] ones.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=69–70}} Its campaign material called for the devolution of greater powers to local communities, the reestablishment of ], and the introduction of citizens' initiative referendums based on those used in Switzerland.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=70}} | |||
] | |||
On ] ], the Reverend Robert West, a member of South Holland District Council who was suspended from the Conservative Party, joined the BNP. In addition to this on ] ] the BNP gained their first councillor in Wales when Mike Howard of Rhewl Mostyn, ] defected being an Independent to the BNP out of disillusion with Labours policies on the national level. Hence As of ] ], the party has 53 councillors in local government. | |||
The BNP has adopted a hard Eurosceptic platform from its foundation.{{sfn|Szczerbiak|Taggart|2008|p=102}} Under Tyndall's leadership, the BNP had overt anti-Europeanist tendencies.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2011|p=107}} Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he maintained the party's opposition to the ].{{sfn|Woodbridge|2011|p=108}} Antagonism toward what became the ] was retained under Griffin's leadership, which called for the UK to leave the Union.{{sfnm|1a1=Sykes|1y=2005|1p=136|2a1=Woodbridge|2y=2011|2p=108}} One of ]'s biggest donors during the ] referendum was former BNP member Gladys Bramall,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Waterson |first=Jim |date=21 June 2016 |title=Former BNP Member Has Given £600,000 To Vote Leave |work=BuzzFeed |url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/vote-leave-donor |url-status=live |access-date=18 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170115034420/https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/vote-leave-donor |archive-date=15 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Syal |first=Rajeev |date=21 June 2016 |title=Vote Leave gets big donation from former BNP member on leaked list |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/21/vote-leave-gets-big-donation-from-gladys-bramall-former-bnp-member-leaked-list |url-status=live |access-date=18 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221141135/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/21/vote-leave-gets-big-donation-from-gladys-bramall-former-bnp-member-leaked-list |archive-date=21 December 2016}}</ref> and the party has claimed that its anti-Establishment rhetoric "created the road" to Britain's ] the European Union.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Edwards |first=Phil |date=30 June 2016 |title=How the BNP Created the Road to Brexit |work=British National Party |url=https://www.bnp.org.uk/news/national/how-bnp-created-road-brexit |url-status=dead |access-date=18 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220213741/https://www.bnp.org.uk/news/national/how-bnp-created-road-brexit |archive-date=20 December 2016}}</ref> | |||
Tyndall suggested replacing the EEC with a trading association among the "White Commonwealth", namely countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=95}} Tyndall held ] views and was sympathetic to the re-establishment of the British Empire through the recolonization of parts of Africa.{{sfnm|1a1=Sykes|1y=2005|1p=116|2a1=Copsey|2y=2008|2p=96}} However, officially the BNP had no plans to re-establish the British Empire or secure dominion over non-white nations.{{sfnm|1a1=Sykes|1y=2005|1p=144|2a1=Copsey|2y=2008|2p=95}} In the 2000s, it called for an immediate military withdrawal from both the ] and the ].{{sfn|Trilling|2012|p=131}} During his appearance on ''Question Time'', regarding the Iraq War, Griffin described the war as "illegal", saying, "We shouldn't have gone into Iraq, we must never go into ], we should leave them alone."<ref name=":0" /> It has advocated ending overseas aid to provide economic support within the UK and to finance the voluntary repatriation of legal immigrants.<ref name="routledge" /> | |||
:''See also: ]'' | |||
Under Tyndall, the BNP rejected both ] and ], stating that they were bogus because they caused division among the wider "British race".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=88}} Tyndall also led the BNP in support of ], for instance by holding public demonstrations against the ] party ],{{sfn|Durham|2012|p=207}} and endorsing Ulster loyalist paramilitaries.{{sfn|Gable|1995|p=267}} Under Griffin, the BNP continued to support Ulster's membership of the United Kingdom, calling for the crushing of the ] and the scrapping of the ].{{sfn|Durham|2012|p=207}} Griffin later expressed the view that "the only solution that could possibly be acceptable to loyalists and republicans alike" would be the reintegration of the Irish Republic into the United Kingdom, which would be reorganised along ] lines.{{sfn|Durham|2012|p=208}} However, while retaining the party's commitment to Ulster loyalism, under Griffin the importance of the issue was downplayed, something that was criticised by Tyndall loyalists.{{sfn|Durham|2012|p=208}} | |||
==BNP claims of repression of free speech== | |||
It is claimed that the mainstream media in the UK do not mention BNP policies, or make reference to statements made by the BNP,{{fact}} though this assertion ignores their tiny level of support nationally. As a result the BNP have a limited range of outlets for the public to acquire information about them. | |||
===Economic policy=== | |||
Due to campaigning from anti-fascist groups, the BNP has encountered difficulties finding a company prepared to print their monthly publication ''Voice of Freedom'' . The Party acquired a printing press in the run up to the 2005 general election, thereby removing its dependency on external printing houses. In September 2005, 60,000 copies of ''Voice of Freedom'', which had been printed in ], were seized by British police at Dover. The police later admitted this was a mistake and released the impounded literature shortly thereafter. | |||
Tyndall described his approach to the economy as "National Economics",{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=94}} expressing the view that "politics must lead, and not be led by, economic forces".{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=93}} His approach rejected ] because it did not serve "the national interest", although still saw advantages in a ] system, looking favourably on individual enterprise.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|pp=94–95}} He called on capitalist elements to be combined with ] ones, with the government playing a role in planning the economy.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=95}} He promoted the idea of the UK becoming an ] which was economically self-sufficient, with domestic production protected from foreign competition.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=95}} This attitude was heavily informed by the ] system that had been introduced in ]'s Fascist Italy.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=96}} | |||
Party members sometimes conceal their affiliation, which can be deemed unacceptable by employers, unions and co-workers. Police officers are not allowed to be members of the BNP "or similar organisation whose | |||
Constitution, aims, objectives or pronouncements may contradict the duty to promote equality". The prison service likewise prohibits membership of the BNP and similar organisations, because it deems them racist. A similar policy has been discussed in the and . Many of the major trade unions are affiliates of , which actively campaigns against the BNP. | |||
A number of senior members, including Griffin and ], had ] leanings, having been influenced by ] and ].{{sfnm|1a1=Gable|1y=1995|1p=267|2a1=Macklin|2y=2011|2p=27}} Under Griffin's leadership, the BNP promoted ] and ].{{sfn|Rhodes|2011|p=63}} Its economic policies reflect a vague commitment to distributist economics, ethno-socialism, and ].{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|p=229}} The BNP maintains a policy of ] and ], although in comparison with other far-right nationalist parties, the BNP focuses less on ].<ref name="routledge">{{harvnb|Davies|2002|p=149}}</ref> It has called for British ownership of its own industries and resources and the "subordination of the power of the City to the power of the government".<ref name="routledge" /> It has promoted the regeneration of farming in the United Kingdom, with the object of achieving maximum ] in food production.<ref name="routledge" /> In 2002, the party criticised corporatism as a "mixture of big capitalism and state control", saying it favoured a "] tradition established by home-grown thinkers" favouring small business.<ref name="eatw">{{harvnb|Eatwell|2004|p=69}}.</ref> The BNP has also called for the ] of the ]s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nationalisation of the railways |url=http://www.bnp.org.uk/news/national/bnp-ukip-how-we-are-different |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160905194906/http://www.bnp.org.uk/news/national/bnp-ukip-how-we-are-different |archive-date=5 September 2016}}</ref> The BNP, in its 2010 manifesto, called for Britain to emulate the ''tiger states'' of East Asia, such as ] and ].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://general-election-2010.co.uk/bnp-manifesto-2010-general-election/bnp-manifesto-2010-the-economy-putting-britain-back-on-the-road-to-recovery/ |title=The Economy: Putting Britain Back on the Road to Recovery |publisher=BNP |date=2010 |access-date=14 June 2024 |archive-date=14 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614094222/https://general-election-2010.co.uk/bnp-manifesto-2010-general-election/bnp-manifesto-2010-the-economy-putting-britain-back-on-the-road-to-recovery/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
==Race and the BNP== | |||
===History of the party and claims of repudiating racism=== | |||
At its founding, the BNP was explicitly racist. In October 1990, the BNP was described by the ]'s committee on ] and xenophobia as an "openly Nazi party... whose leadership have serious criminal convictions". When asked in 1993 if the BNP was racist, its deputy leader ] said, "We are 100 per cent racist, yes". Founder John Tyndall proclaimed that "] is my bible". | |||
When it comes to ], the BNP refers to itself as the "real green party", stating that the ] engages in "watermelon" politics by being green (environmentalist) on the outside but red (leftist) on the inside.{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|p=230}} Influenced by the ], it framed its arguments regarding environmentalism in an anti-immigration manner, talking about the need for 'sustainability'.{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|p=230}} It engages in ], with Griffin claiming that global warming is a hoax orchestrated by those trying to establish the ].{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|p=230}} | |||
When ] became Chairman in 1999, however, the party began to change its stance with regard to racial issues. Griffin claims to have repudiated racism, instead espousing what he calls "]". He claims that his core ideology is "concern for the well-being of the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish ethnic nations that compose the United Kingdom" {{Citation needed}} . | |||
===Social issues=== | |||
The BNP publicly disavows any interest in white supremacy. Its detractors argue that its definition of white supremacy as the "wish to rule over foreign peoples", is too narrow. The BNP requires that all members must be members of the "Indigenous Caucasian" "racial group" . The party does not regard non-white people as being British, even if they have been born in the UK and are British citizens. Instead, Griffin has stated that 'non-Europeans who stay', while protected by British law, 'will be regarded as permanent guests'. | |||
{{update|section|date=May 2022}} | |||
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=There is only one political party that Christians can support without betraying the Lord Jesus Christ. This Party is opposed to abortion and the teaching of homosexuality to children. This Party supports the institution of marriage and the traditional family... This Party is opposed to political correctness and the creeping Islamification of Britain.|source=— A 2010 BNP leaflet distributed to Christian leaders{{sfn|Davey|2011|p=442}} }} | |||
Race is still important to the BNP’s understanding of nation and identity. The BNP is opposed to mixed-race relationships on the stated ground that racial differences must be preserved; it argues that when a white person produces a mixed-race child, "a white family line that stretches back into deep pre-history is destroyed." The party does however have a half Turkish half British councillor in ]. | |||
The BNP ] to ] and has pledged that—if in government—it would introduce financial incentives to encourage women to leave employment and become housewives.{{sfnm|1a1=Durham|1y=1995|1pp=284–285|2a1=Durham|2y=1998|2pp=150, 152|3a1=Copsey|3y=2008|3p=87|4a1=Macklin|4y=2011b|4p=229}} It would also seek to discourage children being born out of wedlock.{{sfn|Durham|1998|p=160}} It has stated that it would criminalise ], except in cases where the child has been conceived as a result of rape, the mother's life is threatened, or the child will be disabled.{{sfnm|1a1=Durham|1y=1998|1pp=142–143|2a1=Copsey|2y=2008|2pp=90–91|3a1=Macklin|3y=2011b|3p=229}} There are nevertheless circumstances where it has altered this anti-abortion stance; an article in ''British Nationalist'' stated that a white woman bearing the child of a black man should "abort the pregnancy... for the good of society".{{sfn|Durham|1998|p=144}} More widely, the party censures inter-racial sex and accuses the British media of encouraging inter-racial relationships.{{sfn|Durham|1998|pp=161–164}} | |||
Despite this in 2006, ], a grandson of an Armenian refugee was chosen as a council candidate in ]. The selection was reported to have caused some dissent within parts of the BNP,; however, it was defended by the BNP leadership who said 'ordinary members can rest assured that Sharif Gawad is not a racial alien. Sharif, despite his name is white and British and the British National Party is staying true to its core principles'. "Mr Gawad fulfilled the BNP criteria of being "a member of the white European race of people", they affirmed). | |||
Under Tyndall, the BNP called for the re-criminalisation of homosexual activity.{{sfnm|1a1=Durham|1y=1998|1p=156|2a1=Copsey|2y=2008|2p=90}} Following Griffin's takeover, it moderated its policy on ].{{sfn|Sykes|2005|p=136}} However, it opposed the 2004 ] of ]s for same-sex couples.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=70}} During his 2009 ''Question Time'' appearance, Griffin described the sight of two men kissing as "for a lot of us (Christians)... really creepy".{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=88}} The party has also condemned the availability of ]; its 1992 manifesto stated that the BNP would give the "pedlars of this filth... the criminal status that they deserve".{{sfn|Durham|1998|p=160}} The BNP promoted the reintroduction of ],{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=70}} and the sterilisation of some criminals.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=90}} It also called for the reintroduction of ] in the UK,{{sfn|Sykes|2005|p=137}} adding that on completion of this service adults would be permitted to keep their standard issue ].{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=159}} | |||
Nick Griffin describes his views on race as follows: "... while the BNP is not racist, it must not become multi-racist either. Our fundamental determination to secure a future for white children is restated, and an area of uncertainty is addressed and a position which is both principled and politically realistic is firmly established. We don't hate anyone, especially the mixed race children who are the most tragic victims of enforced multi-racism, but that does not mean that we accept ] as moral or normal. We do not and we never will." Griffin's use of the phrase "secure a future for white children" seems to allude to the ] "]". | |||
According to the academic Steven Woodbridge, the BNP had a "rather ambivalent attitude toward Christian belief and religious themes in general" during most of its history,{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=25}} but under Griffin's modernisation the party increasingly utilised Christian terminology and themes in its discourse.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|pp=25, 26}} Various members of the party presented themselves as "true Christians",{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=25}} and defenders of the faith, with key ideologues stating that the religion has been "betrayed" and "sold out" by mainstream clergy and the British establishment.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=26}} British Christianity, the BNP said, was under threat from Islam, ], multiculturalism, and "]".{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=26}} On analysing the BNP's use of Christianity, Davey argued that the party's emphasis was not on Christian faith itself, but on the inheritance of European Christian culture.{{sfn|Davey|2011|p=442}} | |||
The BNP Leeds University lecturer ], who was suspended from his post after claiming that the ] "has demonstrated to me beyond any reasonable doubt there is a persistent gap in average black and white average intelligence." Ellis for his part has called the BNP "a bit too socalist" for his liking and described himself as "an unrepentant ]" who would support "humane" repatriation. | |||
The BNP long considered the mainstream media to be one of its major impediments to electoral success.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=92}} Tyndall said that the media represents a "state above the state" which was committed to the "left-liberal" goals of ], liberal democracy, and racial integration.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=92}} The party has said that the mainstream media has given disproportionate coverage to the achievements of ethnic minority sportsmen and to the victims of anti-black racism while ignoring white victims of racial prejudice and the BNP's activities.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=93}} Both Tyndall and Griffin have said that the mainstream media is controlled by Jews, who use it for their own devices; the latter promoted this idea in his ''Who are the Mind Benders?''{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|pp=92–93}} Griffin has described the BBC as "a thoroughly unpleasant, ultra-leftist establishment".{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=89}} The BNP has stated that if it took power, it would end "the dictatorship of the media over free debate".{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=95}} It said that it would introduce a law prohibiting the media from disseminating falsehoods about an individual or organisation for financial or political gain,{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=94}} and that it would ban the media from promoting racial integration.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=95}} | |||
In April 2006, ] confronted the party's national press officer, Dr. Phil Edwards, with a tape of telephone conversation the previous year in which he had said that "black kids are going to grow up dysfunctional ... and are probably going to mug you". He responded: "If I thought I was going to be recorded ... I would not have used such intemperate language, but let’s be honest about it, the facts are there." | |||
BNP policy pledges to protect ],{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=159}} as part of which it would repeal all laws banning racial or religious hate speech.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=159}} It would repeal the ] and withdraw from the ].<ref name="bbcmanifesto">{{Cite news |title=BNP General Election Manifesto 2005 |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/BNP_uk_manifesto.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=13 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807132131/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/BNP_uk_manifesto.pdf |archive-date=7 August 2017}}</ref> | |||
==Support== | |||
===Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial=== | |||
Both the BNP and its leader, Nick Griffin, have historically promoted anti-Semitism and holocaust denial. The BNP claims that it has now "cast off the leg-iron ... of anti-Semitism" and states that the party has ]ish members, and one of its councillors, Pat Richardson (Epping Forest), is herself Jewish . The party's website states that racially British or European Jews may join the party.{{Citation needed}} | |||
===Finances=== | |||
In 1988, '']'' revealed that '']'', a publication that claimed the holocaust was an "evil hoax", was being published by the BNP's then deputy leader, ], on behalf of a BNP ], the Centre for Historical Review, and distributed by members. John Tyndall, the party's leader, said he was not involved in the publication but that it had his full support.<ref>Jon Craig and Jo Revill, "Holocaust hate sheet alarms British Jews", ''Sunday Times'', ] ]</ref> | |||
In contrast to the UK's mainstream parties, the BNP received few donations from businesses, wealthy donors, or trade unions.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=90}} Instead it relied on finances produced by its membership.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=91}} Under Tyndall, the party operated on a shoestring budget with a lack of transparency; in 1992 it collected £5000 and in 1997 it collected £10,000.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=91}} It also tried raising money by selling extreme-right literature, and opened a bookshop in ] in 1989, although this was closed in 1996 after being attacked by anti-fascists and proving too costly to run.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2011b|1p=129|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=91}} In 1992, the party formed a ] of its wealthier supporters, which was renamed the Trafalgar Club in 2000.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=91}} By the 1997 general election, it admitted that its expenses had "far out-stripped" its income, and it was appealing for donations to pay off loans it had taken out.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=91}} | |||
The 2002 ] documentary "" featured hidden-camera footage of the then BNP youth leader ] stating his admiration for ], and stating "I'd never say this on camera, the Jews have been thrown out of every country including England. It's not just persecution. There's no smoke without fire." It also featured footage of visitors to the party's annual "Red White and Blue" festival, some of whom wore the legend "88" (code for HH, "]"). Collett resigned from the party after the documentary's filming, but rejoined shortly afterwards, with Nick Griffin's approval, on the condition that Collett changed his views on the subject. | |||
Griffin placed greater emphasis on fundraising; from 2001 through to 2008, the BNP's annual turnover increased almost fivefold.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=91–92}} Membership subscriptions grew from £35,000 to £166,000, while its donations raised from £38,000 to £660,000.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=91–92}} However, expenses also rose as the BNP spent more on its electoral campaigns, and the party reported a financial deficit in 2004 and again in 2005.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=92}} Between 2007 and 2009, the BNP accumulated debts of £500,000.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=95}} | |||
In 2006, the party's deputy chairman Scott McLean was shown on the TV documentary "Nazi Hate Rock" making Hitler salutes at a white-supremacist cross-burning ceremony where intensely racist songs were sung and jokes made about ] . | |||
===Membership=== | |||
On the BNP leader's personal history of holocaust denial and anti-Semitism, see article on ]. | |||
] | |||
===Anti-Islam focus=== | |||
The party states that "The BNP has moved on in recent years, casting off the leg-irons of conspiracy theories and the thinly veiled anti-Semitism which has held this party back for two decades. The real enemies of the British people are home grown Anglo-Saxon Celtic liberal-leftists ... and the Crescent Horde – the endless wave of Islamics who are flocking to our shores to bring our island nations into the embrace of their barbaric desert religion." They have described this as the 'islamification' of Great Britain. | |||
For most of its history, the BNP had a whites-only membership policy.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=122}} In 2009, the state's ] stated that this was a violation of the ] and called on the party to amend its constitution accordingly.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=122}} Responding to this, in early 2010 members voted to remove the racial restriction to membership, although it is unlikely that many non-whites joined.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=122}} | |||
Consequently, the party has shifted allegiance in conflicts involving Israel. Its head of legal affairs, Lee Barnes, wrote on the party's website about the ]: "As a Nationalist I can say that I support Israel 100% in their dispute with Hezbollah. In fact, I hope they wipe Hezbollah off the Lebanese map and bomb them until they leave large greasy craters in the cities where their Islamic extremist cantons of terror once stood." | |||
At its creation, the BNP had approximately 1,200 members.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=123}} By the 1983 general election, this had grown to approximately 2,500, although by 1987 had slumped to 1,000, with no significant further growth until the 21st century.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=123}} After taking control Griffin began publishing the party's membership figures: 2,174 in 2001, 3,487 in 2002, 5,737 in 2003, and 7,916 in 2004. Membership dropped slightly to 6,281 in 2005, but had grown to 9,297 in 2007 and to 10,276 in spring 2010.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=124}} In 2011, it was noted that this meant that the BNP had experienced the most rapid growth since 2001 of any minor party in the UK.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=125}} | |||
A party membership list dating from late 2007 was leaked onto the internet by a disgruntled activist, containing the names and addresses of 12,000 members.{{sfnm|1a1=Woodbridge|1y=2010|1p=25|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=124}}<ref name="guardian-2008-11-18">{{Cite news |last1=Sturcke |first1=James |last2=Weaver |first2=Matthew |last3=Cobain |first3=Ian |date=18 November 2008 |title=BNP membership list leaked online |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/nov/18/bnp-membership-list-leak |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921145014/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/nov/18/bnp-membership-list-leak |archive-date=21 September 2013}}</ref> This included names, addresses and other personal details.<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 November 2008 |title=Probe into officer on BNP list |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9808105a-b6a5-11dd-89dd-0000779fd18c.html |access-date=12 December 2008 |website=Financial Times}}</ref> People on the list included prison officers (barred from BNP membership), teachers, soldiers, civil servants and members of the clergy.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=25}} The leaked list indicated that membership was concentrated in particular areas, namely the East Midlands, Essex, and Pennine Lancashire, but with particular clusters in ], ], and ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=126}} Many of these areas had long been targeted by extreme-right campaigns, dating back to the NF activity of the 1970s, suggesting that such longstanding activism may have had an effect on levels of BNP membership.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=126–127}} This information also revealed that membership was most likely in urban areas with low rates of educational attainment and large numbers of economically insecure people employed in manufacturing, with further correlations to nearby Muslim communities.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=127–128}} Following an investigation by Welsh police and the ], two people were arrested in December 2008 for breach of the ] concerning the leak.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Balakrishnan |first=Angela |date=5 December 2008 |title=Two held over BNP membership leak |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/dec/05/bnp-leak-arrests |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922145038/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/dec/05/bnp-leak-arrests |archive-date=22 September 2013}}</ref> Matthew Single was subsequently found guilty and fined £200 in September 2009. The 'low' fine was criticised as an "absolute disgrace" by a BNP spokesman and a detective sergeant involved said he was "disappointed" with the outcome, stating that people were fearful for their safety. More than 160 complaints were made nationally to police after attacks on BNP members and their property.<ref name="manfined">{{Cite news |date=1 September 2009 |title=Ex-BNP man fined over names leak |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/8231475.stm |access-date=2 April 2013 |archive-date=25 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240625081045/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/8231475.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Nick Griffin has made it clear that this shift in emphasis is designed to increase the party's appeal. On he stated "We should be positioning ourselves to take advantage for our own political ends of the growing wave of public hostility to Islam currently being whipped up by the mass media."In a to local party activists in Burnley in March 2006, he said: | |||
The leaked membership list showed that the party was 17.22% female.{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|p=228}} While women have occupied key positions within the BNP, men dominated at every level of the party.{{sfnm|1a1=Goodwin|1y=2011|1p=28|2a1=Macklin|2y=2011b|2p=228}} In 2009, over 80% of the party's Advisory Council was male and from 2002 to 2009, three-quarters of its councillors were male.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=128}} The average percentage of female candidates presented at local elections in 2001 was 6%, although this had risen to 16% by 2010.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=128}} Since 2006, the party had made a point of selecting female candidates, with Griffin stating that this was necessary to "soften" the party's image.{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|pp=227–228}} Goodwin suggested that membership fell into three camps: the "activist old guard" who had previously been involved in the NF during the 1970s, the "political wanderers" who had defected from other parties to the BNP, and the "new recruits" who had joined post-2001 and who had little or no political interest or experience beforehand.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=131–134}} | |||
::We bang on about Islam. Why? Because to the ordinary public out there it's the thing they can understand. It's the thing the newspaper editors sell newspapers with. If we were to attack some other ethnic group — some people say we should attack the Jews ... But ... we've got to get to power. And if that was an issue we chose to bang on about when the press don't talk about it ... the public would just think we were barking mad. They'd just think oh, you're attacking Jews just because you want to attack Jews. You're attacking this group of powerful Zionists just because you want to take poor Manny Cohen the tailor and shove him in a gas chamber. That's what the public would think. It wouldn't get us anywhere other than stepping backwards. It would lock us in a little box; the public would think "extremist crank lunatics, nothing to do with me." And we wouldn't get power. | |||
Having performed ] among the BNP by interviewing various members, Goodwin noted that few of those he interviewed "conformed to the popular stereotypes of them being irrational and uninformed crude racists".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=187}} He noted that most strongly identified with the working class and claimed to have either been former Labour voters or from a Labour-voting family.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=128–129}} None of those interviewed claimed a family background in the ethnic nationalist movement.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=130}} Instead, he noted that members said that they joined the party as a result of a "profound sense of anxiety over immigration and rising ethno-cultural diversity" in Britain, along with its concomitant impact on "British culture and society".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=142}} He noted that among these members, the perceived cultural threat of immigrants and ethnic minorities was given greater prominence than the perceived economic threat that they posed to white Britons.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=142}} He noted that in his interviews with them, members often framed Islam in particular as a threat to British values and society, expressing the fear that British Muslims wanted to Islamicise the country and eventually impose '']'' on its population.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=143–144}} | |||
Suggested policies to help police this 'threat to all of us' include a ] no fly policy. This would dictate that Muslims would be banned from flying in and out of the UK. | |||
===Voter base=== | |||
===BNP claims of anti-white racism=== | |||
The BNP accuse the mainstream media and police of devoting less attention to racially motivated violence when the victims are white. The party has frequently cited the cases of ] of ] and ] of ], two young white men whose murderers were Asian, and whose murders the BNP maintains were ]s. In the case of Kriss Donald one of his attackers, Daanish Zahid, was later sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of Scotland's first ever racially-aggravated murder . | |||
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=The BNP does not have mass appeal, but the evidence... suggests it is forging ties with 'angry white men': middle-aged and elderly working-class men who have low levels of education, are deeply pessimistic about their economic prospects and live in more deprived urban areas close to large Muslim communities. Foremost, these citizens are sending a message about their profound concern over issues they care deeply about, but which they feel are not being adequately addressed by the main parties.|source=— Political scientist Matthew Goodwin, 2011{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=17}} }} | |||
The BNP conducted a demonstration outside the offices of the ] (NUJ) to highlight what it regarded as biased coverage of the Hopley case. The police and the NUJ have rejected the BNP's criticism. | |||
Goodwin described the BNP's voters as being "socially distinct and concerned about a specific set of issues".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=15}} Under Griffin's leadership, the party targeted areas with high proportions of skilled white working-class voters, particularly those who were disenchanted with the Labour government.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=73}} It has attempted to appeal to disaffected Labour voters with slogans such as "We are the Labour Party your Grandfather Voted For".{{sfnm|1a1=Goodwin|1y=2011|1p=2|2a1=Trilling|2y=2012|2p=142}} The BNP had little success in gaining support from women, the middle classes, and the more educated.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=180}} | |||
==Fascism and the BNP== | |||
===Links to neo-Nazis and paramilitary organisations=== | |||
While Griffin was still a leading figure in the National Front, he was a close associate of ], an ] who, having fled to London, was convicted in absentia of belonging to the ], a ] group which was alleged to have carried out the ], killing 85 people and injuring 200 others in the railway station of that town. ('']'', ] ]). However, no connection to the bombing was ever proved, and the case is still open. | |||
Goodwin noted a "strong male bias" in the party's support base, with statistical polling revealing that between 2002 and 2006, seven out of ten BNP voters were male.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=101}} That same research also indicated that BNP voters were disproportionately middle-aged and elderly, with three quarters being aged over 35, and only 11% aged between 18 and 24.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=101}} This contrasted to the NF's support base during the 1970s, when 40% of its voters were aged between 18 and 24.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=101}} Goodwin suggested two possibilities for the BNP's failure to appeal to younger voters: one was the 'life cycle effect', that older people have obtained more during their life and thus have more to lose, feeling both more threatened by change and more socially conservative in their views.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=102}} The other explanation was the 'generational effect', with younger Britons who have grown up since the onset of mass immigration having had greater social exposure to ethnic minorities and thus being more tolerant toward them. Conversely, many older voters came of age during the 1970s, under the impact of the anti-immigrant rhetoric promoted by Powellism, Thatcherism, and the NF, and thus have less tolerant attitudes.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=102, 104}} | |||
The violent, openly neo-Nazi group ] was formed in 1992 (although not originally under this name), to act as stewards for BNP rallies, which were often physically assaulted by groups such as ].<ref>See for example Dave Hann and Steve Tilzey, ''No Retreat: the secret war between Britain's anti-fascists and the far right'' (2003). ISBN 1-903854-22-9</ref> C18's first publicly-acknowledged terror action was an incendiary attack on a Communist Party premises in March 1992.<ref>Larry O’Hara, "Combat 18 & MI5", in ''Lobster'' 30 (December 1995)</ref> It was not repudiated by the BNP for nearly two years, until John Tyndall did so in an ''Organisers Bulletin'' on ] ]. In his bulletin, Tyndall acknowledged that C18 had set itself up as "the disciplinary enforcement apparatus of the BNP", and claimed that C18 had been infiltrated by state informers.<ref>Larry O'Hara, ''Turning Up the Heat: MI5 after the cold war'' (1994)</ref> | |||
Most BNP voters had no formal qualifications and the party's support was centred largely in areas with low educational attainment.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=104}} According to the 2002–2006 data, two-thirds of BNP voters had either no formal qualifications or had left education after their ]/]s.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=104}} Only one in ten BNP voters possessed an ],{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=104}} and an even smaller percentage had a university degree.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=104}} Most of the BNP's voting base were from the financially insecure lower classes.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=104}} Research conducted from 2002 to 2006 indicated that seven out of ten BNP voters were either skilled or unskilled workers or unemployed.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=104}} A 2009 poll found that six out of ten BNP voters fitted this profile.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=104}} Goodwin suggested that it was the skilled working classes rather than their unskilled or unemployed neighbours who were the main support base behind the BNP, because they owned some assets and thus felt that they had more to lose as a result of the economic threat posed by immigrants and ethnic minorities.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=104–105}} | |||
When Tyndall was still chairman, the BNP's 1995 national rally was addressed by Dr. ], the then head of the US ]. Pierce wrote '']'', which allegedly inspired ] to carry out his ], killing 168 people. The American Friends of the BNP, a party offshoot headed by ], was still having extensive contacts with the much more extreme ] as recently as 2003, as documented at length by ] in his book ''Homeland: Into A World of Hate''. | |||
Research indicated that BNP voters also held opinions that were distinct from the average British citizen. They were far more pessimistic about their economic prospects than average, with seven out of ten BNP voters expecting their economic prospects to decline in future, contrasted with four out of ten who held this view in the wider population.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=105}} In the 2002–2006 period, 59% of BNP voters considered immigration to be the most important issue facing the UK, compared with only 16% of the wider population who agreed.{{sfnm|1a1=Goodwin|1y=2011|1pp=108, 100|2a1=Trilling|2y=2012|2p=142}} By 2009, 87% of BNP voters identified immigration and asylum as the most important issue, to 49% of the wider population.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=110}} BNP voters were also more likely to identify ], the EU, and Islamic extremism as the most important issues facing the UK than other voters, and less likely than average to rate the economy, NHS, pensions, and housing market as the most important.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=108, 110}} | |||
], a website that publicises the names and addresses of left-wing activist, and has led to death threats and harassment, was set up by ex-BNP member ] in 2001. The BNP has warned its members not to use the website. | |||
] | |||
], who exploded a nail bomb at the ] in the heart of ]'s gay community, was a former BNP member. Though the BNP distanced itself from Copeland, Griffin wrote in the aftermath of the bombing that the gay people protesting against the murders were "flaunting their perversion in front of the world's journalists, showed just why so many ordinary people find these creatures disgusting" ('']'', June 1999). | |||
BNP voters were also more likely than average to believe both that white Britons face unfair discrimination, and that Muslims, non-whites, and homosexuals had unfair advantages in British society.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=107}} 78% of BNP voters endorsed the belief that the Labour Party prioritised immigrants and ethnic minorities over white British people, to 44% of the wider population.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=107}} When asked questions about immigration and Muslims, BNP voters were found to be far more hostile to them than the average Briton, and also more willing than average to support outright racially discriminatory policies toward them.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=112}} Copsey believed that "popular racism"—namely against asylum seekers and Muslims—generated the BNP's "largest reservoir of support",{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=146}} and that in many Northern English towns the main factors behind BNP support were white resentment toward Asian communities, anger at Asian-on-white crime, and the perception that Asians received disproportionately high levels of public funding.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|pp=146–147}} | |||
In response to allegations of neo-Nazism the BNP under the leadership of Nick Griffin has publicly denounced the utility of neo-Nazism in relation to ]. Similarly, Griffin urges white nationalist oriented youth to join the BNP and use the ballot box instead of violence to achieve political aims. | |||
Research also indicated that BNP voters were more mistrustful of the establishment than average citizens. In 2002–2006, 92% of BNP voters described themselves as being dissatisfied with the government, to 62% of the wider population.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=113–114}} Over 80% of BNP voters were found to distrust their local Member of Parliament, council officials, and civil servants, and were also more likely than average to think that politicians were personally corrupt.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=114}} There was also a tendency for BNP voters to read tabloids like the '']'', '']'', and '']'', all of which promote anti-immigration sentiment. Whether these voters gained such sentiment as a result of reading these tabloids or they read these tabloids because it endorsed their pre-existing views is unclear.{{sfnm|1a1=Goodwin|1y=2011|1pp=107–108|2a1=Trilling|2y=2012|2p=144}} | |||
The BNP has also been accused in the past of having links with Loyalist paramilitaries in ]. | |||
The early stronghold of the BNP was in London, where it established enclaves of support in the boroughs of Enfield, Hackney, Lewisham, Southwark, and Tower Hamlets, with smaller units in Bexley, Camden, Greenwich, Hillingdon, Lambeth and Redbridge.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=82}} By the late 1990s, the party was increasingly retreating from its original East End heartland, finding that its electoral support had declined in the area.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=83}} Griffin expressed the view that it was too dangerous for BNP activists to campaign in the East End, suggesting that they would be likely to be attacked by opponents.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=83}} Instead, the party shifted its focus to parts of ], in particular the boroughs of Barking, Bexley, Dagenham, Greenwich and Havering.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=84}} After Griffin took power, the party focused on building support in the North of England, taking advantage of the anxieties generated by the ethnic riots that took place ], Oldham and Burnley in 2001.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=84}} In the period between 2002 and 2006, over 40% of the BNP's voters were in Northern England.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=105}} | |||
==Homosexuality and the BNP== | |||
The BNP had traditionally maintained a policy of re-criminalisation of ].<ref> UKGay.com, Accessed ] ] </ref> However, since 2004, their position on the topic has changed. The BNP's policy on homosexuality is now that it should be 'tolerated', as long as it remains private and between consenting adults. Indeed, they have openly stated that they are happy to have homosexual party members<ref> Rainbow Network, Accessed ] ] </ref> Despite this, the party still opposed the introduction of ] in the ].<ref> The BNP, Accessed ] ] </ref> | |||
The decline of the BNP as an electoral force around 2014 helped to open the way for the growth of another right-wing party, UKIP.{{sfn|Ford|Goodwin|2014|p=274}} In a study Goodwin produced with ], the two political scientists noted that UKIP's support base mirrored the BNP's in that it had the same "very clear social profile": the "old, male, working class, white and less educated".{{sfn|Ford|Goodwin|2014|p=159}} One area where the two differed, they noted, was in the fact that BNP support had been highest among the middle-aged before tailing off among the over 55s, whereas UKIP retained strong support with those over 55. Ford and Goodwin suggested that this might be because more over 55s had "direct or indirect experiences" of the Second World War, in which Britain defeated the fascist powers, resulting in them being less inclined to support fascist parties than their younger counterparts.{{sfn|Ford|Goodwin|2014|p=158}} Despite these commonalities, UKIP proved far more successful at mobilising these social groups than did the BNP.{{sfn|Ford|Goodwin|2014|pp=175–176}} This was likely in part because UKIP had a "reputational shield"; it emerged from within the Eurosceptic tradition of British politics rather than from the far-right and thus, while often ridiculed by the mainstream, was regarded as a legitimate democratic actor in a way that the BNP was not.{{sfn|Ford|Goodwin|2014|pp=273–274}} | |||
Explaining the BNP's stance, BNP Press Officer Phil Edwards stated that homosexuality "is unnatural" and "does not lead to procreation but does lead to moral turpitude and disease". Thus, alongside the fact that "it undermines social/marital cohesion by adding confusion", the BNP would make it unlawful to promote homosexuality and "return it to the closet where it belongs".<ref> Manchester University Labour Club, Accessed ] ] </ref> The BNP are particularly worried about the possibility of homosexuality being promoted in ]s.<ref> The BNP, Accessed ] ] </ref> | |||
==Organisation and structure== | |||
In the run-up to the 2005 general election it was reported that ], then the BNP candidate for Barking, had produced and directed a homoerotic student art film in 1989. The story was picked up by the mainstream press after the 2006 local elections, when Barnbrook a councillor and the BNP's ] leader.<ref> Pinknews, Accessed ] ] </ref> Although some portrayed this as gay ], Barnbrook and the BNP claimed that the film was artistic, and about "sexuality, not homosexuality"<ref> The Guardian, Accessed ] ] </ref> | |||
On its formation, the BNP avoided the National Front's committee-rule system of collective leadership in the hope of evading the infighting and factionalism that had damaged the NF.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=7}} Instead it was founded around what it called the "leadership principle", with a central chairman having complete control over the party, which was then arranged in a highly hierarchical structure.{{sfnm|1a1=Woodbridge|1y=2010|1p=30|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=77}} The BNP lacked internal democracy, with the grassroots membership having almost no formal power,{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=77}} except for electing the party leader. On taking power, Griffin retained the leadership principle inherited from Tyndall.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=78}} He nevertheless established an Advisory Council which would meet several times a year; the members were to be selected by Griffin himself and would serve as his advisors.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=108|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=79}} | |||
==Violence and criminal behaviour== | |||
Historically the BNP has been associated in the public mind with violent protest and clashes with anti-BNP organizations. Critics of the BNP assert that a significant minority of elected BNP politicians have criminal records and that the party is more tolerant of the criminal actions of some of its members than other parties would be. {{citation needed}}. | |||
The party's branches and local groups were referred to as "units" within the party.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=79}} These were designed to recruit followers, raise funds, and campaign during elections.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=79}} Under Tyndall, the party operated with a skeleton organisation.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=77}} It had no full-time staff and for most of the 1980s lacked a telephone number.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=78}} Instead it relied on a handful of geographically scattered, unpaid regional organisers.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=93}} Its early activists were recruited from within the extreme-right movement, and thus lacked the experience and skills in electoral campaigning.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=89}} When Griffin took control, he introduced a variety of internal departments to help manage the party's activities: the administration and enquiries department, department for group development, legal affairs department, security department, and communications department.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=79}} Griffin tried to build a more professional party machine by educating and training BNP members, providing them with incentives, establishing a steady income stream, and overcoming factionalism and dissent.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=88}} He launched an "annual college" for activists in 2001 and formed an education and training department in 2007.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=90}} In 2008 and 2010, he oversaw the establishment of "summer schools" for high-ranking officials.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=90}} The party also began employing full-time members of staff, having three in 2001 and 13 in 2007.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=93}} | |||
In the past, Nick Griffin has defended the threat of violence in furthering the party's aims. After the BNP won its first council seat in 1993, he wrote: "The electors of Millwall did not back a postmodernist rightist party, but what they perceived to be a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan 'Defend Rights for Whites' with well-directed boots and fists. When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate." In 1997, believing he was addressing members of the French ], he said: It is more important to control the streets of a city than its council chambers." In January 1986, when Griffin was Deputy Chair of the NF, he advised his audience at an anti-] rally to use the "traditional British methods of the brick, the boot and the fist."<ref>''Yorkshire Post'', ] ]</ref> | |||
To incentivise members to remain committed to the party, Griffin followed the example of the Swedish ] by implementing a new "voting membership" scheme in 2007.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=171|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=90}} This meant that those who had been BNP members for two years could become a "voting member", at which they would go on a year's probation. During this year they were required to attend educational and training seminars, to engage in a certain amount of activism and to donate a specified amount of money to the party.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=90}} Once completed, they were allowed to vote on certain matters at general members' meetings and annual conferences, to participate in policy debates, and to be eligible for intermediate and senior positions. This policy ensured that those who reached the higher echelons of the BNP were fully trained in the party's ideology and electoral strategy.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=90}} | |||
The BNP defends itself by arguing that over 20% of the working population has some criminal record or another and that a large proportion of MPs, councillors and activists in the other three main parties are hardly in many cases a shining example either. | |||
===Sub-groups and propaganda output=== | |||
A ] '']'' programme reported on a number of BNP members who have had criminal convictions, some racially motivated. The BBC's was extensive and to reproduce it here in its entirety would be superfluous. However, some of the more notable convictions include: | |||
Griffin hoped to build a wider ] around the BNP by establishing affiliated networks and organisations.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=85}} In many cases, these were presented to the public in a way that concealed any direct connection to the BNP.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=40}} Most of these affiliated groups were poorly funded and had few members.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=87}} The party established its own ], Great White Records, a radio station, and a ] known as ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=87}} It formed a group for young people known as the Young BNP, although in 2010 renamed this group as the BNP Crusaders, "to pay homage to our ancestors from the Middle Ages who saved Christian Europe from the onslaught of Islam".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=87}} It established a Land and People group to recruit support in rural areas, a Family Circle to recruit women and families, and both a Veterans Group and an Association of British ex-Servicemen for former military servicemen.{{sfnm|1a1=Woodbridge|1y=2010|1pp=40–41|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=87}} A group called Families Against Immigrant Racism was established to counter perceived racism against white Britons,{{sfnm|1a1=Sykes|1y=2005|1p=137|2a1=Copsey|2y=2008|2p=122|3a1=Goodwin|3y=2011|3p=87}} while an Ethnic Liaison Committee was created to build links with anti-Muslim ] and ] groups active in Britain.{{sfnm|1a1=Sykes|1y=2005|1p=137|2a1=Copsey|2y=2008|2p=135|3a1=Woodbridge|3y=2010|3p=41|4a1=Goodwin|4y=2011|4p=87|5a1=Trilling|5y=2012|5p=116}} Another group was the ] (AFBNP), set up by ] in 1999 to gain support from sympathisers in the United States.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=109|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2pp=87–88}} In 2001 it had 100 members, and by 2008 had 107.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=87–88}} | |||
*In 1998, Nick Griffin was convicted of violating section 19 of the ], relating to ]. He received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was fined £2,300. | |||
*Kevin Scott, the BNP's North East regional organiser, has two convictions for assault and using threatening words and behaviour. | |||
*Joe Owens, a BNP candidate in ] and former bodyguard to Nick Griffin, has served eight months in prison for sending razor blades in the post to Jewish people and another term for carrying CS gas and knuckledusters. | |||
*], BNP student organiser, was convicted alongside Mr Owens for assaulting demonstrators at an anti-BNP event in 2003. | |||
*Colin Smith, BNP South East London organiser has 17 convictions for burglary, theft, stealing cars, possession of drugs and assaulting a police officer | |||
*] was jailed for possessing explosives in 1985, after a nail bomb exploded while he was carrying it to the offices of the Workers' Revolutionary Party ; and again for three years in 1991, for assaulting a Jewish teacher who was removing a BNP sticker at a ] station . He was Propaganda Director of the BNP at the time of the latter conviction.<ref>"On the seamier side: the shadow of racist politics", ''The Economist'', ] ]</ref> He was ]'s key deputy in the party from 1999 until January 2006.) Nick Griffin has of the latter conviction is that "in reality he defended himself after being attacked by a far-left thug who was a close comrade of the IRA 'active service unit' that planted the Harrod's Bomb" and that "Tony Lecomber is no longer even a member of the British National Party". ] and Joe Owens have both asserted that Lecomber's departure from the party followed his failed attempt to recruit Owens to murder members of the political establishment. See article on ] for details. | |||
A group called Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA) was established to promote the BNP's view of British culture and identity.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=40}} The British Students Association was founded to promote the party's views among university students in 2000.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=40}} | |||
In October 2006 former BNP election candidate ] "was arrested under the ] on suspicion of possessing chemicals that may be capable of making an explosion." Cottage's party membership was reported to have lapsed at the time of the arrest. The case is still before the courts. | |||
Albion Life Insurance was set up in September 2006 as an insurance brokerage company established on behalf of the BNP to raise funds for its activities.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BNP sets up life firm, ''Highbeam'' |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-151726902.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140610220620/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-151726902.html |archive-date=10 June 2014 |access-date=1 April 2013 |publisher=HighBeam Research}}</ref> The firm ceased to operate in November 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 2006 |title=A finger in too many pies |url=http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=185 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205192653/http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=185 |archive-date=5 December 2006 |access-date=2 April 2013 |website=Searchlight |publisher=Wayback Machine}}</ref> In 2006, the BNP launched the ] (CCB), a group designed to rival the ] and oppose the growing "Islamification" of inner city areas.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=41}} The CCB was established and run by BNP member ], who claimed to have been ordained by the ], a claim that the church denies.{{sfnm|1a1=Woodbridge|1y=2010|1pp=42–43|2a1=Davey|2y=2011|2p=445}} West is a ] and espouses a theology of nations which is influenced by Calvinist theologians like ], holding that ] wishes every race and nation to remain separate until ].{{sfn|Davey|2011|pp=445–446}} | |||
Griffin's BNP also established an annual Red, White and Blue festival, which was based on the 'Blue Blanc Rouge' organised by France's National Front.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=109|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2pp=87, 88|3a1=Trilling|3y=2012|3p=97}} The festival brought party activists together and aimed to promote a more ] image for the group, although it also provided a venue for ] bands like Stigger, Nemesis and Warlord.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=87, 88}} Around 1,000 BNP members attended the party's 2001 festival.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=87}} | |||
==Opposition to the BNP== | |||
The BNP is condemned by all sections of the mainstream media, including right-wing newspapers, such as the '']'', which share some of the party's concerns over immigration. Representatives of the three major mainstream political parties all condemn the BNP, although the party has taken council seats from them all in various areas. High-ranking politicians from each of the mainstream parties have, at various times, called for their own supporters to vote for anyone but the BNP. | |||
Under Griffin's leadership, the BNP zealously embraced the use of ] to promote itself in a way different from the negative portrayal that featured in the mainstream media.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=95}} On its website—which had been established in 1995{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=96}}—it created an internet television channel, 'BNPtv'.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=95}} It has created blogs that cover different themes without being explicitly political in order to promote the party's message.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=96}} The BNP established an online marketing platform, Excalibur, through which to sell its merchandise.{{sfn|Davey|2011|p=440}} In 2003, the BNP claimed that it had the most viewed website of a political party in Britain,{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=96}} and by 2011 was claiming to have the most viewed such website in Europe.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=96}} In September 2007, '']'' newspaper reported that ], the online competitive intelligence service, said that the BNP website had more hits than any other website of a British political party.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hope |first=Christopher |date=13 September 2007 |title=BNP website is the most popular in politics |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1562960/BNP-website-is-the-most-popular-in-politics.html |url-status=live |access-date=1 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130820194101/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1562960/BNP-website-is-the-most-popular-in-politics.html |archive-date=20 August 2013}}</ref> | |||
Following pressure from ], Chairman of the ] , the major parties stand candidates in seats that they are unlikely to win. This is designed to enhance the choice available to voters in the expectation that this will reduce the BNP vote. | |||
===Affiliations in the wider extreme-right=== | |||
In the run up to the May 2006 local council elections, Labour employment minister ] claimed that 8 out of 10 voters in her constituency were thinking of voting for the BNP. When the BNP subsequently took 11 seats (with a twelth seat currently being contested in the courts) in her ] constituency, local Labour activists responded by blaming Hodge, crediting her with generating hundreds of extra votes for the BNP. | |||
Under Griffin, the BNP forged stronger links with various extreme-right parties elsewhere in Europe, among them France's National Front, Germany's ] (NPD), Sweden's National Democrats, and Hungary's ].{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=88}} Griffin unsuccessfully urged the NPD to move away from neo-Nazism and embark on the same 'modernisation' project that he had taken the BNP.{{sfn|Macklin|Virchow|2011|p=208}} ] of the French ] was the guest of honour at an "Anglo-French Patriotic Dinner" held by the BNP in April 2004.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|pp=150–151}}<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 April 2004 |title=Le Pen UK visit sparks protests |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3654941.stm |url-status=live |access-date=1 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221003750/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3654941.stm |archive-date=21 February 2009}}</ref> | |||
Amongst the most visible and vocal opponents of the BNP and other radical right-wing groups are ] and ]. Unite Against Fascism, which aims to unite the broadest possible spectrum to oppose the BNP and the far-right, includes the ] (ANL), the ] (NAAR), and the ] (SAAR). It also includes faith and community leaders and politicians from the ], the ] (e.g., ]), ], the ], the ], the ] and the ]. ] has monitored the activities of the BNP and its members for many years, and has published many articles highly critical of them. | |||
Griffin met leaders of the Hungarian far right party ] to discuss co-operation between the two parties and spoke at a Jobbik party rally in August 2008.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Doward |first=Jamie |date=15 November 2009 |title=BNP's European ally Krisztina Morvai axed from London conference after protests |work=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/nov/15/krisztina-morvai-london-conference-ban |url-status=live |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510164627/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/nov/15/krisztina-morvai-london-conference-ban |archive-date=10 May 2017}}</ref> In April 2009, ], deputy chairman of the BNP, was welcomed with fascist salutes by members of the Italian nationalist ] during a trip to Milan. Darby stated that the BNP would look to form an alliance with France's Front National in the European Parliament.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Jerome |date=9 June 2009 |title=Griffin tries to build extremist bloc in Europe |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/griffin-tries-to-build-extremist-bloc-in-europe-1700174.html |url-status=live |access-date=1 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921082013/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/griffin-tries-to-build-extremist-bloc-in-europe-1700174.html |archive-date=21 September 2013}}</ref> Following the election of two BNP MEPs in 2009, the following year saw the BNP join with other extreme-right parties to form the ], with Griffin becoming its vice president.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=88}} The party also had close links with the ], a publisher focused on promoting Holocaust denial.{{sfn|Trilling|2012|p=66}} | |||
] | |||
Some opponents of fascism call for no positive coverage to be given to groups or individuals enunciating what they describe as "]". Such a tactic states that the BNP and similar parties should be ignored by both rival politicians and the media. A more ] position is that of "]", which seeks to deny fascist hate speech any sort of platform. The policy is most commonly associated with university student unions and debating societies, but has also resulted in BNP candidates being banned from speaking at various hustings meetings around the country. | |||
Britain's extreme-right has long faced internal and public divisions.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2011|p=104}} Disgruntled BNP members left the party to found or join a wide range of rivals, among them the ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and the ].{{sfn|Woodbridge|2011|p=104}} Various BNP members were involved in the nascent ] (EDL)—with EDL leader ] having been a former BNP activist—although Griffin proscribed the organisation and condemned it as having been manipulated by "Zionists".{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2011b|1p=138|2a1=Macklin|2y=2011b|2p=233|3a1=Trilling|3y=2012|3p=164}} The political scientist Chris Allen noted that the EDL shared much of the BNP's ideology, but that its "strategies and actions" were very different, with the EDL favouring street marches over electoral politics.{{sfn|Allen|2014|p=534}} By 2014, both the BNP and EDL were in decline, and Britain First—founded by former BNP members James Dowson and Paul Golding—had risen to prominence. It combined the electoral tactics of the BNP with the street marches of the EDL.{{sfn|Allen|2014|p=355}} | |||
Examples of the "no platform" policy being operated include: | |||
* Complaints directed at the '']'' newspaper after it published a full-page article/interview with Nick Griffin. The Leeds Unite Against Fascism (LUAF) group accused the publication of breaching Leeds University Students' Union 'No Platform' policy, whereby extremist organisations are prohibited from expressing their views on campus. | |||
* An invitation to Nick Griffin by the University of St Andrews Union Debating Society to participate in a debate on multiculturalism was condemned , then withdrawn after protests and threats against the organisers . | |||
The ] was established as a charity in 2004 with the stated aims of reducing poverty among those of ] descent and supporting English culture. It has many former and current BNP, NF and British ] members.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cahill |first=Duncan |date=18 February 2015 |title=The Insider's blog: The Steadfast Trust: Caught on Camera |url=http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/insider/the-steadfast-trust-caught-on-camera-4277 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201225/http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/insider/the-steadfast-trust-caught-on-camera-4277 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=11 January 2016 |website=hopenothate.org.uk |publisher=HOPE not hate}}</ref> It was deregistered as a charity by the Charity Commission in February 2014.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Evans |first=Martin |date=18 February 2015 |title=Supporters of Anglo Saxon charity caught making Nazi salutes and chanting 'white power' |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11418669/Supporters-of-Anglo-Saxon-charity-caught-making-Nazi-salutes-and-chanting-white-power.html |url-status=live |access-date=11 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150901203849/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11418669/Supporters-of-Anglo-Saxon-charity-caught-making-Nazi-salutes-and-chanting-white-power.html |archive-date=1 September 2015 }}<br />- {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930105924/http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/RemovedCharityMain.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1105806&SubsidiaryNumber=0 |date=30 September 2018 }}, Charity Commission register</ref> In 2014, after Nick Griffin lost the leadership of BNP, he set up ],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Collins |first=Matthew |title=The Insider's blog: Far-right round up |url=http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/insider/far-right-round-up-4125 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611082937/http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/insider/far-right-round-up-4125 |archive-date=11 June 2016 |access-date=11 January 2016 |website=hopenothate.org.uk |publisher=HOPE not hate}}</ref> but before it was launched, he decided to set up a different group, ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Collins |first=Matthew |title=The Insider's blog: Griffin cuts the throat of British Voice |url=http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/insider/far-right-round-up-4143 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010081937/http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/insider/far-right-round-up-4143 |archive-date=10 October 2015 |access-date=11 January 2016 |website=hopenothate.org.uk |publisher=HOPE not hate}}<br />- {{Cite news |last=Elgot |first=Jessica |date=14 January 2015 |title=The British Far Right Is in a Very, Very Bad Way |work=The Huffington Post UK |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/01/14/far-right-british_n_6469800.html |url-status=live |access-date=11 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310124403/http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/01/14/far-right-british_n_6469800.html |archive-date=10 March 2016}}<br />- {{Cite news |last=Baker-Whitelaw |first=Gavia |date=19 January 2015 |title=British far-right organization accidentally copies 'V for Vendetta' logo |work=The Daily Dot |url=http://www.dailydot.com/politics/british-unity-v-vendetta/ |url-status=live |access-date=11 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630114731/http://www.dailydot.com/politics/british-unity-v-vendetta/ |archive-date=30 June 2015}}</ref> | |||
Examples of more ] against the BNP include obstruction of BNP activists who set up stalls in shopping centres. For example, members of the ] in ] blockaded and forced a BNP publicity stall to close. ] is the group most associated with this sort of direct action, criticised by more ]s (for example in the ]) as ]. | |||
Some members of the BNP were radicalised during their involvement with the party and subsequently sought to carry out acts of violence and terrorism.{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|p=232}} ] was imprisoned for three years for possessing explosives, after a ] exploded while he was transporting it to the offices of the ] in 1985.{{sfn|Trilling|2012|p=62}} He was imprisoned for three years in 1991 whilst serving as the BNP's Director of Propaganda for assaulting a Jewish teacher.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Tony Lecomber |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/programmes/2001/bnp_special/membership/advisory/tony_lecomber.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925185138/http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/programmes/2001/bnp_special/membership/advisory/tony_lecomber.stm |archive-date=25 September 2012 |series=Under the skin of the BNP}}</ref> In 1999, the ex-BNP member ] used nail bombs to target homosexuals and ethnic minorities in London.{{sfnm|1a1=Macklin|1y=2011b|1p=232|2a1=Trilling|2y=2012|2pp=77–78}} In 2005, the BNP's Burnley candidate ] was ] for use in what he believed was a coming civil war,{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|p=232}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Matthew |date=13 July 2007 |title=Second jury fails to agree on BNP 'bomb' pair |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/jul/13/ukcrime.thefarright |url-status=live |access-date=8 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831180835/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/jul/13/ukcrime.thefarright |archive-date=31 August 2013}}; {{cite news|title=Ex-BNP activist 'wanted to shoot Tony Blair'|last=Taylor|first=Matthew|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/feb/13/thefarright.ukcrime|work=The Guardian|date=13 February 2007|access-date=2 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831021130/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/feb/13/thefarright.ukcrime|archive-date=31 August 2013|url-status=live}}; {{cite news|title=Ex-BNP man faces explosives charge|last=Hewitt|first=Andrew|url=http://www.burnleycitizen.co.uk/news/951775.exbnp_man_faces_explosives_charge/|newspaper=The Burnley and Pendle Citizen|date=4 October 2006|access-date=2 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531153028/http://www.burnleycitizen.co.uk/news/951775.exbnp_man_faces_explosives_charge/|archive-date=31 May 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> while a Yorkshire BNP member, Terry Gavan, was convicted in 2010 for stockpiling firearms and nail bombs.{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|p=232}} | |||
The BNP claim that such cases exemplify how political correctness is being used to silence them and suppress their right to freedom of speech. | |||
=== Party leaders === | |||
The ]-organised ] group held a concert in ] ahead of the 2006 local elections, aimed at getting people not to vote for the BNP, with 50,000 people attending according to the organiser while ] put the number substantially lower at just 3,000. | |||
{| class="wikitable sortable" | |||
|+ Party leaders by chronological order of leadership | |||
|- | |||
! Year | |||
! Name | |||
! class="unsortable"|Period | |||
! Time in office | |||
|- | |||
| 1982 | |||
| ] | |||
| 7 April 1982 – 27 September 1999 | |||
| {{age in years and days|1982|04|07|1999|09|27}} | |||
|- | |||
| 1999 | |||
| ] | |||
| 27 September 1999 – 21 July 2014 | |||
| {{age in years and days|1999|09|27|2014|07|21}} | |||
|- | |||
| 2014 | |||
| ] | |||
| 21 July 2014 – present | |||
| {{age in years and days|2014|07|21}} | |||
|- | |||
|} | |||
==Electoral performance== | |||
==BNP front groups and affiliated organisations== | |||
{{Main|British National Party election results}} | |||
The BNP has used various ]s to give the impression of wider support for its activities, and in an attempt to access potential supporters. By their very nature, front groups are usually denied as such by both the organizations behind them and the groups themselves, so any attempt to identify them is a matter of judgement. Nevertheless, there is evidence (usually in the form of common organizers) that the following operate as BNP fronts: | |||
The BNP has contested seats in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Research from Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin shows that BNP support is concentrated among older and less educated working-class men living in the declining industrial towns of the North and Midlands regions, in contrast to previous significant far-right parties like the National Front, which drew support from a younger demographic.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ford |first1=Robert |author1-link=Robert Ford (academic) |last2=Goodwin |first2=Matthew J. |author2-link=Matthew Goodwin |year=2010 |title=Angry White Men: Individual and Contextual Predictors of Support for the British National Party |journal=Political Studies |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9248.2009.00829.x |s2cid=144812122}}</ref> | |||
* ] (denied to be a front by both the BNP and Solidarity's president, ]; see article for details) | |||
* ] (see article for details) | |||
* The ], which was set up by BNP members and supporters to organise among Christians "in defence of traditional Christian values". Mainstream Christian groups have criticised the BNP for "using Christianity to further their agenda of segregation and division." | |||
===General elections=== | |||
Unlike the above groups, which purport to be independent, the following organisations are officially linked to or part of the BNP: | |||
{{Main|British National Party election results#United Kingdom elections|l1=British National Party election results (United Kingdom elections)}} | |||
* The ] is the BNP fund-raising club and the name it uses to book hotels and conference facilities. | |||
* The ] is an organisation of which people from the ] can become members. The committee have joined with BNP members in staging demonstrations in the past. | |||
* ], a record label described by the BNP as "a patriotic label" launched in January 2006. It launched a campaign to introduce folk music to schoolchildren. Most of the songs sung by Doncaster folkster Lee Haggan, have been written by Nicholas Griffin himself . | |||
* was set up in September 2006 as an insurance brokerage company on behalf of the BNP. Its stated aim is to 'secure a robust financial situation for the BNP'. The officers of Albion Life are all members of the British National Party. | |||
The BNP placed comparatively little emphasis on elections to the British House of Commons, aware that the ] voting system was a major obstacle.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=170}} | |||
==Affiliated parties== | |||
The BNP and the French '']'' have co-operated on numerous occasions. ] visited the UK in 2004 to assist launching the BNP's European Parliament campaign , and Nick Griffin repaid the favour by sending a delegation of BNP officials to the FN's annual 'First of May Joan of Arc parade' in Paris last year . | |||
The British National Party has contested general elections since 1983. It put forward no candidates for the ]. | |||
The BNP also has links with Germany's Nationaldemokratische Partei ]. Griffin addressed a NPD rally in August 2002, headed by Udo Voigt, who Gerhard Schroeder accused of trying to remove immigrants from Eastern Germany. NPD activists have attended BNP events in Britain. | |||
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center" | |||
] ] (''Nationaldemokraterna''). In the run-up to the ], Nick Griffin visited Sweden to give that party his endorsement. Members of the Swedish National Democrats were present at the BNP's ''Red White and Blue'' rally which took place over the weekend of 20-] ]. | |||
|- | |||
! Year !! No. of<br />candidates !! No. of<br />MPs !! % vote !! Total<br />votes !! Change<br />(% points) !! Average votes<br />per candidate | |||
|- | |||
! ] | |||
|| 54 || 0 || 0.0 || 14,621 || {{n/a}} || 271 | |||
|- | |||
! ] | |||
|| 2 || 0 || 0.0 || 563 || 0.0 || 282 | |||
|- | |||
! ] | |||
|| 13 || 0 || 0.1 || 7,631 || +0.1 || 587 | |||
|- | |||
! ] | |||
|| 54 || 0 || 0.1 || 35,832 || 0.0 || 664 | |||
|- | |||
! ] | |||
|| 33 || 0 || 0.2 || 47,129 || +0.1 || 1,428 | |||
|- | |||
! ] | |||
|| 117 || 0 || 0.7 || 192,746 || +0.5 || 1,647 | |||
|- | |||
! ] | |||
|| 339 || 0 || 1.9 || 563,743 || +1.2 || 1,663 | |||
|- | |||
! ] | |||
|| 8 || 0 || 0.0 || 1,667 || −1.9 || 208 | |||
|- | |||
! ] | |||
|| 10 || 0 || 0.0 || 4,642 || +0.0 || 464 | |||
|- | |||
! ] | |||
|| 1 || 0 ||0.0 || 510 || || 510 | |||
|} | |||
The BNP in the ] saved five deposits (out of 33 contested seats) and secured its best general election result in ] (which had recently been the scene of racially motivated rioting between white and Asian youths) where party leader ] secured 16% of the vote.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ward |first=Lucy |date=12 December 2001 |title=How the BNP turned racial hatred into votes |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/dec/12/politics.race1 |url-status=live |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510164717/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/dec/12/politics.race1 |archive-date=10 May 2017}}</ref> | |||
==Previous British National Parties== | |||
The current use of the name British National Party is its third appearance in British politics. The original BNP emerged after the ] when a handful of former members of the ] took on the name. This party was absorbed quite quickly into the ]. | |||
The ] was considered a major breakthrough by the BNP, as it received 192,746 votes in the 119 constituencies it contested, took a 0.7% share of the overall vote and retained a deposit in 40 of the seats.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=6 May 2005 |title=BNP sees increase in total votes |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4519347.stm |url-status=live |access-date=20 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080122111439/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4519347.stm |archive-date=22 January 2008}}</ref> | |||
A second ] also emerged in 1960 and went on to form a part of the NF. | |||
The BNP put forward candidates for 338 out of 650 seats for the ]<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 May 2010 |title=Elections Report |url=http://www.thecst.org.uk/docs/Elections%20Report%20-%20General%20Elections%202010_for%20web.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116133407/http://www.thecst.org.uk/docs/Elections%20Report%20-%20General%20Elections%202010_for%20web.pdf |archive-date=16 January 2013 |access-date=20 April 2013 |publisher=Community Security Trust}}</ref> gaining 563,743 votes<ref name="BBC National Results">{{Cite news |title=National Results |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/ |url-status=live |access-date=20 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100414102452/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/ |archive-date=14 April 2010}}</ref> (1.9%), finishing in fifth place and failing to win any seats. However, a record of 73 deposits were saved. Party chairman Griffin came third in the ] constituency, behind ] of Labour and Simon Marcus of the Conservatives, who were first and second respectively. At 14.6%, this was the BNP's best result in any of the seats it contested that year.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Barking |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/a11.stm |url-status=live |access-date=20 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823103246/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/a11.stm |archive-date=23 August 2017}}</ref> | |||
Around 1970 ] briefly attempted to organise a group of this name in Leeds but he quickly abandoned the idea to join the NF (see S. Taylor, ''The National Front in English Politics'', London: Macmillan, 1982). | |||
===Local elections=== | |||
{{Main|British National Party election results#Local elections|l1=British National Party election results (local elections)}} | |||
The BNP's first electoral success came in 1993, when ] was returned as a councillor in ], London. He lost his seat in elections the following year. The next BNP success in local elections was not until the ], when three BNP candidates ] on the ] council.<ref name="parliament.uk">{{Cite web |date=15 May 2009 |title=Electoral performance of the British National Party in the UK |url=http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snsg-05064.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122025348/http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snsg-05064.pdf |archive-date=22 November 2011 |access-date=20 April 2013 |publisher=Parliament}}</ref> The BNP's first councillor for six years was John Haycock, elected as a parish councillor for ] in ] in 2000. Haycock failed to attend any council meetings for six months and was later disqualified from office.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|pp=116–117}} | |||
The party had 55 councillors for a time in 2009.<ref name="parliament.uk" /> After the ], the BNP was left with a total of two ]lors in ].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Urquhart |first=Conal |date=4 May 2013 |title=BNP calls on members to breed more after elections disaster |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/04/bnp-members-breed-elections |url-status=live |access-date=8 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180518200907/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/04/bnp-members-breed-elections |archive-date=18 May 2018}}</ref> | |||
As of 2011, the BNP had yet to make "a major breakthrough" on local councils.{{sfn|Bottom|Copus|2011|p=159}} | |||
The BNP's councillors usually had "an extremely limited impact on local politics" because they were isolated as individuals or small groups on the council.{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|p=235}} Councillors from the main parties often disliked their BNP colleagues and deemed having to work alongside them as an affront to dignity and decency.{{sfn|Bottom|Copus|2011|p=152}} | |||
Questions were often raised as to whether BNP councillors could adequately represent the interests of all of their local constituents.{{sfn|Bottom|Copus|2011|p=153}} On being elected, Beackon for instance stated that he refused to serve his Asian constituents in Millwall.{{sfn|Bottom|Copus|2011|p=154}} There were also allegations made that BNP councillors had particularly low attendance at council meetings, although research indicated that this was not the case, with the BNP's attendance record being largely average.{{sfn|Bottom|Copus|2011|p=148}} | |||
There is evidence to suggest that racially and religiously motivated crime increased in those areas where BNP councillors had been elected.{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=198|2a1=Macklin|2y=2011b|2p=235}} For instance, after the 1993 election of Beackon, there was a spike in racist attacks in the borough of Tower Hamlets.{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|pp=26–27}} BNP members were directly responsible for some of this; the party's national organiser ] was sentenced to three months imprisonment for his part in an attack on a black man and his white girlfriend.{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|pp=26–27}} | |||
===Regional assemblies and parliaments=== | |||
{{Main|British National Party election results#National Assembly for Wales|l1=British National Party election results (National Assembly for Wales)|British National Party election results#Scottish Parliament|l2=British National Party election results (Scottish Parliament)|British National Party election results#Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly|l3=British National Party election results (Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly)}} | |||
] | |||
BNP lead candidate ] won a seat in the ] in May 2008, after the party gained 5.3% of the London-wide vote.<ref name="Barn53">{{Cite news |date=3 May 2008 |title=BNP wins seat in London Assembly |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7381633.stm |url-status=live |access-date=5 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506144106/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7381633.stm |archive-date=6 May 2008}}</ref> However, in August 2010, he resigned the party whip and became an independent.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Matthew |date=29 September 2010 |title=BNP expels Richard Barnbrook as bitter feud threatens to tear apart party |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/sep/29/bnp-barnbrook-expelled-griffin-feud |url-status=live |access-date=20 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921141951/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/sep/29/bnp-barnbrook-expelled-griffin-feud |archive-date=21 September 2013}}</ref> | |||
In the ], the BNP fielded 20 candidates, four in each of the five regional lists, with ] standing in the ] region.<ref>{{Cite news |date=16 April 2007 |title=Immigration a key issue, says BNP |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6558981.stm |url-status=live |access-date=11 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222075702/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6558981.stm |archive-date=22 December 2007}}</ref> It did not win any seats, but was the only minor party to have saved deposits in the electoral regions, one in the North Wales region and the other in the South Wales West region. In total the BNP polled 42,197 votes (4.3%). | |||
In the ], the BNP fielded 20 candidates, four in each of the five regional lists and for the first time 7 candidates were fielded in ] constituencies. On the regional lists, the BNP polled 22,610 votes (2.4%), down 1.9% from 2007.<ref name="BBC News: Wales elections">{{Cite news |title=Wales elections |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/election2011/constituency/html/wales.stm |url-status=live |access-date=11 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319013616/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/election2011/constituency/html/wales.stm |archive-date=19 March 2012}}</ref> In 2 out of the 7 FPTP constituencies contested the BNP saved deposits: (] and ]).<ref name="BBC News: Wales elections" /> | |||
In the ], the party fielded 32 candidates, entitling it to public funding and an election broadcast, prompting criticism.<ref>{{Cite web |title=No to public funds for fascism |url=http://uaf.org.uk/2007/08/no-to-public-funds-for-fascism/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526213017/http://uaf.org.uk/2007/08/no-to-public-funds-for-fascism/ |archive-date=26 May 2013 |access-date=12 April 2013}}</ref> The BNP received 24,616 votes (1.2%), no seats were won, nor were any deposits saved.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} In the ], the BNP fielded 32 candidates in the regional lists. 15,580 votes were polled (0.78%).<ref>{{Cite news |title=Scotland elections |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/election2011/region/html/scotland.stm |url-status=live |access-date=11 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220111035/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/election2011/region/html/scotland.stm |archive-date=20 February 2014}}</ref> | |||
The BNP fielded 3 candidates for the first time in three constituencies each in the ] (], ] and ]). 1,252 votes were polled (0.2%), winning no seats for the party.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Northern Ireland elections |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/election2011/constituency/html/northern_ireland.stm |url-status=live |access-date=11 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130412011646/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/election2011/constituency/html/northern_ireland.stm |archive-date=12 April 2013}}</ref> | |||
===European Parliament=== | |||
{{Main|British National Party election results#European Parliament||l1=British National Party election results (European Parliament)}} | |||
The BNP has taken part in European Parliament elections since 1999, when it received 1.13% of the total vote (102,647 votes). | |||
In the ], the BNP won 4.9% of the vote, making it the sixth biggest party overall, but did not win any seats.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">{{Cite news |last=Wheeler |first=Brian |date=5 May 2006 |title=Will BNP election gains last? |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4968406.stm |url-status=live |access-date=12 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090330161317/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4968406.stm |archive-date=30 March 2009}}</ref> | |||
The BNP won two seats in the European Parliament in the ]. ] was elected in the ] regional constituency with 9.8% of the vote.<ref name="BBC-BNP first seat">{{Cite news |date=8 June 2009 |title=Labour slumps to historic defeat |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8088133.stm |url-status=live |access-date=15 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090610210245/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8088133.stm |archive-date=10 June 2009}}</ref> Party chairman ] was elected in the ], with 8% of the vote.<ref name="autogenerated2">{{Cite news |date=8 June 2009 |title=European Election 2009: North West |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/elections/euro/09/html/ukregion_34.stm |url-status=live |access-date=14 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090607012054/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/elections/euro/09/html/ukregion_34.stm |archive-date=7 June 2009}}</ref> Nationally, the BNP received 6.26%. | |||
The UK government announced in 2009 that the BNP's two MEPs would be denied some of the access and information afforded to other MEPs. The BNP would be subject to the "same general principles governing official impartiality" and they would receive "standard written briefings as appropriate from time to time", but diplomats would not be "proactive" in dealing with the BNP MEPs and that any requests for policy briefings from them would be treated differently and on a discretionary basis.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Traynor |first=Ian |date=9 July 2009 |title=UK diplomats shun BNP officials in Europe |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jul/09/diplomats-shun-nick-griffin-bnp-europe |url-status=live |access-date=1 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906234803/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jul/09/diplomats-shun-nick-griffin-bnp-europe |archive-date=6 September 2013}}</ref> | |||
The BNP did not stand any candidates in the ].<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 May 2019 |title=European Elections 2019: more humiliation for UK |url=https://bnp.org.uk/european-elections-2019-more-humiliation-for-uk/ |publisher=BNP}}</ref> | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|+ ] | |||
! Election year | |||
! # of total votes | |||
! % of overall vote | |||
! # of seats won | |||
! Change | |||
|- | |||
! ]<ref>{{Cite news |title=UK Results – after 12 out of the 12 regions declared |agency=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/euros_99/default.stm |url-status=live |access-date=22 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512034649/http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/euros_99/default.stm |archive-date=12 May 2011}}</ref> | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 102,647 {{steady}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 1.1% {{steady}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Composition bar|0|87|hex={{party color|British National Party}}}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 0 {{steady}} | |||
|- | |||
! ]<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 June 2009 |title=European Election: United Kingdom Result |agency=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/vote2004/euro_uk/html/front.stm |url-status=live |access-date=22 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305200137/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/vote2004/euro_uk/html/front.stm |archive-date=5 March 2016}}</ref> | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 808,200 {{increase}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 4.9% {{increase}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Composition bar|0|78|hex={{party color|British National Party}}}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 0 {{steady}} | |||
|- | |||
! ]<ref>{{Cite news |date=8 June 2009 |title=European Election 2009: UK Results |agency=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/elections/euro/09/html/ukregion_999999.stm |url-status=live |access-date=22 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127030910/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/elections/euro/09/html/ukregion_999999.stm |archive-date=27 January 2017}}</ref> | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 943,598 {{increase}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 6.3% {{increase}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"|{{Composition bar|2|72|hex={{party color|British National Party}}}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 2 {{increase}} | |||
|- | |||
! ]<ref name="autogenerated3">{{Cite news |date=7 May 2010 |title=Barking & Dagenham |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/council/html/3892.stm |access-date=15 April 2013 |archive-date=30 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930085404/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/council/html/3892.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 179,694 {{decrease}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 1.1% {{decrease}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"|{{Composition bar|0|73|hex={{party color|British National Party}}}} | |||
| style="text-align:center;"| 2 {{decrease}} | |||
|} | |||
] on 10 November 2006 after being found not guilty of charges of incitement to racial hatred at their retrial.]] | |||
==Association with violence== | |||
The leaders and senior officers of the BNP have criminal convictions for inciting racial hatred.{{sfn|Wood|Finlay|2008|p=708}} | |||
John Hagan claims that the BNP has conducted ] to gain "institutionalized power".<ref name="haganwilliam">{{harvnb|Heitmeyer|2003|p=406}}</ref> A 1997 report by ] accused the party of recruiting from skinhead groups and promoting racist violence.<ref>{{harvnb|Human Rights Watch|1997|p=13}}</ref> | |||
In the past, Nick Griffin has defended the threat of violence to further the party's aims. After the BNP won its first council seat in 1993, he wrote that the BNP should not be a "postmodernist rightist party" but "a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan 'Defend Rights for Whites' with well-directed boots and fists. When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate". In 1997 he said: "It is more important to control the streets of a city than its council chambers."<ref name="guardng">{{Cite news |last=Anthony |first=Andrew |date=1 September 2002 |title=Flying the flag |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2002/sep/01/features.magazine37 |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021044330/http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2002/sep/01/features.magazine37 |archive-date=21 October 2012}}</ref> | |||
A BBC '']'' programme reported on a number of BNP members who have had criminal convictions, some racially motivated.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Party Organisers: Criminal Record |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/programmes/2001/bnp_special/membership/organisers/criminal.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616100118/http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/programmes/2001/bnp_special/membership/organisers/criminal.stm |archive-date=16 June 2013 |series=Under the skin of the BNP}}</ref> Some of the more notable convictions include: | |||
* ] had convictions for assault and organising paramilitary ] activities. In 1986 he was jailed for conspiracy to publish material likely to incite racial hatred.<ref>{{harvnb|Human Rights Watch|1997|p=14}}</ref> | |||
* In 1998, Nick Griffin was convicted of violating section 19 of the ], relating to ]. He received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was fined £2,300.<ref name="british state">{{Cite web |last=Botsford |first=David |title=The British State versus Freedom of Expression: The Case of R. v. Griffin |url=http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/legan/legan029.pdf |access-date=16 April 2013 |publisher=Libertarian Alliance |archive-date=15 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915143236/http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/legan/legan029.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
* Joseph Owens, a BNP candidate in Liverpool's local elections, served eight months in prison for sending razor blades in the post to Jewish people and another term for carrying CS gas and knuckledusters.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Herbert |first=Ian |date=4 April 2006 |title=BNP contests seat where racist killing took place |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bnp-contests-seat-where-racist-killing-took-place-6104616.html |url-status=live |access-date=19 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305093051/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bnp-contests-seat-where-racist-killing-took-place-6104616.html |archive-date=5 March 2016}}</ref> | |||
* Colin Smith, who in 2004 was the BNP's South East London organiser, has 17 convictions for burglary, theft, possession of drugs and assaulting a police officer.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goodchild |first=Sophie |date=25 April 2004 |title=On the Le Pen menu: roast beef and raw bigotry |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/on-the-le-pen-menu-roast-beef-and-raw-bigotry-6170790.html |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110022012/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/on-the-le-pen-menu-roast-beef-and-raw-bigotry-6170790.html |archive-date=10 January 2014}}</ref> | |||
* ], at the time BNP National Organiser, was sentenced to three months in prison in 1994 for his part in a racist attack. Edmonds threw a glass at the victim as he was walking past an East London pub where a group of BNP supporters was drinking. Others then 'glassed' the man in the face and punched and kicked him as he lay on the ground, including BNP supporter Stephen O'Shea, who was jailed for 12 months. Another BNP supporter, Simon Biggs, was jailed for four and a half years for his part in the attack.<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 June 1994 |title=Anger as BNP chief walks free over race attack |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/anger-as-bnp-chief-walks-free-over-race-attack-1423282.html |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213083507/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/anger-as-bnp-chief-walks-free-over-race-attack-1423282.html |archive-date=13 December 2013}}</ref> | |||
==Reception== | |||
] | |||
In 2011, Goodwin described the BNP as being "the most successful party in the history of the extreme right in Britain".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=xiii}} That same year, John E. Richardson noted that it had achieved "a level of electoral success that is unparalleled in the history of British fascism".{{sfn|Richardson|2011|p=41}} The historian Alan Sykes stated that "in electoral terms", the BNP achieved "more in the first three years of the twenty-first century" than the British far right "as a whole achieved in the previous seventy".{{sfn|Sykes|2005|p=151}} However, Copsey said that the party's belief that one day the conditions would be right for it to win a general election belonged to the "Never-Never Land of British politics".{{sfn|Copsey|2011|p=2}} Copsey also said that the BNP's electoral successes had been modest in comparison to those achieved by extreme-right groups elsewhere in Western Europe such as France's National Front, Italy's National Alliance, and Belgium's ].{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=191}} | |||
The BNP's growth met a hostile reaction,{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=xiii}} and in 2011 the political scientists Copsey and Macklin described it as "Britain's most disliked party".{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=95}} It was widely reviled as racist and even following Griffin's "modernisation" project it was still heavily tainted by its associations with neo-Nazism.{{sfn|Copsey|2011|p=6}} For many years it remained closely associated with the National Front in the British public imagination.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|p=28}} | |||
The BNP remained unable to gain a broad appeal or widespread credibility.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=117}} In a 2004 poll, seven out of ten voters said that they would never consider voting for the BNP.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=117}} A 2009 poll found that two-thirds would "under no circumstances" consider voting BNP, while only 4% of respondents would "definitely consider" voting for them.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=117}} | |||
The Conservative leader ] stated that the BNP were a "stain" on British democracy, adding that "this is not a political movement, this is a bunch of thugs dressed up as a political party".{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1y=2008|1p=151|2a1=Goodwin|2y=2011|2p=xiii}} His successor ] described it as a "completely unacceptable" organisation which "thrives on hatred".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=xiii}} The Labour prime minister, ], called it a "nasty, extreme organisation",{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=xiii}} while the Liberal Democrat leader ] termed it a "party of thugs and fascists".{{sfn|Copsey|2011|p=1}} In 2004, the ] declared that supporting the BNP was incompatible with Christianity,{{sfn|Davey|2011|p=448}} comparing it to "spitting in the face of God".{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|p=xiii}} Christian groups throughout Britain have maintained that the BNP's hostility toward cultural and ethnic diversity in the country was at odds with mainstream Christianity's emphasis on inclusiveness, tolerance, and interfaith dialogue.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2010|pp=46–47}} ]'s family has criticised the BNP's use of his image and quotations, labelling it "offensive and disgusting".<ref>{{Cite news |date=26 May 2009 |title=BNP's Churchill use 'disgusting' |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8068717.stm |url-status=live |access-date=1 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090529121911/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8068717.stm |archive-date=29 May 2009}}</ref> The singer ] condemned the party for selling a CD featuring her recordings on its website.<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 February 2009 |title=Dame Vera Lynn takes on BNP over White Cliffs of Dover |work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/4687730/Dame-Vera-Lynn-takes-on-BNP-over-White-Cliffs-of-Dover.html |url-status=live |access-date=1 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101090127/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/4687730/Dame-Vera-Lynn-takes-on-BNP-over-White-Cliffs-of-Dover.html |archive-date=1 November 2013}}</ref> In 2009, the ] asked Griffin—at first privately and then publicly—to not wear their poppy symbol.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Matthew |date=13 June 2009 |title=Royal British Legion tell Nick Griffin to stop wearing poppy badge |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/13/royal-british-legion-nick-griffin |url-status=live |access-date=1 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906182015/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/13/royal-british-legion-nick-griffin |archive-date=6 September 2013}}</ref> | |||
The British police, ], and ], prohibited its members from joining the BNP.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=138–139}}<ref name="bettleysun">{{Cite news |date=27 July 2004 |title=ACPO bans police from joining BNP |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3930175.stm |archive-date=30 September 2021 |access-date=6 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930085404/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3930175.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2002, ], banned BNP membership among prison workers; he subsequently received death threats.<ref>{{Cite news |date=8 February 2005 |title='No-one wanted' top UK jails post |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4247329.stm |url-status=live |access-date=4 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003100659/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4247329.stm |archive-date=3 October 2018}}</ref> In 2010, the Education Secretary ] announced bans allowing headteachers to ban their staff from being party members.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hasan |first=Medhi |date=2 November 2010 |title=In praise of Michael Gove: He's wrong on free schools but right to ban BNP teachers |work=New Statesman |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/mehdi-hasan/2010/11/bnp-teachers-gove-schools |url-status=live |access-date=15 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029195356/http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/mehdi-hasan/2010/11/bnp-teachers-gove-schools |archive-date=29 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Vasagar |first=Jeevan |date=2 November 2010 |title=BNP members to be barred from teaching |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/nov/02/bnp-members-barred-teaching |url-status=live |access-date=15 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130917194139/http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/nov/02/bnp-members-barred-teaching |archive-date=17 September 2013}}</ref> | |||
Individuals whose membership of the party was made public sometimes faced ostracism and the loss of their job: examples include a school headmaster who had to resign, a caretaker who was sacked after attending a BNP rally, and a police officer dismissed from his position.{{sfn|Goodwin|2011|pp=138–139}} After BNP membership lists were leaked on the Internet, a number of police forces investigated officers whose names appeared on the lists.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cobain |first=Ian |date=19 November 2008 |title=Police scour BNP membership to find officers breaching ban |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/nov/19/police-bnp-far-right-list |url-status=live |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105094713/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/nov/19/police-bnp-far-right-list |archive-date=5 November 2016}}</ref> | |||
In 2005, an invitation to Nick Griffin by the ] Union Debating Society to participate in a debate on multiculturalism was withdrawn after protests.<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 February 2005 |title=University's invitation to BNP leader withdrawn |work=The Scotsman |url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/education/university-s-invitation-to-bnp-leader-withdrawn-1-674092 |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013154732/http://www.scotsman.com/news/education/university-s-invitation-to-bnp-leader-withdrawn-1-674092 |archive-date=13 October 2012}}</ref> The BNP says that ] guidelines on reporting "far right" organisations forbid unionised journalists from reporting uncritically on the party.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wingfield |first=Martin |date=16 March 2008 |title=The Media: Reporting on the BNP |url=http://bnp.org.uk/2008/03/the-media-reporting-on-the-bnp/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211165521/http://bnp.org.uk/2008/03/the-media-reporting-on-the-bnp/ |archive-date=11 December 2008 |access-date=12 April 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=27 May 2013 |title=The Traitors – 3. Denis MacShane |url=http://www.bnp.org.uk/news/national/traitors-%E2%80%93-3-denis-macshane |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826184625/http://www.bnp.org.uk/news/national/traitors-%e2%80%93-3-denis-macshane |archive-date=26 August 2013 |access-date=6 September 2013 |publisher=British National Party}}</ref> In April 2007, an election broadcast was cancelled by ] whose lawyers believed that the broadcast was defamatory of the ] of ], ].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mulholland |first=Hélène |date=24 April 2007 |title=BNP forced to change election broadcast |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/apr/24/thefarright.media |url-status=live |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510165820/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/apr/24/thefarright.media |archive-date=10 May 2017}}</ref> The BNP said that BBC editors were following an agenda.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 April 2007 |title=BBC bans BNP election broadcast |url=http://www.bnp.org.uk/news_detail.php?newsId=1477 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014195731/http://www.bnp.org.uk/news_detail.php?newsId=1477 |archive-date=14 October 2007 |access-date=11 April 2013 |publisher=British National Party}}</ref> | |||
===Mainstream media and academia=== | |||
] | |||
Attitudes toward the BNP in both mainstream broadcast media and print journalism have been overwhelmingly negative,{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|pp=84–85}} and no mainstream newspaper has endorsed the party.{{sfn|Davey|2011|p=441}} This hostile coverage has even been found in right-wing tabloids like the '']'', '']'' and '']'' which otherwise share the BNP's hostile attitude toward issues like immigration.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|pp=84–85}} In 2003, the ''Daily Mail'' described the BNP as "poisonous bigots", while in 2004 ''The Sun'' printed the headline of "BNP: Bloody Nasty People".{{sfnm|1a1=Copsey|1a2=Macklin|1y=2011|1p=85|2a1=Trilling|2y=2012|2p=123}} Senior BNP figures nevertheless believed that these tabloids' hostile coverage of immigration and Islam helped to legitimise and normalise the party and its views among much of the British public,{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=85}} a view echoed by some academic observers.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=99}} When, in 2004, anti-racist activists picketed outside the ''Daily Mail'' office in central London to protest against its negative coverage of asylum seekers, BNP members organised a counter-picket at which they displayed the placard "Vote BNP, Read the ''Daily Mail''".{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=98}} | |||
The BNP initially faced a ']' policy from the broadcast media, although this eroded as Griffin was invited on to a number of television programmes amid the party's growing electoral success.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=83}} When the BBC invited him to appear on ''Question Time'' in 2009 it was criticised by several trade unions, sections of the media, and several Labour politicians, all of whom believed that the BNP should not be given a public platform.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=87}} Anti-fascist protesters assembled outside of the television studio to protest Griffin's inclusion.{{sfn|Copsey|Macklin|2011|p=88}} | |||
The first academic attention to be directed at the BNP appeared after it gained a councillor in the 1993 local elections.{{sfn|Copsey|2011|p=6}} Nevertheless, throughout the 1990s it remained the subject of little academic research.{{sfn|Copsey|2011|p=6}} Academic interest increased following its victories at local elections from 2002 onward.{{sfn|Copsey|2011|p=6}} The first detailed monograph study to be devoted to the party was Nigel Copsey's ''Contemporary British Fascism'', first published in 2004.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|p=4}} In September 2008, an academic symposium on the BNP was held at ].{{sfn|Macklin|2011b|p=227}} | |||
===The wider extreme-right and anti-fascists=== | |||
Opposition to the BNP also came from the organised anti-fascist movement. By the mid-1990s, the BNP's attempts to stage public events in Scotland, the North West and the Midlands were largely thwarted by the militant disruption of the ] (AFA) group.{{sfn|Copsey|2011b|p=128}} The BNP's modernisation and move away from street demonstrations and toward electoral campaigning caused problems for the AFA, who proved unable to successfully change their tactics; on those occasions when AFA activists tried to forcibly disrupt BNP activities, they were prevented and arrested by ].{{sfn|Copsey|2011b|pp=129–131}} | |||
] protesting against the BNP at ] in 2009]] | |||
More liberal sections of the anti-fascist movement sought to counter the BNP through community-based initiatives. '']'' encouraged trade unions to establish localised campaigns that would ensure that ethnic minority and other anti-BNP locals voted. It suggested that such campaigns should avoid associating with the mainstream parties from which BNP voters felt disenfranchised and that they should not be afraid of calling out Islamic fundamentalists and extremists active in the area.{{sfn|Copsey|2011b|pp=131–133}} The ] group also sought to maximise anti-BNP turnout at elections, calling on the electorate to vote for "anyone but fascists".{{sfn|Copsey|2011b|pp=134–135}} Evidence suggests that such anti-fascist activities did little to erode the far-right vote; this was in part because anti-fascist groups had encouraged the stereotype that BNP candidates were violent skinheads, something which conflicted with the more normal, friendly image that BNP activists cultivated when canvassing.{{sfn|Copsey|2008|pp=140, 141}} | |||
The BNP often received a hostile response from other sections of the British extreme-right.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2011|p=103}} Some extreme-right-wingers, such as the ], expressed frustration at the party's inability to moderate itself further on the issue of race, while those such as ] and the NF accused the BNP—particularly under Griffin's leadership—of being too moderate.{{sfn|Woodbridge|2011|pp=103–104}} This latter view was articulated by an extreme-right ], the International Third Position, when it claimed that the BNP "has been openly courting the Jewish vote and pumping out material which confirms what most us knew years ago: the BNP has become a multi-racist, Zionist, queer-tolerant anti-Muslim pressure group".{{sfn|Woodbridge|2011|p=118}} | |||
In '']'', the ] overturned an employment appeal tribunal ruling that awarded BNP member and train driver ] damages for expulsion from a trade union.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 February 2007 |title=Case of Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers & Firemen (ASLEF) v. the United Kingdom |url=http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-79604 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724001538/http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-79604 |archive-date=24 July 2014 |access-date=4 April 2013 |publisher=European Court of Human Rights}}</ref> In ], the court ruled that members of racist organisations could lawfully be dismissed on health and safety grounds if there was a danger of violence occurring in the workplace.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Disclaw Publishing – Employment Law, unfair dismissal, redundancy pay |url=http://www.emplaw.co.uk/lawguide?startpage=2005irlr744.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607111139/http://www.emplaw.co.uk/lawguide?startpage=2005irlr744.htm |archive-date=7 June 2013 |access-date=4 April 2013 |publisher=Emplaw.co.uk}}</ref> In November 2012, the ] made a majority ruling (4 to 3) that in Redfearn's case against the UK government, his rights under Article 11 (free association) had been infringed,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bowcott |first=Owen |date=6 November 2012 |title=Bus driver sacked for BNP membership wins case in Strasbourg |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/nov/06/bus-driver-bnp-wins-rights-case |url-status=live |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107040223/https://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/nov/06/bus-driver-bnp-wins-rights-case |archive-date=7 January 2017}}</ref> but not those under Article 10 (free expression) or Article 14 (discrimination).<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 November 2012 |title=CASE OF REDFEARN v. THE UNITED KINGDOM |url=http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-114240 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130604063301/http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-114240 |archive-date=4 June 2013 |access-date=4 April 2013 |publisher=European Court of Human Rights}}</ref> | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
* ] | |||
*] | |||
*] | * ] | ||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
==Notes== | |||
{{Reflist|group=note}} | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
<div class="references-small"><references/></div> | |||
== |
===Footnotes=== | ||
{{Reflist}} | |||
===Official party sites=== | |||
* | |||
===Sources=== | |||
* (Party membership needed for access) | |||
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} | |||
* | |||
* | |||
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* {{Cite book |last1=Szczerbiak |first1=Aleks |title=Opposing Europe?: The Comparative Party Politics of Euroscepticism: Volume 1: Case Studies and Country Surveys |last2=Taggart |first2=Paul |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0199258307 |location=Oxford }} | |||
* {{Cite journal |last1=Sutton |first1=Mike |last2=Perry |first2=Barbara |year=2009 |title=Politicking the Personal: Examining Academic Literature and British National Party beliefs and wishes about intimate Interracial Relationships and Mixed Heritage |url=http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/20974/1/193433_1813%20Sutton%20PostPrint.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/20974/1/193433_1813%20Sutton%20PostPrint.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |journal=Information & Communications Technology Law |volume=18 |pages=83–98 |doi=10.1080/13600830902814992 |s2cid=144101642 |number=2}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Sykes |first=Alan |title=The Radical Right in Britain: Social Imperialism to the BNP |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2005 |isbn=978-0333599242 |location=Basingstoke and New York }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Trilling |first=Daniel |title=Bloody Nasty People: The Rise of Britain's Far Right |publisher=Verso |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-84467-959-1 |location=London }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Tyndall |first=John |title=The Eleventh Hour: A Call for British Rebirth |publisher=Albion Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-9513686-1-9 |location=London }} | |||
* {{Cite journal |last1=Wood |first1=C. |last2=Finlay |first2=W. M. L. |year=2008 |title=British National Party Representations of Muslims in the Month after the London Bombings: Homogeneity, Threat, and the Conspiracy Tradition |journal=]|volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=707–726 |doi=10.1348/014466607X264103 |pmid=18070375 }} | |||
* {{Cite journal |last=Woodbridge |first=Steven |year=2010 |title=Christian Credentials?: The Role of Religion in British National Party Ideology |journal=Journal for the Study of Radicalism |volume=4 |pages=25–54 |doi=10.1353/jsr.0.0039 |jstor=41887643 |s2cid=146246410 |number=1}} | |||
* {{Cite encyclopedia |year=2011 |title=British National Party: Contemporary Perspectives |publisher=Routledge |location=London and New York |last=Woodbridge |first=Steven |editor-last=Copsey |editor-first=Nigel |pages=103–122 |isbn=978-0-415-48383-4 |author1-mask={{long dash}} |contribution=Ambivalent Admiration? The Response of Other Extreme-Right Groups to the Rise of the BNP |editor2-first=Graham |editor2-last=Macklin}} | |||
{{refend}} | |||
===Further reading=== | |||
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{{Refbegin|35em}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Abbas |first=Tahir |title=Muslim Britain: communities under pressure |publisher=Zed Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-84277-449-6 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Art |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dUTXJakqLoC |title=Inside the Radical Right |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-139-49883-8 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last1=Backes |first1=Uwe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBnmachN8vkC |title=The Extreme Right in Europe: Current Trends and Perspectives |last2=Moreau |first2=Patrick |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |year=2011 |isbn=978-3-525-36922-7 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last1=Barberis |first1=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qps14mSlghcC |title=Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th century |last2=McHugh |first2=John |last3=Tyldesley |first3=Mike |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8264-5814-8 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Boothroyd |first=David |title=Politico's Guide to the History of British Political Parties |publisher=Politico's |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-902301-59-4 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Betz |first=Hans-Georg |title=The new politics of the Right: neo-Populist parties and movements in established democracies |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-312-21338-1 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Butler |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/britishgeneralel0000butl_c6i6 |title=The British General Election of 1983 |publisher=Macmillan |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-333-34578-8 |author-link=David Butler (Oxford) |url-access=registration}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Brinks |first=Jan Herman |title=Nationalist Myths and Modern Media: Contested Identities in the Age of Globalization |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-84511-038-3 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Cook |first=Chris |url=https://archive.org/details/longmancompanion0000cook |title=The Longman companion to Britain since 1945 |publisher=Pearson Education |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-582-35674-0 |url-access=registration}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Copsey |first=Nigel |title=Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and its Quest for Legitimacy |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-4039-0214-6 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Davies |first=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/routledgecompani00davi |title=The Routledge companion to fascism and the far right |publisher=Routledge |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-415-21494-0 |url-access=registration}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Eatwell |first=Roger |title=Western democracies and the new extreme right challenge |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-415-36971-8 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Geddes |first=Andrew |title=Labour's second landslide: the British general election 2001 |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7190-6266-7 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Human Rights Watch |url=https://books.google.com/books?&vid=LCCN96077750 |title=Racist violence in the United Kingdom |publisher=Human Rights Watch |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-56432-202-9 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last1=Gottlieb |first1=Julie V. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uwWIhImk0zwC |title=The Culture of Fascism: Visions of the Far Right in Britain |last2=Linehan |first2=Thomas P. |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-86064-798-7 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Ignazi |first=Piero |title=Extreme right parties in Western Europe |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-19-929159-5 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Heitmeyer |first=Wilhelm |title=International Handbook of Violence Research |publisher=Springer |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-4020-1466-6 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Ray |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMZmQgAACAAJ |title=The Other Face of Terror: Inside Europe's Neo-Nazi Network |last2=Bell |first2=Andrew |publisher=Grafton Books |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-586-06935-6 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Larsen |first=Stein Ugelvik |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=txpnAAAAMAAJ |title=Modern Europe after fascism, 1943–1980s |publisher=Social Science Monographs |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-88033-973-5 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Liang |first=Christina Schori |title=Europe for the Europeans: the foreign and security policy of the populist radical |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |year=2007 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Passmore |first=Kevin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gee7VLcMP8gC |title=Fascism : a very short introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-19-280155-5 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Plowright |first=John |title=The Routledge dictionary of modern British history |publisher=Routledge |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-203-08846-3 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Saggar |first=Shamit |url=https://archive.org/details/racebritishelect00sagg |title=Race and British electoral politics |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-85728-830-8 |url-access=registration}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Szajkowski |first=Bogdan |title=Revolutionary and dissident movements of the world |publisher=John Harper Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-9543811-2-7 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Thurlow |first=Richard C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vAWGAAAAIAAJ |title=Fascism in Modern Britain |publisher=Sutton |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7509-1747-6 }} | |||
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Latest revision as of 11:43, 21 December 2024
British fascist political party founded in 1982 For other parties of the same name, see British National Party (disambiguation).
British National Party | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | BNP |
Chairman | Adam Walker |
Founder | John Tyndall |
Founded | 7 April 1982; 42 years ago (7 April 1982) |
Split from | |
Headquarters | Wigton, Cumbria, England |
Newspaper | Identity |
Youth wing | BNP Youth |
Membership (2015) | 500 |
Ideology | |
Political position | Far-right |
European affiliation | Alliance of European National Movements |
Colours | Red White Blue |
Website | |
bnp | |
The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and is led by Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK government. The party was founded in 1982, and reached its greatest level of success in the 2000s, when it had over fifty seats in local government, one seat on the London Assembly, and two Members of the European Parliament. It has been largely inactive since 2019.
Taking its name from that of a defunct 1960s far-right party, the BNP was created by John Tyndall and other former members of the fascist National Front (NF). During the 1980s and 1990s, the BNP placed little emphasis on contesting elections, in which it did poorly. Instead, it focused on street marches and rallies, creating the Combat 18 paramilitary—its name a coded reference to Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler—to protect its events from anti-fascist protesters. A growing 'moderniser' faction was frustrated by Tyndall's leadership, and ousted him in 1999. The new leader Nick Griffin sought to broaden the BNP's electoral base by presenting a more moderate image, targeting concerns about rising immigration rates, and emphasising localised community campaigns. This resulted in increased electoral growth throughout the 2000s, to the extent that it became the most electorally successful far-right party in British history. Concerns regarding financial mismanagement resulted in Griffin being removed as leader in 2014. By this point, the BNP's membership and vote share had declined dramatically, groups like Britain First and National Action had splintered off, and the English Defence League had supplanted it as the UK's foremost far-right group.
Ideologically positioned on the extreme-right or far-right of British politics, the BNP has been characterised as fascist or neo-fascist by political scientists. Under Tyndall's leadership, it was more specifically regarded as neo-Nazi. The party is ethnic nationalist, and it once espoused the view that only white people should be citizens of the United Kingdom. It calls for an end to non-white migration into the UK. It called initially for the compulsory expulsion of non-whites but, since 1999, it has advocated voluntary removals with financial incentives. It promotes biological racism and the white genocide conspiracy theory, calling for global racial separatism and condemning interracial relationships. Under Tyndall, the BNP emphasised anti-semitism and Holocaust denial, promoting the conspiracy theory that Jews seek to dominate the world through both communism and international capitalism. Under Griffin, the party's focus switched from anti-semitism towards Islamophobia. It promotes economic protectionism, Euroscepticism, and a transformation away from liberal democracy, while its social policies oppose feminism, LGBT rights, and societal permissiveness.
Operating around a highly centralised structure that gave its chair near total control, the BNP built links with far-right parties across Europe and created various sub-groups, including a record label and trade union. The BNP attracted most support from within White British working-class communities in northern and eastern England, particularly among middle-aged and elderly men. A poll in the 2000s suggested that most Britons favoured a ban on the party. It faced much opposition from anti-fascists, religious organisations, the mainstream media, and most politicians, and BNP members were banned from various professions.
History
Main article: History of the British National PartyJohn Tyndall's leadership: 1982–1999
The British National Party (BNP) was founded by the extreme-right political activist John Tyndall. Tyndall had been involved in neo-Nazi groups since the late 1950s before leading the far-right National Front (NF) throughout most of the 1970s. Following an argument with senior party member Martin Webster, he resigned from the NF in 1980. In June 1980 Tyndall established a rival, the New National Front (NNF). At the recommendation of Ray Hill—who was secretly an anti-fascist spy seeking to sow disharmony among Britain's far-right—Tyndall decided to unite an array of extreme-right groups as a single party. To this end, Tyndall established a Committee for Nationalist Unity (CNU) in January 1982. In March 1982, the CNU held a conference at the Charing Cross Hotel in London, at which 50 far-right activists agreed to the formation of the BNP.
The BNP was formally launched on 7 April 1982 at a press conference in Victoria. Led by Tyndall, most of its early members came from the NNF, although others were defectors from the NF, British Movement, British Democratic Party, and Nationalist Party. Tyndall remarked that there was "scarcely any difference in ideology or policy save in the minutest detail", and most of the BNP's leading activists had formerly been senior NF figures. Under Tyndall's leadership the party was neo-Nazi in orientation and engaged in nostalgia for Nazi Germany. It adopted the NF's tactic of holding street marches and rallies, believing that these boosted morale and attracted new recruits. Their first march took place in London on St. George's Day 1982. These marches often involved clashes with anti-fascist protesters and resulted in multiple arrests, helping to cement the BNP's association with political violence and older fascist groups in the public eye. As a result, BNP organisers began to favour indoor rallies, although street marches continued to be held throughout the mid-to-late 1980s.
— BNP marching song, 1982Through 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!
In its early years, the BNP's involvement in elections was "irregular and intermittent", and for its first two decades it faced consistent electoral failure. It suffered from low finances and few personnel, and its leadership was aware that its electoral viability was weakened by the anti-immigration rhetoric of Conservative Party Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In the 1983 general election the BNP stood 54 candidates, although it only campaigned in five seats. Although it was able to air its first party political broadcast, it averaged a vote share of 0.06% in the seats it contested. After the Representation of the People Act 1985 raised the electoral deposit to £500, the BNP adopted a policy of "very limited involvement" in elections. It abstained in the 1987 general election, and stood only 13 candidates in the 1992 general election. In a 1993 local by-election the BNP gained one council seat—won by Derek Beackon in the East London district of Millwall—after a campaign that played to local whites who were angry at the perceived preferential treatment received by Bangladeshi migrants in social housing. Following an anti-BNP campaign launched by local religious groups and the Anti-Nazi League, it lost this seat during the 1994 local elections. In the 1997 general election, it contested 55 seats and gained an average 1.4% of the vote.
In the early 1990s, the paramilitary group Combat 18 (C18) was formed to protect BNP events from anti-fascists. In 1992, C18 carried out attacks on left-wing targets like an anarchist bookshop and the headquarters of the Morning Star. Tyndall was angered by C18's growing influence on the BNP's street activities, and by August 1993, C18 activists were physically clashing with other BNP members. 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. 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.
— Senior BNP member John BeanJohn Tyndall was both greatest asset and its greatest drawback. His persistence, rock-like reliability and leadership had kept the movement going, but with almost imperceptible growth since its 1982 foundation.
In the early 1990s, a "moderniser" faction emerged within the party, favouring a more electorally palatable strategy and an emphasis on building grassroots support to win local elections. It was impressed by the electoral gains made by a number of extreme-right parties in continental Europe — such as Jörg Haider's Austrian Freedom Party and Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front — which had been achieved by both switching focus from biological racism to the perceived cultural incompatibility of different racial groups and by replacing anti-democratic platforms with populist ones. The modernisers called for community campaigns among the white working-class populations of London's East End, and Northern England. While the modernisers gained some concessions from the party's hard-liners, Tyndall opposed many of their ideas and sought to stem their growing influence. In his view, "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".
Nick Griffin's leadership: 1999–2014
After the BNP's poor performance at the 1997 general election, opposition to Tyndall's leadership grew. The modernisers called the party's first leadership election, and in October 1999 Tyndall was ousted when two-thirds of those voting backed Nick Griffin, who offered an improved administration, financial transparency, and greater support for local branches. Often characterised as a political chameleon, Griffin had once been considered a party hardliner before switching allegiance to the modernisers in the late 1990s. In his youth, he had been involved in the NF as well as Third Positionist groups like Political Soldier and the International Third Position. Criticising his predecessors for fuelling the image of the BNP as "thugs, losers and troublemakers", Griffin inaugurated a period of change in the party.
Influenced by Le Pen's National Front in France, Griffin sought to widen the BNP's appeal to individuals who were concerned about immigration but had not previously voted for the extreme-right. The BNP replaced Tyndall's policy of compulsory deportation of non-whites to a voluntary system whereby non-whites would be given financial incentives to emigrate. It downplayed biological racism and stressed the cultural incompatibility of different racial groups. This emphasis on culture allowed it to foreground Islamophobia; following the September 11 attacks in 2001, it launched a "Campaign Against Islam". It stressed the claim that the BNP was "not a racist party" but an "organised response to anti-white racism". At the same time Griffin sought to reassure the party's base that these reforms were based on pragmatism and not a change in principle.
Griffin also sought to shed the BNP's image as a single-issue party, by embracing a diverse array of social and economic issues. Griffin renamed the party's monthly newspaper from British Nationalist to The Voice of Freedom, and established a new journal, Identity. The party developed community-based campaigns, through which it targeted local issues, particularly in those areas with large numbers of skilled white working-class people who were disaffected with the Labour Party government. For instance, in Burnley it campaigned for lower speed limits on housing estates and against the closure of a local swimming bath, while in South Birmingham it targeted pensioners' concerns about youth gangs. In 2006, the party urged its activists to carry out local activities like cleaning up children's play areas and removing graffiti while wearing high-vis jackets emblazoned with the party logo.
Griffin believed that Peak Oil and a growth in Third World migrants arriving in Britain would result in a BNP government coming to power by 2040. The close of the twentieth century produced more favourable conditions for the extreme-right in Britain as a result of increased public concerns about immigration and established Muslim communities coupled with growing dissatisfaction with the established mainstream parties. In turn, the BNP gained rapidly growing levels of support over the coming years. In July 2000, it came second in the council elections for the North End of the London Borough of Bexley, its best result since 1993. At the 2001 general election it gained 16% of the vote in one constituency and over 10% in two others. In the 2002 local elections the BNP gained four councillors, three of whom were in Burnley, where it had capitalised on white anger surrounding the disproportionately high levels of funding being directed to the Asian-dominated Daneshouse ward. This breakthrough generated public anxieties about the party, with a poll finding that six in ten supported a ban on it. In the 2003 local elections, the BNP gained 13 additional councillors, including seven more in Burnley; the party received over 100,000 votes in this election. Concerned that much of its potential vote was going to the UK Independence Party (UKIP), in 2003 the BNP offered UKIP an electoral pact but was rebuffed. Griffin then accused UKIP of being a Labour Party scheme to steal the BNP's votes. It invested much in the campaign for the 2004 European Parliament election, at which it received 800,000 votes but failed to secure a parliamentary seat. In the 2004 local elections, it secured four more seats, including three in Epping.
For the 2005 general election, the BNP expanded its number of candidates to 119 and targeted specific regions. Its average vote in the areas it contested rose to 4.3%. It gained significantly more support in three seats, achieving 10% in Burnley, 13% in Dewsbury, and 17% in Barking. In the 2006 local elections the party gained 220,000 votes, with 33 additional councillors, having averaged a vote share of 18% in the areas it contested. In Barking and Dagenham, it saw 12 of its 13 candidates elected to the council. At the 2008 London Assembly election, the BNP gained 130,000 votes, reaching the 5% mark and thus gaining an Assembly seat. At the 2009 European Parliament election, the party gained almost 1 million votes, with two of its candidates, Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, being elected as Members of the European Parliament for North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber respectively. That election also saw extreme-right parties winning seats for various other EU member-states. This victory marked a major watershed for the party. Amid significant public controversy, Griffin was invited to appear on the BBC show Question Time in October 2009, the first time that the BNP had been invited to share a national television platform with mainstream panellists. Griffin's performance was however widely regarded as poor.
Despite its success, there was dissent in the party. In 2007 a group of senior members known as the "December rebels" challenged Griffin, calling for internal party democracy and financial transparency, but were expelled. In 2008, a group of BNP activists in Bradford split to form the Democratic Nationalists. In November 2008, the BNP membership list was posted to WikiLeaks, after appearing briefly on a weblog. A year later, in October 2009, another list of BNP members was leaked.
Eddy Butler then led a challenge to Griffin's leadership, alleging financial corruption, but he had insufficient support. The rebels who supported him split into two groups: one section remained as the internal Reform Group, the other left the BNP to form the British Freedom Party. By 2010, there was discontent among the party's grassroots, a result of the change to its white-only membership policy and rumours of financial corruption among its leadership. Some defected to the National Front or left to form parties like the Britannica Party. Anti-fascist groups like Hope not Hate had campaigned extensively in Barking to stop the area's locals voting for the BNP. At the 2010 general election, the BNP had hoped to make a breakthrough by gaining a seat in the House of Commons, although it failed to achieve this. It nevertheless gained the fifth largest national vote share, with 1.9% of the vote, representing the most successful electoral performance for an extreme-right party in UK history. In the 2010 local elections, it lost all of its councillors in Barking and Dagenham. Nationally, the party's number of councillors dropped from over fifty to 28. Griffin described the results as "disastrous".
Decline: 2014–present
In a 2011 leadership election, Griffin secured a narrow victory, beating Brons by nine votes of a total of 2,316 votes cast. In October 2012, Brons left the party, leaving Griffin as its sole MEP. In the 2012 local elections, the party lost all of its seats and saw its vote share fall dramatically; whereas it gained over 240,000 votes in 2008, this had fallen to under 26,000 by 2012. Commenting on the result, the political scientist Matthew Goodwin noted: "Put simply, the BNP's electoral challenge is over." In the 2012 London mayoral election, the BNP candidate came seventh, with 1.3% of first-preference votes, its poorest showing in the London mayoral contest. The 2012 election results established that the BNP's steady growth had ended. In the 2013 local elections, the BNP fielded 99 candidates but failed to win any council seats, leaving it with only two.
In June 2013, Griffin visited Syria along with members of Hungarian far-right party Jobbik to meet with government officials, including the Speaker of the Syrian People's Assembly, Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, and the Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi. Griffin claims he was influential in the speaker of Syria's Parliament writing an open letter to British MPs urging them to "turn Great Britain from the warpath" by not intervening in the Syrian conflict. Griffin lost his European Parliament seat in the May 2014 European election. The party blamed the UK Independence Party for its decline, accusing the latter of stealing BNP policies and slogans. In July 2014, Griffin resigned and was succeeded by Adam Walker as acting chairman. In October, Griffin was expelled from the party for "trying to cause disunity by deliberately fabricating a state of crisis".
In January 2015, membership of the party numbered 500, down from 4,220 in December 2013. 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. In January 2016, the Electoral Commission de-registered the BNP for failing to pay its annual registration fee of £25. At this time, it was estimated that BNP assets totalled less than £50,000. According to the commission, "BNP candidates cannot, at present, use the party's name, descriptions or emblems on the ballot paper at elections." A month later, the party was re-registered. There were ten BNP candidates at the general election in 2017. At the 2018 local elections, the party's last remaining councillor—Brian Parker of Pendle—decided not to stand for re-election, leaving the party without representation at any level of UK government. The BNP fielded only one candidate, David Furness, at the 2019 general election in Hornchurch and Upminster, where he came last.
The BNP has been essentially inactive since 2019, and has not put forward a single candidate in any elections since 2019, with the only evidence of any activity being the occasional post on its website or Twitter account.
Ideology
Far-right politics, fascism and neo-Nazism
Many academic historians and political scientists have described the BNP as a far-right party, or as an extreme-right party. As the political scientist Matthew Goodwin used it, the term referred to "a particular form of political ideology that is defined by two anti-constitutional and anti-democratic elements: first, right-wing extremists are extremist because they reject or undermine the values, procedures and institutions of the democratic constitutional state; and second they are right-wing because they reject the principle of fundamental human equality".
Various political scientists and historians have described the BNP as being fascist in ideology. Others have instead described it as neo-fascist, a term which the historian Nigel Copsey argued was more exact. Academic observers—including the historians Copsey, Graham Macklin, and Roger Griffin, and the political theologian Andrew P. Davey—have argued that Nick Griffin's reforms were little more than a cosmetic process to obfuscate the party's fascist roots. According to Copsey, under Griffin the BNP was "fascism recalibrated — a form of neo-fascism — to suit contemporary sensibilities". Macklin noted that despite Griffin's 'modernisation' project, the BNP retained its ideological continuity with earlier fascist groups and thus had not transformed itself into a genuinely "post-fascist" party. In this it was distinct from parties like the Italian National Alliance of Gianfranco Fini, which has been credited with successfully shedding its fascist past and becoming post-fascist.
The anti-fascist activist Gerry Gable referred to the BNP as a "Nazi organisation", while the Anti-Nazi League published leaflets describing the BNP as the "British Nazi Party". Copsey suggested that while the BNP under Tyndall could be described as neo-Nazi, it was not "crudely mimetic" of the original German Nazism. Davey characterised the BNP as a "populist ethno-nationalist" party.
— Political theologian Andrew P. Davey, 2011The smart modernized veneer... is superficial; the core of the Party remains ideologically fascist, and this was nowhere more apparent than in the BNP manifesto for the 2010 General Election, which returned to a clutch of traditional fascist themes including the bond of blood, homeland, the decadence of contemporary culture, a nostalgia for folk traditions and heritage, and an emphasis on stricter discipline in education and society. During the election campaign anti-Semitism, racism and neo-Nazi sympathies were identified on candidates' social network sites.
In his writings, Griffin acknowledged that much of his 'modernisation' was an attempt to hide the BNP's core ideology behind more electorally palatable policies. Like the National Front, the BNP's private discourse differed from its public one, with Griffin stating that "Of course we must teach the truth to the hardcore... when it comes to influencing the public, forget about racial differences, genetics, Zionism, historical revisionism and so on... we must at all times present them with an image of moderate reasonableness". The BNP has eschewed the labels "fascist" and "Nazi", stating that it is neither. In its 1992 electoral manifesto, it said that "Fascism was Italian. Nazism was German. We are British. We will do things our own way; we will not copy foreigners". In 2009, Griffin that the term "fascism" was simply "a smear that comes from the far left"; he added that the term should be reserved for groups that engaged in "political violence" and desired a state that "should impose its will on people", claiming that it was the anti-fascist group Unite Against Fascism—and not the BNP—who were the real fascists. More broadly, many on Britain's extreme-right sought to avoid the term "British fascism" because of its electorally unpalatable connotations, utilising "British nationalism" in its place.
After Griffin took control of the party, it made increasing use of nativist themes in order to emphasise its "British" credentials. In its published material, the party made appeals to the idea of Britain and Britishness in a manner not dissimilar to mainstream political parties. In this material it has also made prominent use of the Union flag and the colours red, white, and blue. Roger Griffin noted that the terms "Britain" and "England" appear "confusingly interchangeable" in BNP literature, while Copsey has pointed out that the BNP's form of British nationalism is "Anglo-centric". The party employed militaristic rhetoric under both Tyndall and Griffin's leadership; under the latter for example its published material spoke of a "war without uniforms" and a "war for our survival as a people". Tyndall described the BNP as a revolutionary party, calling it a "guerrilla army operating in occupied territory".
Ethnic nationalism and biological racism
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— The BNP, 2005The British National Party exists to secure a future for the indigenous peoples of these islands in the North Atlantic which have been our homeland for a millennia.
The BNP adheres to biological racist ideas, displaying an obsession with the perceived differences of racial groups. Both Tyndall and Griffin believed that there was a biologically distinct white-skinned "British race" which was one branch of a wider Nordic race, a view akin to those of earlier fascists such as Hitler and Arnold Leese.
The BNP adheres to an ideology of ethnic nationalism. It promotes the idea that not all citizens of the United Kingdom belong to the British nation. Instead, it states that the nation only belongs to "the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh along with the limited numbers of peoples of European descent, who have arrived centuries or decades ago and who have fully integrated into our society". This is a group that Griffin referred to as the "home people" or "the folk". According to Tyndall, "The BNP is a racial nationalist party which believes in Britain for the British, that is to say racial separatism." Richard Edmonds in 1993 told The Guardian's Duncan Campbell that "we are 100% racist". The BNP does not regard UK citizens who are not ethnic white Europeans as "British", and party literature calls on supporters to avoid referring to such individuals as "Black Britons" or "Asian Britons", instead describing them as "racial foreigners".
Tyndall believed the white British and the broader Nordic race to be superior to other races; under his leadership, the BNP promoted pseudoscientific claims in support of white supremacy. Following Griffin's ascendency to power in the party, it officially repudiated racial supremacism and insisted that no racial group was superior or inferior to another. Instead it foregrounded an "ethno-pluralist" racial separatism, claiming that different racial groups had to be kept separate and distinct for their own preservation, maintaining that global ethno-cultural diversity was something to be protected. This switch in focus owed much to the discourse of the French Nouvelle Droite movement which had emerged within France's extreme-right during the 1960s. At the same time the BNP switched focus from openly promoting biological racism to stressing what it perceived as the cultural incompatibility of racial groups. It placed great focus on opposing what it referred to as "multiculturalism", characterising this as a form of "cultural genocide", and stating that it promoted the interests of non-whites at the expense of the white British population. However, internal documents produced and circulated under Griffin's leadership demonstrated that—despite the shift in its public statements—it remained privately committed to biological racist ideas.
The party emphasises what it sees as the need to protect the racial purity of the white British. It condemns miscegenation and "race mixing", stating that this is a threat to the British race. Tyndall said that he "felt deeply sorry for the child of a mixed marriage" but had "no sympathy whatsoever for the parents". Griffin similarly stated that mixed-race children were "the most tragic victims of enforced multi-racism", and that the party would not "accept miscegenation as moral or normal ... we never will". In its 1983 election manifesto, the BNP stated that "family size is a private matter" but still called for white Britons who are "of intelligent, healthy and industrious stock" to have large families and thus raise the white British birth-rate. The encouragement of high birth rates among white British families continued under Griffin's leadership.
Under Tyndall's leadership, the BNP promoted eugenics, calling for the forced sterilisation of those with genetically transmittable disabilities. In party literature, it talked of improving the British 'racial stock' by removing "inferior strains within the indigenous races of the British Isles". Tyndall argued that medical professionals should be responsible for determining whom to sterilise, while a lowering of welfare benefits would discourage breeding among those he deemed to be genetic inferiors. In his magazine Spearhead, Tyndall also stated that "the gas chamber system" should be used to eliminate "sub-human elements", "perverts", and "asocials" from British society.
Anti-immigration and repatriation
— The BNP's first policy on repatriation, 1982Immigration into Britain by non-Europeans... should be terminated forthwith, and we should organise a massive programme of repatriation and resettlement overseas of those peoples of non-European origin already resident in this country.
Opposition to immigration has been central to the BNP's political platform. It has engaged in xenophobic campaigns which emphasise the idea that immigrants and ethnic minorities are both different from, and a threat to, the white British and white Irish populations. In its campaign material it presented non-whites both as a source of crime in the UK, and as a socio-economic threat to the white British population by taking jobs, housing, and welfare away from them. It engaged in welfare chauvinism, calling for white Britons to be prioritised by the UK's welfare state. Party literature included such as claims as that the BNP was the only party which could "do anything effective about the swamping of Britain by the Third World" or "lead the native peoples of Britain in our version of the New Crusade that must be organised if Europe is not to sink under the Islamic yoke".
Much of its published material made claims about a forthcoming race war and promoted the conspiracy theory about white genocide. In a 2009 radio interview, Griffin referred to this as a "bloodless genocide". It presents the idea that white Britons are engaged in a battle against their own extinction as a racial group. It reiterated a sense of urgency about the situation, claiming that both high immigration rates and high birth rates among ethnic minorities were a threat to the white British. In 2010, it for instance was promoting the idea that at current levels, "indigenous Britons" would be a minority within the UK by 2060.
— Lee Barnes, senior BNP leader, 2005The immigrant communities in Britain are... colonies filled with colonists. They are alien islands inside our towns and cities with their own laws and cultures. They will never integrate as they did not come here to integrate, but to re-create their own cultures in our country. The fact is that the only solution to Multi-Culturalism is not some asinine and bogus attempt to impose British cultural values on immigrants, but simply to commence repatriating them.
The BNP calls for the non-white population of Britain to either be reduced in size or removed from the country altogether. Under Tyndall's leadership, it promoted the compulsory removal of non-whites from the UK, stating that under a BNP government they would be "repatriated" to their countries of origin. In the early 1990s it produced stickers with the slogan "Our Final Solution: Repatriation". Tyndall understood this to be a two-stage process that would take ten to twenty years, with some non-whites initially leaving willingly and the others then being forcibly deported. During the 1990s, party modernisers suggested that the BNP move away from a policy of compulsory repatriation and toward a voluntary system, whereby non-white persons would be offered financial incentives to leave the UK. This idea, adopted from Powellism, was deemed more electorally palatable.
When Griffin took control of the party, the policy of voluntary repatriation was officially adopted, with the party suggesting that this could be financed through the use of the UK's pre-existing foreign aid budget. It stated that any non-whites who refused to leave would be stripped of their British citizenship and categorised as "permanent guests", while continuing to be offered incentives to emigrate. Griffin's BNP also stressed its support for an immediate halt to non-white immigration into Britain and for the deportation of any migrants illegally in the country. Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show in 2009, Griffin declared that, unlike Tyndall, he "does not want all-white UK" because "nobody out there wants it or would pay for it".
Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia
— Tyndall's belief that a Jewish conspiracy was behind multiracial BritainMy experience as a campaigner against the multi-racial idea in Britain and in favour of our country's centuries-old tradition of racial homogeneity has brought home to me beyond any doubt the fact that Jews are to be found at the forefront of opposition to British racial self-preservation.
Under Tyndall's leadership, the BNP was openly anti-Semitic. From A. K. Chesterton, Tyndall had inherited a belief that there was a global conspiracy of Jews bent on world domination, viewing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as genuine evidence for this. He believed that Jews were responsible for both communism and international finance capitalism and that they were responsible for undermining the British Empire and the British race. He believed that both democratic government and immigration into Europe were parts of the Jewish conspiracy to weaken other races. In an early edition of Spearhead published in the 1960s, Tyndall wrote that "if Britain were to become Jew-clean she would have no nigger neighbours to worry about... It is the Jews who are our misfortune: T-h-e J-e-w-s. Do you hear me? THE JEWS?" Tyndall added Holocaust denial to the anti-Semitic beliefs inherited from Chesterton, believing that The Holocaust was a hoax created by the Jews to gain sympathy for themselves and thus aid their plot for world domination. Among those to endorse such anti-Semitic conspiracy theories was Griffin, who promoted them in his 1997 pamphlet, Who are the Mind Benders? Griffin also engaged in Holocaust denial, publishing articles promoting such ideas in The Rune, a magazine produced by the Croydon BNP. In 1998, these articles resulted in Griffin being convicted of inciting racial hatred.
When Griffin took power, he sought to banish overt anti-Semitic discourse from the party. He informed party members that "we can get away with criticising Zionists, but any criticism of Jews is likely to be legal and political suicide". In 2006, he complained that the "obsession" that many BNP members had with "the Jews" was "insane and politically disastrous". In 2004, the party selected a Jewish candidate, Pat Richardson, to stand for it during local council elections, something Tyndall lambasted as a "gimmick". References to Jews in BNP literature were often coded to hide the party's electorally unpalatable anti-Semitic ideas. For instance, the term "Zionists" was often used in party literature as a euphemism for "Jews". As noted by Macklin, Griffin still framed many of his arguments "within the parameters of recognizably anti-Semitic discourse". The BNP's literature is replete with references to a conspiratorial group who have sought to suppress nationalist sentiment among the British population, who have encouraged immigration and mixed-race relationships, and who are promoting the Islamification of the country. This group is likely a reference to the Jews, being an old fascist canard.
Sectors of the extreme-right were highly critical of Griffin's softening on the subject of the Jews, claiming that he had "sold out" to the 'Zionist Occupied Government'. In 2006, John Bean, editor of Identity, included an article in which he reassured BNP members that the party had not "sold out to the Jews" or "embraced Zionism" but that it remained "committed to fighting... subversive Jews". Under Griffin, the BNP's website linked to other web pages that explicitly portrayed immigration as part of a Jewish conspiracy, while it also sold books that promoted Holocaust denial. In 2004, secretly filmed footage was captured in which Griffin was seen claiming that "the Jews simply bought the West, in terms of press and so on, for their own political ends".
Copsey noted that a "culture of anti-Semitism" still pervaded the BNP. In 2004, a London activist told reporters that "most of us hate Jews", while a Scottish BNP group was observed making Nazi salutes while shouting "Auschwitz". The party's Newcastle upon Tyne Central candidate compared the Auschwitz concentration camp to Disneyland, while their Luton North candidate stated her refusal to buy from "the kikes that run Tesco". In 2009, a BNP councillor from Stoke-on-Trent resigned from the party, complaining that it still contained Holocaust deniers and Nazi sympathisers.
Griffin informed BNP members that rather than "bang on" about the Jews—which would be deemed extremist and prove electorally unpopular—their party should focus on criticising Islam, an issue that would be more resonant among the British public. After Griffin took over, the party increasingly embraced an Islamophobic stance, launching a "Campaign Against Islam" in September 2001. In Islam: A Threat to Us All, a leaflet distributed to London households in 2007, the BNP claimed that it would stand up to both Islamic extremism and "the threat that 'mainstream' Islam poses to our British culture". In contrast to the mainstream British view that the actions of militant Islamists — such as those who perpetrated the 7 July 2005 London bombings —a re not representative of mainstream Islam, the BNP insists that they are. In some of its literature it presents the view that every Muslim in Britain is a threat to the country. Griffin referred to Islam as an "evil, wicked faith", and elsewhere publicly described it as a "cancer" that needed to be removed from Europe through "chemotherapy".
The BNP has called for the prohibition of immigration from Muslim countries and for the banning of the burka, halal meat, and the building of new mosques in the UK. It also called for the immediate deportation of radical Islamist preachers from the country. In 2005, the party stated that its primary issue of concern was the "growth of fundamentalist-militant Islam in the UK and its ever-increasing threat to Western civilization and our implicit values". To broaden its anti-Islamic agenda, Griffin's BNP made overtures to the UK's Hindu, Sikh, and Jewish communities; Griffin's claim that Jews can make "good allies" in the fight against Islam caused controversy within the international far-right.
Government
Tyndall believed that liberal democracy was damaging to British society, claiming that liberalism was a "doctrine of decay and degeneration". Under Tyndall, the party sought to dismantle the UK's liberal democratic system of parliamentary governance, although was vague about what it sought to replace this system with. In his 1988 work The Eleventh Hour, Tyndall wrote of the need for "an utter rejection of liberalism and a dedication to the resurgence of authority". Tyndall's BNP perceived itself as a revolutionary force that would bring about a national rebirth in Britain, entailing a radical transformation of society. It proposed a state in which the Prime Minister would have full executive powers, and would be elected directly by the population for an indefinite period of time. This Prime Minister could be dismissed from office in a further election that could be called if Parliament produced a vote of no confidence in them. It stated that rather than having political parties, candidates standing for election to the parliament would be independent. During the period of Griffin's leadership, the party downplayed its anti-democratic themes and instead foregrounded populist ones. Its campaign material called for the devolution of greater powers to local communities, the reestablishment of county councils, and the introduction of citizens' initiative referendums based on those used in Switzerland.
The BNP has adopted a hard Eurosceptic platform from its foundation. Under Tyndall's leadership, the BNP had overt anti-Europeanist tendencies. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he maintained the party's opposition to the European Economic Community. Antagonism toward what became the European Union was retained under Griffin's leadership, which called for the UK to leave the Union. One of Vote Leave's biggest donors during the Brexit referendum was former BNP member Gladys Bramall, and the party has claimed that its anti-Establishment rhetoric "created the road" to Britain's vote to leave the European Union.
Tyndall suggested replacing the EEC with a trading association among the "White Commonwealth", namely countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Tyndall held imperialist views and was sympathetic to the re-establishment of the British Empire through the recolonization of parts of Africa. However, officially the BNP had no plans to re-establish the British Empire or secure dominion over non-white nations. In the 2000s, it called for an immediate military withdrawal from both the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. During his appearance on Question Time, regarding the Iraq War, Griffin described the war as "illegal", saying, "We shouldn't have gone into Iraq, we must never go into Iran, we should leave them alone." It has advocated ending overseas aid to provide economic support within the UK and to finance the voluntary repatriation of legal immigrants.
Under Tyndall, the BNP rejected both Welsh nationalism and Scottish nationalism, stating that they were bogus because they caused division among the wider "British race". Tyndall also led the BNP in support of Ulster loyalism, for instance by holding public demonstrations against the Irish republican party Sinn Féin, and endorsing Ulster loyalist paramilitaries. Under Griffin, the BNP continued to support Ulster's membership of the United Kingdom, calling for the crushing of the Irish Republican Army and the scrapping of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Griffin later expressed the view that "the only solution that could possibly be acceptable to loyalists and republicans alike" would be the reintegration of the Irish Republic into the United Kingdom, which would be reorganised along federal lines. However, while retaining the party's commitment to Ulster loyalism, under Griffin the importance of the issue was downplayed, something that was criticised by Tyndall loyalists.
Economic policy
Tyndall described his approach to the economy as "National Economics", expressing the view that "politics must lead, and not be led by, economic forces". His approach rejected economic liberalism because it did not serve "the national interest", although still saw advantages in a capitalist system, looking favourably on individual enterprise. He called on capitalist elements to be combined with socialist ones, with the government playing a role in planning the economy. He promoted the idea of the UK becoming an autarky which was economically self-sufficient, with domestic production protected from foreign competition. This attitude was heavily informed by the corporatist system that had been introduced in Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy.
A number of senior members, including Griffin and John Bean, had anti-capitalist leanings, having been influenced by Strasserism and National Bolshevism. Under Griffin's leadership, the BNP promoted economic protectionism and opposed globalisation. Its economic policies reflect a vague commitment to distributist economics, ethno-socialism, and national autarky. The BNP maintains a policy of protectionism and economic nationalism, although in comparison with other far-right nationalist parties, the BNP focuses less on corporatism. It has called for British ownership of its own industries and resources and the "subordination of the power of the City to the power of the government". It has promoted the regeneration of farming in the United Kingdom, with the object of achieving maximum self-sufficiency in food production. In 2002, the party criticised corporatism as a "mixture of big capitalism and state control", saying it favoured a "distributionist tradition established by home-grown thinkers" favouring small business. The BNP has also called for the renationalisation of the railways. The BNP, in its 2010 manifesto, called for Britain to emulate the tiger states of East Asia, such as South Korea and Singapore.
When it comes to environmentalism, the BNP refers to itself as the "real green party", stating that the Green Party of England and Wales engages in "watermelon" politics by being green (environmentalist) on the outside but red (leftist) on the inside. Influenced by the Nouvelle Droite, it framed its arguments regarding environmentalism in an anti-immigration manner, talking about the need for 'sustainability'. It engages in climate change denial, with Griffin claiming that global warming is a hoax orchestrated by those trying to establish the New World Order.
Social issues
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— A 2010 BNP leaflet distributed to Christian leadersThere is only one political party that Christians can support without betraying the Lord Jesus Christ. This Party is opposed to abortion and the teaching of homosexuality to children. This Party supports the institution of marriage and the traditional family... This Party is opposed to political correctness and the creeping Islamification of Britain.
The BNP is opposed to feminism and has pledged that—if in government—it would introduce financial incentives to encourage women to leave employment and become housewives. It would also seek to discourage children being born out of wedlock. It has stated that it would criminalise abortion, except in cases where the child has been conceived as a result of rape, the mother's life is threatened, or the child will be disabled. There are nevertheless circumstances where it has altered this anti-abortion stance; an article in British Nationalist stated that a white woman bearing the child of a black man should "abort the pregnancy... for the good of society". More widely, the party censures inter-racial sex and accuses the British media of encouraging inter-racial relationships.
Under Tyndall, the BNP called for the re-criminalisation of homosexual activity. Following Griffin's takeover, it moderated its policy on homosexuality. However, it opposed the 2004 introduction of civil partnerships for same-sex couples. During his 2009 Question Time appearance, Griffin described the sight of two men kissing as "for a lot of us (Christians)... really creepy". The party has also condemned the availability of pornography; its 1992 manifesto stated that the BNP would give the "pedlars of this filth... the criminal status that they deserve". The BNP promoted the reintroduction of capital punishment, and the sterilisation of some criminals. It also called for the reintroduction of national service in the UK, adding that on completion of this service adults would be permitted to keep their standard issue assault rifle.
According to the academic Steven Woodbridge, the BNP had a "rather ambivalent attitude toward Christian belief and religious themes in general" during most of its history, but under Griffin's modernisation the party increasingly utilised Christian terminology and themes in its discourse. Various members of the party presented themselves as "true Christians", and defenders of the faith, with key ideologues stating that the religion has been "betrayed" and "sold out" by mainstream clergy and the British establishment. British Christianity, the BNP said, was under threat from Islam, Marxism, multiculturalism, and "political correctness". On analysing the BNP's use of Christianity, Davey argued that the party's emphasis was not on Christian faith itself, but on the inheritance of European Christian culture.
The BNP long considered the mainstream media to be one of its major impediments to electoral success. Tyndall said that the media represents a "state above the state" which was committed to the "left-liberal" goals of internationalism, liberal democracy, and racial integration. The party has said that the mainstream media has given disproportionate coverage to the achievements of ethnic minority sportsmen and to the victims of anti-black racism while ignoring white victims of racial prejudice and the BNP's activities. Both Tyndall and Griffin have said that the mainstream media is controlled by Jews, who use it for their own devices; the latter promoted this idea in his Who are the Mind Benders? Griffin has described the BBC as "a thoroughly unpleasant, ultra-leftist establishment". The BNP has stated that if it took power, it would end "the dictatorship of the media over free debate". It said that it would introduce a law prohibiting the media from disseminating falsehoods about an individual or organisation for financial or political gain, and that it would ban the media from promoting racial integration. BNP policy pledges to protect freedom of speech, as part of which it would repeal all laws banning racial or religious hate speech. It would repeal the 1998 Human Rights Act and withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.
Support
Finances
In contrast to the UK's mainstream parties, the BNP received few donations from businesses, wealthy donors, or trade unions. Instead it relied on finances produced by its membership. Under Tyndall, the party operated on a shoestring budget with a lack of transparency; in 1992 it collected £5000 and in 1997 it collected £10,000. It also tried raising money by selling extreme-right literature, and opened a bookshop in Welling in 1989, although this was closed in 1996 after being attacked by anti-fascists and proving too costly to run. In 1992, the party formed a dining club of its wealthier supporters, which was renamed the Trafalgar Club in 2000. By the 1997 general election, it admitted that its expenses had "far out-stripped" its income, and it was appealing for donations to pay off loans it had taken out.
Griffin placed greater emphasis on fundraising; from 2001 through to 2008, the BNP's annual turnover increased almost fivefold. Membership subscriptions grew from £35,000 to £166,000, while its donations raised from £38,000 to £660,000. However, expenses also rose as the BNP spent more on its electoral campaigns, and the party reported a financial deficit in 2004 and again in 2005. Between 2007 and 2009, the BNP accumulated debts of £500,000.
Membership
For most of its history, the BNP had a whites-only membership policy. In 2009, the state's Equality and Human Rights Commission stated that this was a violation of the Race Relations Act 1976 and called on the party to amend its constitution accordingly. Responding to this, in early 2010 members voted to remove the racial restriction to membership, although it is unlikely that many non-whites joined. At its creation, the BNP had approximately 1,200 members. By the 1983 general election, this had grown to approximately 2,500, although by 1987 had slumped to 1,000, with no significant further growth until the 21st century. After taking control Griffin began publishing the party's membership figures: 2,174 in 2001, 3,487 in 2002, 5,737 in 2003, and 7,916 in 2004. Membership dropped slightly to 6,281 in 2005, but had grown to 9,297 in 2007 and to 10,276 in spring 2010. In 2011, it was noted that this meant that the BNP had experienced the most rapid growth since 2001 of any minor party in the UK.
A party membership list dating from late 2007 was leaked onto the internet by a disgruntled activist, containing the names and addresses of 12,000 members. This included names, addresses and other personal details. People on the list included prison officers (barred from BNP membership), teachers, soldiers, civil servants and members of the clergy. The leaked list indicated that membership was concentrated in particular areas, namely the East Midlands, Essex, and Pennine Lancashire, but with particular clusters in Charnwood, Pendle, and Amber Valley. Many of these areas had long been targeted by extreme-right campaigns, dating back to the NF activity of the 1970s, suggesting that such longstanding activism may have had an effect on levels of BNP membership. This information also revealed that membership was most likely in urban areas with low rates of educational attainment and large numbers of economically insecure people employed in manufacturing, with further correlations to nearby Muslim communities. Following an investigation by Welsh police and the Information Commissioner's Office, two people were arrested in December 2008 for breach of the Data Protection Act concerning the leak. Matthew Single was subsequently found guilty and fined £200 in September 2009. The 'low' fine was criticised as an "absolute disgrace" by a BNP spokesman and a detective sergeant involved said he was "disappointed" with the outcome, stating that people were fearful for their safety. More than 160 complaints were made nationally to police after attacks on BNP members and their property.
The leaked membership list showed that the party was 17.22% female. While women have occupied key positions within the BNP, men dominated at every level of the party. In 2009, over 80% of the party's Advisory Council was male and from 2002 to 2009, three-quarters of its councillors were male. The average percentage of female candidates presented at local elections in 2001 was 6%, although this had risen to 16% by 2010. Since 2006, the party had made a point of selecting female candidates, with Griffin stating that this was necessary to "soften" the party's image. Goodwin suggested that membership fell into three camps: the "activist old guard" who had previously been involved in the NF during the 1970s, the "political wanderers" who had defected from other parties to the BNP, and the "new recruits" who had joined post-2001 and who had little or no political interest or experience beforehand.
Having performed qualitative research among the BNP by interviewing various members, Goodwin noted that few of those he interviewed "conformed to the popular stereotypes of them being irrational and uninformed crude racists". He noted that most strongly identified with the working class and claimed to have either been former Labour voters or from a Labour-voting family. None of those interviewed claimed a family background in the ethnic nationalist movement. Instead, he noted that members said that they joined the party as a result of a "profound sense of anxiety over immigration and rising ethno-cultural diversity" in Britain, along with its concomitant impact on "British culture and society". He noted that among these members, the perceived cultural threat of immigrants and ethnic minorities was given greater prominence than the perceived economic threat that they posed to white Britons. He noted that in his interviews with them, members often framed Islam in particular as a threat to British values and society, expressing the fear that British Muslims wanted to Islamicise the country and eventually impose sharia on its population.
Voter base
— Political scientist Matthew Goodwin, 2011The BNP does not have mass appeal, but the evidence... suggests it is forging ties with 'angry white men': middle-aged and elderly working-class men who have low levels of education, are deeply pessimistic about their economic prospects and live in more deprived urban areas close to large Muslim communities. Foremost, these citizens are sending a message about their profound concern over issues they care deeply about, but which they feel are not being adequately addressed by the main parties.
Goodwin described the BNP's voters as being "socially distinct and concerned about a specific set of issues". Under Griffin's leadership, the party targeted areas with high proportions of skilled white working-class voters, particularly those who were disenchanted with the Labour government. It has attempted to appeal to disaffected Labour voters with slogans such as "We are the Labour Party your Grandfather Voted For". The BNP had little success in gaining support from women, the middle classes, and the more educated.
Goodwin noted a "strong male bias" in the party's support base, with statistical polling revealing that between 2002 and 2006, seven out of ten BNP voters were male. That same research also indicated that BNP voters were disproportionately middle-aged and elderly, with three quarters being aged over 35, and only 11% aged between 18 and 24. This contrasted to the NF's support base during the 1970s, when 40% of its voters were aged between 18 and 24. Goodwin suggested two possibilities for the BNP's failure to appeal to younger voters: one was the 'life cycle effect', that older people have obtained more during their life and thus have more to lose, feeling both more threatened by change and more socially conservative in their views. The other explanation was the 'generational effect', with younger Britons who have grown up since the onset of mass immigration having had greater social exposure to ethnic minorities and thus being more tolerant toward them. Conversely, many older voters came of age during the 1970s, under the impact of the anti-immigrant rhetoric promoted by Powellism, Thatcherism, and the NF, and thus have less tolerant attitudes.
Most BNP voters had no formal qualifications and the party's support was centred largely in areas with low educational attainment. According to the 2002–2006 data, two-thirds of BNP voters had either no formal qualifications or had left education after their O-levels/GCSEs. Only one in ten BNP voters possessed an A-level, and an even smaller percentage had a university degree. Most of the BNP's voting base were from the financially insecure lower classes. Research conducted from 2002 to 2006 indicated that seven out of ten BNP voters were either skilled or unskilled workers or unemployed. A 2009 poll found that six out of ten BNP voters fitted this profile. Goodwin suggested that it was the skilled working classes rather than their unskilled or unemployed neighbours who were the main support base behind the BNP, because they owned some assets and thus felt that they had more to lose as a result of the economic threat posed by immigrants and ethnic minorities.
Research indicated that BNP voters also held opinions that were distinct from the average British citizen. They were far more pessimistic about their economic prospects than average, with seven out of ten BNP voters expecting their economic prospects to decline in future, contrasted with four out of ten who held this view in the wider population. In the 2002–2006 period, 59% of BNP voters considered immigration to be the most important issue facing the UK, compared with only 16% of the wider population who agreed. By 2009, 87% of BNP voters identified immigration and asylum as the most important issue, to 49% of the wider population. BNP voters were also more likely to identify law and order, the EU, and Islamic extremism as the most important issues facing the UK than other voters, and less likely than average to rate the economy, NHS, pensions, and housing market as the most important.
BNP voters were also more likely than average to believe both that white Britons face unfair discrimination, and that Muslims, non-whites, and homosexuals had unfair advantages in British society. 78% of BNP voters endorsed the belief that the Labour Party prioritised immigrants and ethnic minorities over white British people, to 44% of the wider population. When asked questions about immigration and Muslims, BNP voters were found to be far more hostile to them than the average Briton, and also more willing than average to support outright racially discriminatory policies toward them. Copsey believed that "popular racism"—namely against asylum seekers and Muslims—generated the BNP's "largest reservoir of support", and that in many Northern English towns the main factors behind BNP support were white resentment toward Asian communities, anger at Asian-on-white crime, and the perception that Asians received disproportionately high levels of public funding.
Research also indicated that BNP voters were more mistrustful of the establishment than average citizens. In 2002–2006, 92% of BNP voters described themselves as being dissatisfied with the government, to 62% of the wider population. Over 80% of BNP voters were found to distrust their local Member of Parliament, council officials, and civil servants, and were also more likely than average to think that politicians were personally corrupt. There was also a tendency for BNP voters to read tabloids like the Daily Mail, Daily Express, and The Sun, all of which promote anti-immigration sentiment. Whether these voters gained such sentiment as a result of reading these tabloids or they read these tabloids because it endorsed their pre-existing views is unclear.
The early stronghold of the BNP was in London, where it established enclaves of support in the boroughs of Enfield, Hackney, Lewisham, Southwark, and Tower Hamlets, with smaller units in Bexley, Camden, Greenwich, Hillingdon, Lambeth and Redbridge. By the late 1990s, the party was increasingly retreating from its original East End heartland, finding that its electoral support had declined in the area. Griffin expressed the view that it was too dangerous for BNP activists to campaign in the East End, suggesting that they would be likely to be attacked by opponents. Instead, the party shifted its focus to parts of Outer London, in particular the boroughs of Barking, Bexley, Dagenham, Greenwich and Havering. After Griffin took power, the party focused on building support in the North of England, taking advantage of the anxieties generated by the ethnic riots that took place in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley in 2001. In the period between 2002 and 2006, over 40% of the BNP's voters were in Northern England.
The decline of the BNP as an electoral force around 2014 helped to open the way for the growth of another right-wing party, UKIP. In a study Goodwin produced with Robert Ford, the two political scientists noted that UKIP's support base mirrored the BNP's in that it had the same "very clear social profile": the "old, male, working class, white and less educated". One area where the two differed, they noted, was in the fact that BNP support had been highest among the middle-aged before tailing off among the over 55s, whereas UKIP retained strong support with those over 55. Ford and Goodwin suggested that this might be because more over 55s had "direct or indirect experiences" of the Second World War, in which Britain defeated the fascist powers, resulting in them being less inclined to support fascist parties than their younger counterparts. Despite these commonalities, UKIP proved far more successful at mobilising these social groups than did the BNP. This was likely in part because UKIP had a "reputational shield"; it emerged from within the Eurosceptic tradition of British politics rather than from the far-right and thus, while often ridiculed by the mainstream, was regarded as a legitimate democratic actor in a way that the BNP was not.
Organisation and structure
On its formation, the BNP avoided the National Front's committee-rule system of collective leadership in the hope of evading the infighting and factionalism that had damaged the NF. Instead it was founded around what it called the "leadership principle", with a central chairman having complete control over the party, which was then arranged in a highly hierarchical structure. The BNP lacked internal democracy, with the grassroots membership having almost no formal power, except for electing the party leader. On taking power, Griffin retained the leadership principle inherited from Tyndall. He nevertheless established an Advisory Council which would meet several times a year; the members were to be selected by Griffin himself and would serve as his advisors.
The party's branches and local groups were referred to as "units" within the party. These were designed to recruit followers, raise funds, and campaign during elections. Under Tyndall, the party operated with a skeleton organisation. It had no full-time staff and for most of the 1980s lacked a telephone number. Instead it relied on a handful of geographically scattered, unpaid regional organisers. Its early activists were recruited from within the extreme-right movement, and thus lacked the experience and skills in electoral campaigning. When Griffin took control, he introduced a variety of internal departments to help manage the party's activities: the administration and enquiries department, department for group development, legal affairs department, security department, and communications department. Griffin tried to build a more professional party machine by educating and training BNP members, providing them with incentives, establishing a steady income stream, and overcoming factionalism and dissent. He launched an "annual college" for activists in 2001 and formed an education and training department in 2007. In 2008 and 2010, he oversaw the establishment of "summer schools" for high-ranking officials. The party also began employing full-time members of staff, having three in 2001 and 13 in 2007.
To incentivise members to remain committed to the party, Griffin followed the example of the Swedish National Democrats by implementing a new "voting membership" scheme in 2007. This meant that those who had been BNP members for two years could become a "voting member", at which they would go on a year's probation. During this year they were required to attend educational and training seminars, to engage in a certain amount of activism and to donate a specified amount of money to the party. Once completed, they were allowed to vote on certain matters at general members' meetings and annual conferences, to participate in policy debates, and to be eligible for intermediate and senior positions. This policy ensured that those who reached the higher echelons of the BNP were fully trained in the party's ideology and electoral strategy.
Sub-groups and propaganda output
Griffin hoped to build a wider social movement around the BNP by establishing affiliated networks and organisations. In many cases, these were presented to the public in a way that concealed any direct connection to the BNP. Most of these affiliated groups were poorly funded and had few members. The party established its own record label, Great White Records, a radio station, and a trade union known as Solidarity – The Union for British Workers. It formed a group for young people known as the Young BNP, although in 2010 renamed this group as the BNP Crusaders, "to pay homage to our ancestors from the Middle Ages who saved Christian Europe from the onslaught of Islam". It established a Land and People group to recruit support in rural areas, a Family Circle to recruit women and families, and both a Veterans Group and an Association of British ex-Servicemen for former military servicemen. A group called Families Against Immigrant Racism was established to counter perceived racism against white Britons, while an Ethnic Liaison Committee was created to build links with anti-Muslim Hindu and Sikh groups active in Britain. Another group was the American Friends of the British National Party (AFBNP), set up by Mark Cotterill in 1999 to gain support from sympathisers in the United States. In 2001 it had 100 members, and by 2008 had 107.
A group called Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA) was established to promote the BNP's view of British culture and identity. The British Students Association was founded to promote the party's views among university students in 2000. Albion Life Insurance was set up in September 2006 as an insurance brokerage company established on behalf of the BNP to raise funds for its activities. The firm ceased to operate in November 2006. In 2006, the BNP launched the Christian Council of Britain (CCB), a group designed to rival the Muslim Council of Britain and oppose the growing "Islamification" of inner city areas. The CCB was established and run by BNP member Robert West, who claimed to have been ordained by the Apostolic Church, a claim that the church denies. West is a Calvinist and espouses a theology of nations which is influenced by Calvinist theologians like Abraham Kuyper, holding that God wishes every race and nation to remain separate until end time.
Griffin's BNP also established an annual Red, White and Blue festival, which was based on the 'Blue Blanc Rouge' organised by France's National Front. The festival brought party activists together and aimed to promote a more family friendly image for the group, although it also provided a venue for white power skinhead bands like Stigger, Nemesis and Warlord. Around 1,000 BNP members attended the party's 2001 festival.
Under Griffin's leadership, the BNP zealously embraced the use of alternative media to promote itself in a way different from the negative portrayal that featured in the mainstream media. On its website—which had been established in 1995—it created an internet television channel, 'BNPtv'. It has created blogs that cover different themes without being explicitly political in order to promote the party's message. The BNP established an online marketing platform, Excalibur, through which to sell its merchandise. In 2003, the BNP claimed that it had the most viewed website of a political party in Britain, and by 2011 was claiming to have the most viewed such website in Europe. In September 2007, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that Hitwise, the online competitive intelligence service, said that the BNP website had more hits than any other website of a British political party.
Affiliations in the wider extreme-right
Under Griffin, the BNP forged stronger links with various extreme-right parties elsewhere in Europe, among them France's National Front, Germany's National Democratic Party (NPD), Sweden's National Democrats, and Hungary's Jobbik. Griffin unsuccessfully urged the NPD to move away from neo-Nazism and embark on the same 'modernisation' project that he had taken the BNP. Jean-Marie Le Pen of the French Front National was the guest of honour at an "Anglo-French Patriotic Dinner" held by the BNP in April 2004. Griffin met leaders of the Hungarian far right party Jobbik to discuss co-operation between the two parties and spoke at a Jobbik party rally in August 2008. In April 2009, Simon Darby, deputy chairman of the BNP, was welcomed with fascist salutes by members of the Italian nationalist Forza Nuova during a trip to Milan. Darby stated that the BNP would look to form an alliance with France's Front National in the European Parliament. Following the election of two BNP MEPs in 2009, the following year saw the BNP join with other extreme-right parties to form the Alliance of European National Movements, with Griffin becoming its vice president. The party also had close links with the Historical Review Press, a publisher focused on promoting Holocaust denial.
Britain's extreme-right has long faced internal and public divisions. Disgruntled BNP members left the party to found or join a wide range of rivals, among them the British Freedom Party, White Nationalist Party, Nationalist Alliance, Wolf's Hook White Brotherhood, British People's Party, England First Party, Britain First, Democratic Nationalists, and the New Nationalist Party. Various BNP members were involved in the nascent English Defence League (EDL)—with EDL leader Tommy Robinson having been a former BNP activist—although Griffin proscribed the organisation and condemned it as having been manipulated by "Zionists". The political scientist Chris Allen noted that the EDL shared much of the BNP's ideology, but that its "strategies and actions" were very different, with the EDL favouring street marches over electoral politics. By 2014, both the BNP and EDL were in decline, and Britain First—founded by former BNP members James Dowson and Paul Golding—had risen to prominence. It combined the electoral tactics of the BNP with the street marches of the EDL.
The Steadfast Trust was established as a charity in 2004 with the stated aims of reducing poverty among those of Anglo-Saxon descent and supporting English culture. It has many former and current BNP, NF and British Ku Klux Klan members. It was deregistered as a charity by the Charity Commission in February 2014. In 2014, after Nick Griffin lost the leadership of BNP, he set up British Voice, but before it was launched, he decided to set up a different group, British Unity.
Some members of the BNP were radicalised during their involvement with the party and subsequently sought to carry out acts of violence and terrorism. Tony Lecomber was imprisoned for three years for possessing explosives, after a nail bomb exploded while he was transporting it to the offices of the Workers' Revolutionary Party in 1985. He was imprisoned for three years in 1991 whilst serving as the BNP's Director of Propaganda for assaulting a Jewish teacher. In 1999, the ex-BNP member David Copeland used nail bombs to target homosexuals and ethnic minorities in London. In 2005, the BNP's Burnley candidate Robert Cottage was convicted of stockpiling chemicals for use in what he believed was a coming civil war, while a Yorkshire BNP member, Terry Gavan, was convicted in 2010 for stockpiling firearms and nail bombs.
Party leaders
Year | Name | Period | Time in office |
---|---|---|---|
1982 | John Tyndall | 7 April 1982 – 27 September 1999 | 17 years, 173 days |
1999 | Nick Griffin | 27 September 1999 – 21 July 2014 | 14 years, 297 days |
2014 | Adam Walker | 21 July 2014 – present | 10 years, 155 days |
Electoral performance
Main article: British National Party election resultsThe BNP has contested seats in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Research from Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin shows that BNP support is concentrated among older and less educated working-class men living in the declining industrial towns of the North and Midlands regions, in contrast to previous significant far-right parties like the National Front, which drew support from a younger demographic.
General elections
Main article: British National Party election results (United Kingdom elections)The BNP placed comparatively little emphasis on elections to the British House of Commons, aware that the first past the post voting system was a major obstacle.
The British National Party has contested general elections since 1983. It put forward no candidates for the 2024 general election.
Year | No. of candidates |
No. of MPs |
% vote | Total votes |
Change (% points) |
Average votes per candidate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1983 | 54 | 0 | 0.0 | 14,621 | — | 271 |
1987 | 2 | 0 | 0.0 | 563 | 0.0 | 282 |
1992 | 13 | 0 | 0.1 | 7,631 | +0.1 | 587 |
1997 | 54 | 0 | 0.1 | 35,832 | 0.0 | 664 |
2001 | 33 | 0 | 0.2 | 47,129 | +0.1 | 1,428 |
2005 | 117 | 0 | 0.7 | 192,746 | +0.5 | 1,647 |
2010 | 339 | 0 | 1.9 | 563,743 | +1.2 | 1,663 |
2015 | 8 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,667 | −1.9 | 208 |
2017 | 10 | 0 | 0.0 | 4,642 | +0.0 | 464 |
2019 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 510 | 510 |
The BNP in the 2001 general election saved five deposits (out of 33 contested seats) and secured its best general election result in Oldham West and Royton (which had recently been the scene of racially motivated rioting between white and Asian youths) where party leader Nick Griffin secured 16% of the vote.
The 2005 general election was considered a major breakthrough by the BNP, as it received 192,746 votes in the 119 constituencies it contested, took a 0.7% share of the overall vote and retained a deposit in 40 of the seats.
The BNP put forward candidates for 338 out of 650 seats for the 2010 general election gaining 563,743 votes (1.9%), finishing in fifth place and failing to win any seats. However, a record of 73 deposits were saved. Party chairman Griffin came third in the Barking constituency, behind Margaret Hodge of Labour and Simon Marcus of the Conservatives, who were first and second respectively. At 14.6%, this was the BNP's best result in any of the seats it contested that year.
Local elections
Main article: British National Party election results (local elections)The BNP's first electoral success came in 1993, when Derek Beackon was returned as a councillor in Millwall, London. He lost his seat in elections the following year. The next BNP success in local elections was not until the 2002 local elections, when three BNP candidates gained seats on the Burnley council. The BNP's first councillor for six years was John Haycock, elected as a parish councillor for Bromyard and Winslow in Herefordshire in 2000. Haycock failed to attend any council meetings for six months and was later disqualified from office.
The party had 55 councillors for a time in 2009. After the 2013 local county council elections, the BNP was left with a total of two borough councillors in England.
As of 2011, the BNP had yet to make "a major breakthrough" on local councils. The BNP's councillors usually had "an extremely limited impact on local politics" because they were isolated as individuals or small groups on the council. Councillors from the main parties often disliked their BNP colleagues and deemed having to work alongside them as an affront to dignity and decency. Questions were often raised as to whether BNP councillors could adequately represent the interests of all of their local constituents. On being elected, Beackon for instance stated that he refused to serve his Asian constituents in Millwall. There were also allegations made that BNP councillors had particularly low attendance at council meetings, although research indicated that this was not the case, with the BNP's attendance record being largely average.
There is evidence to suggest that racially and religiously motivated crime increased in those areas where BNP councillors had been elected. For instance, after the 1993 election of Beackon, there was a spike in racist attacks in the borough of Tower Hamlets. BNP members were directly responsible for some of this; the party's national organiser Richard Edmonds was sentenced to three months imprisonment for his part in an attack on a black man and his white girlfriend.
Regional assemblies and parliaments
Main articles: British National Party election results (National Assembly for Wales), British National Party election results (Scottish Parliament), and British National Party election results (Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly)BNP lead candidate Richard Barnbrook won a seat in the London Assembly in May 2008, after the party gained 5.3% of the London-wide vote. However, in August 2010, he resigned the party whip and became an independent.
In the 2007 Welsh Assembly elections, the BNP fielded 20 candidates, four in each of the five regional lists, with Nick Griffin standing in the South Wales West region. It did not win any seats, but was the only minor party to have saved deposits in the electoral regions, one in the North Wales region and the other in the South Wales West region. In total the BNP polled 42,197 votes (4.3%).
In the 2011 Welsh Assembly elections, the BNP fielded 20 candidates, four in each of the five regional lists and for the first time 7 candidates were fielded in FPTP constituencies. On the regional lists, the BNP polled 22,610 votes (2.4%), down 1.9% from 2007. In 2 out of the 7 FPTP constituencies contested the BNP saved deposits: (Swansea East and Islwyn).
In the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, the party fielded 32 candidates, entitling it to public funding and an election broadcast, prompting criticism. The BNP received 24,616 votes (1.2%), no seats were won, nor were any deposits saved. In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, the BNP fielded 32 candidates in the regional lists. 15,580 votes were polled (0.78%).
The BNP fielded 3 candidates for the first time in three constituencies each in the 2011 Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly elections (Belfast East, East Antrim and South Antrim). 1,252 votes were polled (0.2%), winning no seats for the party.
European Parliament
Main article: British National Party election results (European Parliament)The BNP has taken part in European Parliament elections since 1999, when it received 1.13% of the total vote (102,647 votes).
In the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, the BNP won 4.9% of the vote, making it the sixth biggest party overall, but did not win any seats.
The BNP won two seats in the European Parliament in the 2009 elections. Andrew Brons was elected in the Yorkshire and the Humber regional constituency with 9.8% of the vote. Party chairman Nick Griffin was elected in the North West region, with 8% of the vote. Nationally, the BNP received 6.26%.
The UK government announced in 2009 that the BNP's two MEPs would be denied some of the access and information afforded to other MEPs. The BNP would be subject to the "same general principles governing official impartiality" and they would receive "standard written briefings as appropriate from time to time", but diplomats would not be "proactive" in dealing with the BNP MEPs and that any requests for policy briefings from them would be treated differently and on a discretionary basis.
The BNP did not stand any candidates in the 2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom.
Election year | # of total votes | % of overall vote | # of seats won | Change |
---|---|---|---|---|
1999 | 102,647 | 1.1% | 0 / 87 | 0 |
2004 | 808,200 | 4.9% | 0 / 78 | 0 |
2009 | 943,598 | 6.3% | 2 / 72 | 2 |
2014 | 179,694 | 1.1% | 0 / 73 | 2 |
Association with violence
The leaders and senior officers of the BNP have criminal convictions for inciting racial hatred. John Hagan claims that the BNP has conducted right-wing extremist violence to gain "institutionalized power". A 1997 report by Human Rights Watch accused the party of recruiting from skinhead groups and promoting racist violence.
In the past, Nick Griffin has defended the threat of violence to further the party's aims. After the BNP won its first council seat in 1993, he wrote that the BNP should not be a "postmodernist rightist party" but "a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan 'Defend Rights for Whites' with well-directed boots and fists. When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate". In 1997 he said: "It is more important to control the streets of a city than its council chambers."
A BBC Panorama programme reported on a number of BNP members who have had criminal convictions, some racially motivated. Some of the more notable convictions include:
- John Tyndall had convictions for assault and organising paramilitary neo-Nazi activities. In 1986 he was jailed for conspiracy to publish material likely to incite racial hatred.
- In 1998, Nick Griffin was convicted of violating section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to incitement to racial hatred. He received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was fined £2,300.
- Joseph Owens, a BNP candidate in Liverpool's local elections, served eight months in prison for sending razor blades in the post to Jewish people and another term for carrying CS gas and knuckledusters.
- Colin Smith, who in 2004 was the BNP's South East London organiser, has 17 convictions for burglary, theft, possession of drugs and assaulting a police officer.
- Richard Edmonds, at the time BNP National Organiser, was sentenced to three months in prison in 1994 for his part in a racist attack. Edmonds threw a glass at the victim as he was walking past an East London pub where a group of BNP supporters was drinking. Others then 'glassed' the man in the face and punched and kicked him as he lay on the ground, including BNP supporter Stephen O'Shea, who was jailed for 12 months. Another BNP supporter, Simon Biggs, was jailed for four and a half years for his part in the attack.
Reception
In 2011, Goodwin described the BNP as being "the most successful party in the history of the extreme right in Britain". That same year, John E. Richardson noted that it had achieved "a level of electoral success that is unparalleled in the history of British fascism". The historian Alan Sykes stated that "in electoral terms", the BNP achieved "more in the first three years of the twenty-first century" than the British far right "as a whole achieved in the previous seventy". However, Copsey said that the party's belief that one day the conditions would be right for it to win a general election belonged to the "Never-Never Land of British politics". Copsey also said that the BNP's electoral successes had been modest in comparison to those achieved by extreme-right groups elsewhere in Western Europe such as France's National Front, Italy's National Alliance, and Belgium's Vlaams Blok.
The BNP's growth met a hostile reaction, and in 2011 the political scientists Copsey and Macklin described it as "Britain's most disliked party". It was widely reviled as racist and even following Griffin's "modernisation" project it was still heavily tainted by its associations with neo-Nazism. For many years it remained closely associated with the National Front in the British public imagination. The BNP remained unable to gain a broad appeal or widespread credibility. In a 2004 poll, seven out of ten voters said that they would never consider voting for the BNP. A 2009 poll found that two-thirds would "under no circumstances" consider voting BNP, while only 4% of respondents would "definitely consider" voting for them.
The Conservative leader Michael Howard stated that the BNP were a "stain" on British democracy, adding that "this is not a political movement, this is a bunch of thugs dressed up as a political party". His successor David Cameron described it as a "completely unacceptable" organisation which "thrives on hatred". The Labour prime minister, Tony Blair, called it a "nasty, extreme organisation", while the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg termed it a "party of thugs and fascists". In 2004, the General Synod of the Church of England declared that supporting the BNP was incompatible with Christianity, comparing it to "spitting in the face of God". Christian groups throughout Britain have maintained that the BNP's hostility toward cultural and ethnic diversity in the country was at odds with mainstream Christianity's emphasis on inclusiveness, tolerance, and interfaith dialogue. Winston Churchill's family has criticised the BNP's use of his image and quotations, labelling it "offensive and disgusting". The singer Vera Lynn condemned the party for selling a CD featuring her recordings on its website. In 2009, the Royal British Legion asked Griffin—at first privately and then publicly—to not wear their poppy symbol.
The British police, Fire Brigades Union, and Church of England, prohibited its members from joining the BNP. In 2002, Martin Narey, banned BNP membership among prison workers; he subsequently received death threats. In 2010, the Education Secretary Michael Gove announced bans allowing headteachers to ban their staff from being party members. Individuals whose membership of the party was made public sometimes faced ostracism and the loss of their job: examples include a school headmaster who had to resign, a caretaker who was sacked after attending a BNP rally, and a police officer dismissed from his position. After BNP membership lists were leaked on the Internet, a number of police forces investigated officers whose names appeared on the lists.
In 2005, an invitation to Nick Griffin by the University of St Andrews Union Debating Society to participate in a debate on multiculturalism was withdrawn after protests. The BNP says that National Union of Journalists guidelines on reporting "far right" organisations forbid unionised journalists from reporting uncritically on the party. In April 2007, an election broadcast was cancelled by BBC Radio Wales whose lawyers believed that the broadcast was defamatory of the Chief Constable of North Wales Police, Richard Brunstrom. The BNP said that BBC editors were following an agenda.
Mainstream media and academia
Attitudes toward the BNP in both mainstream broadcast media and print journalism have been overwhelmingly negative, and no mainstream newspaper has endorsed the party. This hostile coverage has even been found in right-wing tabloids like the Daily Mail, Daily Express and The Sun which otherwise share the BNP's hostile attitude toward issues like immigration. In 2003, the Daily Mail described the BNP as "poisonous bigots", while in 2004 The Sun printed the headline of "BNP: Bloody Nasty People". Senior BNP figures nevertheless believed that these tabloids' hostile coverage of immigration and Islam helped to legitimise and normalise the party and its views among much of the British public, a view echoed by some academic observers. When, in 2004, anti-racist activists picketed outside the Daily Mail office in central London to protest against its negative coverage of asylum seekers, BNP members organised a counter-picket at which they displayed the placard "Vote BNP, Read the Daily Mail".
The BNP initially faced a 'no platform for fascists' policy from the broadcast media, although this eroded as Griffin was invited on to a number of television programmes amid the party's growing electoral success. When the BBC invited him to appear on Question Time in 2009 it was criticised by several trade unions, sections of the media, and several Labour politicians, all of whom believed that the BNP should not be given a public platform. Anti-fascist protesters assembled outside of the television studio to protest Griffin's inclusion.
The first academic attention to be directed at the BNP appeared after it gained a councillor in the 1993 local elections. Nevertheless, throughout the 1990s it remained the subject of little academic research. Academic interest increased following its victories at local elections from 2002 onward. The first detailed monograph study to be devoted to the party was Nigel Copsey's Contemporary British Fascism, first published in 2004. In September 2008, an academic symposium on the BNP was held at Teesside University.
The wider extreme-right and anti-fascists
Opposition to the BNP also came from the organised anti-fascist movement. By the mid-1990s, the BNP's attempts to stage public events in Scotland, the North West and the Midlands were largely thwarted by the militant disruption of the Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) group. The BNP's modernisation and move away from street demonstrations and toward electoral campaigning caused problems for the AFA, who proved unable to successfully change their tactics; on those occasions when AFA activists tried to forcibly disrupt BNP activities, they were prevented and arrested by riot police.
More liberal sections of the anti-fascist movement sought to counter the BNP through community-based initiatives. Searchlight encouraged trade unions to establish localised campaigns that would ensure that ethnic minority and other anti-BNP locals voted. It suggested that such campaigns should avoid associating with the mainstream parties from which BNP voters felt disenfranchised and that they should not be afraid of calling out Islamic fundamentalists and extremists active in the area. The Unite Against Fascism group also sought to maximise anti-BNP turnout at elections, calling on the electorate to vote for "anyone but fascists". Evidence suggests that such anti-fascist activities did little to erode the far-right vote; this was in part because anti-fascist groups had encouraged the stereotype that BNP candidates were violent skinheads, something which conflicted with the more normal, friendly image that BNP activists cultivated when canvassing.
The BNP often received a hostile response from other sections of the British extreme-right. Some extreme-right-wingers, such as the British Freedom Party, expressed frustration at the party's inability to moderate itself further on the issue of race, while those such as Colin Jordan and the NF accused the BNP—particularly under Griffin's leadership—of being too moderate. This latter view was articulated by an extreme-right groupuscule, the International Third Position, when it claimed that the BNP "has been openly courting the Jewish vote and pumping out material which confirms what most us knew years ago: the BNP has become a multi-racist, Zionist, queer-tolerant anti-Muslim pressure group".
In ASLEF v. United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights overturned an employment appeal tribunal ruling that awarded BNP member and train driver Jay Lee damages for expulsion from a trade union. In Redfearn v United Kingdom, the court ruled that members of racist organisations could lawfully be dismissed on health and safety grounds if there was a danger of violence occurring in the workplace. In November 2012, the European Court of Human Rights made a majority ruling (4 to 3) that in Redfearn's case against the UK government, his rights under Article 11 (free association) had been infringed, but not those under Article 10 (free expression) or Article 14 (discrimination).
See also
- List of political parties in the United Kingdom opposed to austerity
- Britain First
- English Defence League
- Billy Brit
Notes
- The name British National Party had been used in politics by four organisations, most notably by the Mosleyite party which became the English National Association and by 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.
- The "18" in its name is derived from the initials of Adolf Hitler. A and H are the first and eighth letters of the Latin alphabet.
References
Footnotes
- "View registration: British National Party". The Electoral Commission.
- Bolton, Doug (15 April 2015). "General Election 2015: The BNP has almost vanished from British politics". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 April 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
- ^ Renton, David (1 March 2005). "'A day to make history'? The 2004 elections and the British National Party". Patterns of Prejudice. 1 (39): 25. doi:10.1080/00313220500045170. S2CID 144972650.
- Copsey, Nigel (2007). "Changing course or changing clothes? Reflections on the ideological evolution of the British National Party 1999–2006". Patterns of Prejudice. 41 (1): 61–82. doi:10.1080/00313220601118777. ISSN 0031-322X. S2CID 145737620.
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Further reading
- Abbas, Tahir (2005). Muslim Britain: communities under pressure. Zed Books. ISBN 978-1-84277-449-6.
- Art, David (2011). Inside the Radical Right. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-49883-8.
- Backes, Uwe; Moreau, Patrick (2011). The Extreme Right in Europe: Current Trends and Perspectives. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 978-3-525-36922-7.
- Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (2005). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th century. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-5814-8.
- Boothroyd, David (2001). Politico's Guide to the History of British Political Parties. Politico's. ISBN 978-1-902301-59-4.
- Betz, Hans-Georg (1998). The new politics of the Right: neo-Populist parties and movements in established democracies. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-21338-1.
- Butler, David (1983). The British General Election of 1983. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-34578-8.
- Brinks, Jan Herman (2006). Nationalist Myths and Modern Media: Contested Identities in the Age of Globalization. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-038-3.
- Cook, Chris (2000). The Longman companion to Britain since 1945. Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0-582-35674-0.
- Copsey, Nigel (2004). Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and its Quest for Legitimacy. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-0214-6.
- Davies, Peter (2002). The Routledge companion to fascism and the far right. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-21494-0.
- Eatwell, Roger (2004). Western democracies and the new extreme right challenge. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-36971-8.
- Geddes, Andrew (2002). Labour's second landslide: the British general election 2001. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-6266-7.
- Human Rights Watch (1997). Racist violence in the United Kingdom. Human Rights Watch. ISBN 978-1-56432-202-9.
- Gottlieb, Julie V.; Linehan, Thomas P. (2004). The Culture of Fascism: Visions of the Far Right in Britain. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-86064-798-7.
- Ignazi, Piero (2003). Extreme right parties in Western Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-929159-5.
- Heitmeyer, Wilhelm (2003). International Handbook of Violence Research. Springer. ISBN 978-1-4020-1466-6.
- Hill, Ray; Bell, Andrew (1988). The Other Face of Terror: Inside Europe's Neo-Nazi Network. Grafton Books. ISBN 978-0-586-06935-6.
- Larsen, Stein Ugelvik (1998). Modern Europe after fascism, 1943–1980s. Social Science Monographs. ISBN 978-0-88033-973-5.
- Liang, Christina Schori (2007). Europe for the Europeans: the foreign and security policy of the populist radical. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
- Passmore, Kevin (2002). Fascism : a very short introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280155-5.
- Plowright, John (2006). The Routledge dictionary of modern British history. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-08846-3.
- Saggar, Shamit (1998). Race and British electoral politics. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-85728-830-8.
- Szajkowski, Bogdan (2004). Revolutionary and dissident movements of the world. John Harper Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9543811-2-7.
- Thurlow, Richard C. (2000). Fascism in Modern Britain. Sutton. ISBN 978-0-7509-1747-6.
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