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The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right political party in the United Kingdom. Unlike some of its European analogues, it has no presence in the national Parliament, and 53 councillors in local government; some argue that this is because the UK's first-past-the-post system makes it difficult for small parties to achieve electoral success in UK elections.

Accounts filed with the Electoral Commission for the year 2004 state the BNP had a membership of 7,916, and income and expenditure of approximately £740,000.

According to its constitution, 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. It is therefore 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 ethnic minorities from the UK. Membership of the party is restricted to "Indigenous Caucasians."

The BNP denies that it is racist, however, stating that it is merely standing up for the white British working-class. The party believes that racism is a part of human nature and describes its supporters as "realists".

Opposition to the BNP ranges from organisations such as the Socialist Workers Party to mainstream anti-racist groups such as Searchlight and Unite Against Fascism.

History

Founding of the modern BNP

The modern BNP has its roots in the New National Front, founded in 1980 by the late John Tyndall, a former chairman of the National Front (NF) and veteran National Socialist ideologue. Tyndall was a member of the previous (1960s) BNP, 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 1979 general election 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, Martin Webster. The New National Front called for an "Anglo-Saxon Alliance" of the UK, Germany and the USA .

First general election

In 1982, the New National Front and a faction of the then-disintegrating British Movement led by Ray Hill 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 April 24, the party had its inaugural march in London. At its first general election, in 1983, the party sponsored 53 candidates, three more than was required to obtain a Party Election Broadcast on television. The broadcast went out on May 31 and consisted of Tyndall, flanked by two Union Jacks, speaking to camera. Images of the Brixton riot 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" ). The giving of television time to the BNP was controversial and was debated on the following edition of Right to Reply on Channel 4.

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 . 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 .

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 . The party held a rally in Bradford on July 21, 1984, 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 .

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 Federation of Conservative Students (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 1987 elections when it received 553 votes having put up 2 candidates. However, the party formed some strong international links.

Early 1990s: "Rights for whites"

After some financial troubles, the party's national headquarters were established at Welling 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 south east, and especially in the borough of Tower Hamlets in the inner East End where increasing immigration from Bangladesh in an area of housing pressure led it to campaign for "Rights for whites". At two by-elections in 1990, the party came in third, and on October 1, 1992 the party won 20% of the vote in a by-election in Millwall ward.

A second by-election in Millwall in September 1993 saw a renewed BNP campaign to take the seat. The party obtained its first councillor, Derek Beackon, with a majority of seven votes. 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. A near-riot ensued on October 16, 1993 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).

Griffin assumes leadership

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. In 1999 he replaced Tyndall as BNP leader after a leadership election. Tyndall went on to run several articles in his magazine Spearhead (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.. 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 July 18, 2005.

Increased election success and a modern image

Griffin began a programme of modernizing 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 increased electoral successes. 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 Burnley 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 .

2004 BBC documentary

The increased success led to increased scrutiny from the press. In The Secret Agent, a BBC documentary broadcast on July 15, 2004, filmmaker Jason Gwynne 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 Steve Barkham confessing to assaulting an Asian man in the 2001 Bradford Riot; party member Stewart Williams stating that he wanted to "blow up" Bradford's mosques with a rocket launcher; and council candidate Dave Midgley 'confessing' to pushing dog faeces through the letterbox of an Asian takeaway, a claim denied by the proprietor.

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 incitement to racial hatred.

The day after the documentary was broadcast, Barclays Bank froze, then suspended, the BNP's bank accounts.

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, who had, in their view, not committed any wrongs). Griffin did not apologise for his own comments, stating that "it's still not illegal to criticise Islam". He and BNP member Mark Collett were subsequently prosecuted for incitement to racial hatred (see below).

Events in 2004 and 2005

A 2004 joint press conference between Griffin and leader of the French Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen, sparked protests.

The party has increasingly positioned itself against Islam, which Griffin has repeatedly called "wicked and vicious". In the wake of the 7 July London bombings, the BNP released leaflets 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 an horrendous attack .

On July 21, 2005, Griffin and BNP activist Mark Collett 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 February 2, 2006. Griffin and Collett were each acquitted of half of the charges against them with an open verdict delivered on the remaining charges. The Crown Prosecution Service announced that they would pursue a retrial on the remaining charges.

After the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, the BNP republished one of the cartoons of Muhammad on a leaflet, accompanied by a photo of Muslim demonstrators holding placards bearing murderous slogans and a "Which do you find offensive?" caption .

Run-up to the UK 2006 local election

Events in the run up to the 2006 local elections seemed to show an increase in support for the BNP, with research carried out by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, showing that, in the parts of England 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 London . A government minister in the Department for Work and Pensions Margaret Hodge has also highlighted the increase in support by saying that eight out of ten white working class people in her London constituency of Barking 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 mainstream 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.

A YouGov 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 UK 2006 local election results

On May 5, 2006, the results of the 2006 local elections 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 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 Barking and Dagenham 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.

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 .

In the May 4 2006 local elections, BNP candidates came second in a further 70 seats.

Policies, and position on the political spectrum

The BNP is generally not regarded as economically right-wing, i.e., as having a strong belief in laissez-faire economics. Rather, the description of them as 'far-right' relates to their authoritarian policies, and beliefs concerning racial segregation . The Thatcherite former Conservative Party Chairman Lord Tebbit has said on the BNP’s position on the political spectrum that having “carefully re-read” the BNP’s 2005 general election manifesto that he is “unable to find evidence of right-wing tendencies” believing it to be “pretty left-wing” in his opinion .

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 far-right European counterparts such as the Austrian Freedom Party set up by Jörg Haider. 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.

Under John Tyndall's leadership, for example, the party campaigned for the compulsory repatriation 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 The Times quoted him as saying that while, like many members, he still privately supported forcible repatriation, he believed the policy was a "vote loser".

Similarly, the BNP has historicaly wanted to re-criminalize homosexuality , though this had been dropped in their manifesto for the 2005 general election. Despite this, the party still opposed the introduction of civil partnerships in the United Kingdom . In the run-up to the 2005 general election it was reported that Richard Barnbrook, 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 was the BNP's London leader. Barnbrook has denied that the film is pornography, stating that it was produced as a film about sexuality and not homosexuality.

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 equality and anti-discrimination legislation, including measures aimed at employing people with disabilities.
• Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the pursuit of protectionist economic measures.
• Encouraging greater share ownership and worker co-operatives.
• Restricting foreign aid 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 corporal punishment for petty criminals and vandals, and the introduction of capital punishment for paedophiles, terrorists and murderers.
• The reintroduction of national service and the withdrawal of some civil rights from conscientious objectors, including the right to vote.
• The requirement that all law-abiding adults completing national service maintain a standard-issue military assault rifle and ammunition in their home.
• A mandatory jail term for anyone assaulting an NHS worker.
• Providing extra resources for special needs children, and reversing the closure of special needs schools.
• The reunification of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in a 'federation of the nations of the British Isles'

Other policies include the promotion of organic farming, funding to encourage women (in every family) to stay home and raise children not yet of school age, and increasing defence spending.

Source: BNP website

Electoral strategy

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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 tabloids as "one of the BNPs best recruiting agents" in the past.

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.

According to the BNP, an increasing number of former Conservative supporters are turning to the party. The party claims that their strong anti-EU 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 United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), resulting in them receiving the majority of the anti-Europe "protest vote", rather than the BNP.

Currently the major emphasis of the BNP's electoral propaganda appears to be anti-Islamic, alleging widespread support of extremism and terrorism amongst the Muslim community.

Electoral performance

National parliament

The BNP has contested seats in England, Wales and Scotland, and has announced plans to contest future elections in Northern Ireland. No BNP candidate has ever won a seat as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons.

In the 2005 General Election, 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. However, they did not stand nationwide, meaning that their national share of the vote was substantially lower than other minor parties.

General election performance of BNP

Local government

Like other minority parties in the UK, the majority of the BNP's electoral success has come in elections for local government. The BNP's first electoral success came in September 1993, when Derek Beackon was returned as councillor for Millwall (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.

In the council elections of May 2002, three BNP candidates gained seats on Burnley 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 Liberal Democrats, which beat the BNP by a margin of 0.4% in a by-election.

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 Oldham Metropolitan Council. In some areas, such as Sunderland, it constested all wards and failed to get a seat; in others areas such as Essex, parts of the Black Country in the West Midlands and in Hertfordshire it gained council seats.

Prior to the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, the BNP had stated that it believed it could win "between one and three seats" in the 2004 European Parliamentary elections, almost certainly including the "North West England" European Parliamentary constituency. In fact, although their share of the vote increased to 4.9%, they failed to win a single seat. The Party also picked up an increased share of the vote in the South West of England, where its strongly eurosceptic policies were believed to be most popular.

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.

In December 2003, a councillor from another party (a Conservative on Calderdale 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 party's biggest election success was a gain of 51.9% of the vote in the Goresbrook ward of Barking on 16 September 2004. 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 23 June 2005, in which this time the Labour candidate gained 51% of the vote, and the BNP came second with 32%. .

In the local elections on 4th May 2006, the BNP more than doubled its number of councillors, increasing the number from 20 to 52. The biggest gain was in Barking and Dagenham where the BNP won 11 of the 13 seats it contested. A twelfth seat is currently subject to a High Court petition. The BNP also won 3 seats in Epping Forest, 3 in Stoke on Trent, 3 in Sandwell, 2 seats in Burnley, 2 in Kirklees, and single seats in Birmingham, Bradford, Havering, Solihull, Redditch, Redbridge, Pendle and Leeds. The Solihull seat was in the Chelmsley Wood ward and was won by a majority of just 19 votes. Their Birmingham seat of Kingstanding is the subject of an electoral petition from the Labour Party, backed by Birmingham City Council, whose Returning Officer has said the BNP candidate's election was the result of a counting error. On 15 May 2006, Reverend Robert West, a member of South Holland District Council who was suspended from the Conservative Party, joined the BNP, bringing its total number of councillors to 53.

See also: Elections in the United Kingdom

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, 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.

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 Slovakia, were seized by British police at Dover. The police later admitted this was a mistake and released the impounded literature shortly thereafter.

Party members are not always keen to admit their affiliation for fear of retribution, and those who have stood for the BNP at elections have found themselves ostracised by state institutions. A teacher who stood for the BNP in the 2004 European Elections was suspended. A Leeds care worker who stood for them in the 2005 General Election was sacked. Also dismissed was a disabled people's bus driver, elected as a BNP councillor in Bradford. The police have issued a directive banning BNP members and this policy has been discussed in the fire brigades and civil service.

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 European Parliament's committee on racism 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 Richard Edmonds said, "We are 100 per cent racist, yes". Founder John Tyndall proclaimed that "Mein Kampf is my bible".

When Nick Griffin 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 "ethno-nationalism". 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" .

The party is officially opposed to any unfair discrimination on the grounds of race and 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'.

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 Lawrence Rustem.

Despite this in 2006, Sharif Abdel Gawad, a grandson of an Armenian refugee was chosen as a council candidate in Bradford. 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).

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 miscegenation 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 white nationalist "Fourteen Words".

The BNP has supported Leeds University lecturer Dr. Frank Ellis who was suspended from his post after publicly stating, in the Leeds Student newspaper, that on average black people and women had a lower IQ than white men, and also launched a tirade against homosexual people. Ellis has also stated that 'Immigrants should be hunted down, rounded up and deported.' and 'Homosexuality should be weeded out.'

In April 2006, Sky News 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."

Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial

The BNP denies that it is anti-Semitic and points out that the party has Jewish 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. Nevertheless, there have been reports of anti-Semitic behaviour among the current BNP leadership.

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 Auschwitz .

The 2002 Channel 4 documentary "Young, Nazi and Proud" featured hidden-camera footage of BNP youth leader Mark Collett stating his admiration for Adolf Hitler, 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, "Heil Hitler"). Collett resigned from the party after the documentary's filming, but rejoined shortly afterwards, with Nick Griffin's approval, on the condition that Collett had changed his views on subject.

In 1988, The Sunday Times revealed that Holocaust News, a publication that claimed the holocaust was an "evil hoax", was being published by the BNP's then deputy leader, Richard Edmonds, on behalf of a BNP front organisation, 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.

On the BNP leader's personal history of holocaust denial and anti-Semitism, see article on Nick Griffin.

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 Gavin Hopley of Lancashire and Kriss Donald of Glasgow, two young white men whose murderers were Asian, and whose murders the BNP maintains were hate crimes. 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 .

The BNP conducted a demonstration outside the offices of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to highlight what it regarded as biased coverage of the Hopley case. The police and the NUJ have rejected the BNP's criticism.

Fascism and the BNP

Links to neo-Nazis, terror groups and Loyalist paramilitaries

While Griffin was still a leading figure in the National Front, he was a close associate of Roberto Fiore, an Italian who, having fled to London, was convicted in absentia of belonging to the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari, a terror group which was alleged to have carried out the Bologna massacre, killing 85 people and injuring 200 others in the train station of that town. (Mail on Sunday, 1 July 1985). However, no connection to the bombing was ever proved, and the case is still open.

The violent, openly neo-Nazi group Combat 18 was formed in 1992 (although not originally under this name), to act as stewards for BNP rallies, which were often physically assaulted by left-wing groups, such as Anti-Fascist Action. All associations with Combat 18 were ended shortly after the latter were formed, John Tyndall telling BNP members that they could not be members of both organisations simultaneously.

When Tyndall was still chairman, the BNP's 1995 national rally was addressed by Dr. William Pierce, the then head of the US National Alliance. Pierce wrote The Turner Diaries, which allegedly inspired Timothy McVeigh to carry out his Oklahoma city bombing, killing 168 people. The American Friends of the BNP, a party offshoot headed by Mark Cotterill, was still having extensive contacts with the much more extreme National Alliance as recently as 2003, as documented at length by Nick Ryan in his book Homeland: Into A World of Hate.

Redwatch, 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 Simon Sheppard in 2001. The BNP has proscribed the use of the website by its members.

David Copeland, who exploded a nail bomb at the Admiral Duncan pub in the heart of London's gay community, was a former BNP member. Though the BNP distanced itself from Copeland, Griffin wrote in the aftermath of the bombing (which killed three people, including a pregnant woman) 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" (Spearhead magazine, June 1999).

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 British Nationalism. Similarly, Griffin urges white nationalist oriented youth to join the BNP and use the ballot box instead of violence to achieve political aims.

The BNP has also been accused in the past of having links with Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.

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. .

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 Front National, 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-IRA rally to use the "traditional British methods of the brick, the boot and the fist."

The BNP defends itself by arguing that over 20% of the working population has some criminal record or another.

A BBC Panorama programme reported on a number of BNP members who have had criminal convictions, some racially motivated. The BBC's list was extensive and to reproduce it here in its entirety would be superfluous. However, some of the more notable convictions include:

• 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.
• 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 Merseyside 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.
• Tony Wentworth, 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
• Tony Lecomber 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 London Underground station . He was Propaganda Director of the BNP at the time of the latter conviction. He was Nick Griffin's key deputy in the party from 1999 until January 2006.) Nick Griffin has written 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". Martin Webster 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 Tony Lecomber for details.

Opposition to the BNP

The BNP is condemned by all sections of the mainstream media, including right-wing newspapers, such as the Daily Mail, 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.

Following pressure from Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality , 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.

In the run up to the May 2006 local council elections, Labour employment minister Margaret Hodge claimed that 8 out of 10 voters in her constituency were thinking of voting for the BNP. When the BNP subsequently took 11 seats in her Barking constituency, local Labour activists responded by blaming Hodge, crediting her with generating hundreds of extra votes for the BNP.

Amongst the most visible and vocal opponents of the BNP and other radical right-wing groups are Unite Against Fascism and Searchlight. Unite Against Fascism, which aims to unite the broadest possible spectrum to oppose the BNP and the far-right, includes the Anti-Nazi League (ANL), the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR), and the Student Assembly Against Racism (SAAR). It also includes faith and community leaders and politicians from the Labour Party, the Conservative Party (e.g., David Cameron), the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, and the United Kingdom Independence Party.

Searchlight magazine has monitored the activities of the BNP and its members for many years, and has published many articles highly critical of them. Anti-fascist groups like the ANL call for no positive coverage to be given to groups or individuals enunciating what they describe as "hate speech". Such a tactic states that the BNP and similar parties should be ignored by both rival politicians and the media. 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.

Examples of the "no platform" policy being operated include:

• Complaints directed at the Leeds Student 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 .

Examples of more direct action against the BNP include obstruction of BNP activists who set up stalls in shopping centres. For example, members of the Scottish Socialist Party in Edinburgh blockaded and forced a BNP publicity stall to close.

The BNP claim that such cases exemplify how political correctness is being used to silence them and suppress their right to freedom of speech.

The Anti-Nazi League-organised Love Music Hate Racism group held a concert in Trafalgar Square 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 Scotland Yard put the number substantially lower at just 3,000.

BNP front groups and affiliated organisations

The BNP has used various front organizations 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:

• Solidarity – The Union for British Workers (denied to be a front by both the BNP and Solidarity's president, Patrick Harrington; see article for details)
• Civil Liberty (UK) (see article for details)
• The Christian Council of Britain, 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."

Unlike the above groups, which purport to be independent, the following organisations are officially linked to or part of the BNP:

• The Trafalgar Club is the BNP fund-raising club and the name it uses to book hotels and conference facilities.
• The BNP Ethnic Liaison Committee is an organisation of which people from the ethnic minorities can become members. The committee have joined with BNP members in staging demonstrations in the past.
• Great White Records, 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 .

Affiliated parties

The BNP and the French Front National have co-operated on numerous occasions. Jean-Marie Le Pen 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 BNP also has links with Germany's Nationaldemokratische Partei National Democratic Party. 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.

Sweden's National Democrat Party (Nationaldemokraterna). In the run-up to the 2004 European Parliament election campaign, 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 20-21 August 2005.

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 Second World War when a handful of former members of the British Union of Fascists took on the name. This party was absorbed quite quickly into the Union Movement.

A second British National Party also emerged in 1960 and went on to form a part of the NF.

See also

• British Nationalism
• Young BNP

References

1. The BNP: Anti-asylum protest, racist sect or power-winning movement? Nick Griffin, Accessed June 3 2006
2. Electoral Commission register
3. BNP election manifesto, 2005
4. BNP election manifesto, 2005 op cit
5. Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopaedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, Pinter, 2000, p. 661
6. Ray Hill with Andrew Bell, "The Other Face of Terror, Grafton, 1988. ISBN 0586069356
7. Martin Harrison in The British General Election of 1983, Macmillan 1983, p. 155
8. "Tyndall's race policy", The Times, June 4, 1983, p. 5
9. David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh, The British General Election of 1983, Macmillan 1983, p. 354
10. Barberis, McHugh and Tyldesley, op cit, p. 594
11. Richard Thurlow, "Fascism in Britain", I.B. Tauris, 1998, p. 258
12. "Police kept rally secret", The Times, August 2, 1984, p. 2
13. London Research Centre, "By-election results to the London Borough Councils 1990-94", p. 68-69
14. See, e.g., letter to The Guardian September 15, 1992 from Richard Adams, John Austin, Diane Abbott and Len Duvall
15. Rajeev Syal and Tim Rayment, "Rioters clash with police over neo-Nazi bookshop", Sunday Times, October 17, 1993
16. For example John Tyndall, "The Problem is Mr Griffin" in Spearhead, October 2003
17. Simon Hughes interview with Juliane Worricker on BBC Radio 5 Live, 7 May 2006
18. Nick Ryan, "Green and Unpleasant Land", The Times, 10 April 1999
19. Jon Craig and Jo Revill, "Holocaust hate sheet alarms British Jews", Sunday Times, 6 March 1988
20. Yorkshire Post, 17 February 1986
21. "On the seamier side: the shadow of racist politics", The Economist, 7 December 1991

External links

Official party sites

• Party Website Homepage
• Official BNP Forum (Party membership needed for access)
• BNP Internet TV
• Personal blog of Nick Griffin

Opposition to BNP

• Unite Against Fascism
• Love Music Hate Racism
• Searchlight magazine

• Political parties in the United Kingdom
• LGBT rights opposition
• White nationalists
• 1980 establishments
• Islamophobia