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This article is about the contemporary party. For the 1960s party, see British National Party (1960s).

The British National Party (BNP) is a white nationalist political party in the United Kingdom. It has 56 councillors in local government in England, but is not represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In the 2005 UK general election, the BNP received 0.7% of the popular vote, finishing eighth overall and in the Welsh Assembly Election 2007 they came 6th overall.

According to its constitution, the BNP 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." The BNP proposes "firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home." It advocates the repeal of all anti-discrimination legislation, and restricts party membership to "indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of ‘Indigenous Caucasian’".

The party accepts white people with non-British ancestry if they are assimilated into one of the British ethnicities. The BNP believes that there are significant biological racial differences that determine the behaviour and character of individuals. The party asserts that preference for one's own ethnicity is a part of human nature. Historically, under John Tyndall's leadership, the BNP had strong anti-Semitic tendencies, but in recent times, the BNP has tended to focus on Muslims as its main adversary. The party has publicly said that they do not consider Hindus and Sikhs to be any threat, although the BNP doesn't accept practicing Sikhs and Hindus as culturally or ethnically British. The BNP has even worked with anti-Muslim Sikh groups.

Mainstream political parties in the UK marginalise the BNP, and the party has been strongly criticised by Conservative Party leader David Cameron, Liberal Democrats leader Sir Menzies Campbell, and former Labour Party Prime Minister Tony Blair.

History

Founding of the modern BNP

The current BNP has its roots in the New National Front, founded in 1980 by John Tyndall, a former chairman of the National Front (NF). 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, with much of the early funding provided by Tyndall's father-in-law, Charles Parker.

In 1983, in its first general election, the party sponsored 53 candidates; three more than was required to obtain a Party Election Broadcast on television. The broadcast was transmitted on 31 May and consisted of Tyndall, flanked by two Union Flags, speaking to a camera. Images of the Brixton riot were shown as Tyndall's speech attempted to encourage nationalism over racism. One observer noted that the "emphasis was less heavily anti-black... than the National Front's". The giving of television time to the BNP was controversial, and was debated on 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 he said that he was hopeful that the two parties could reunite.

The party's candidates won 14,621 votes in that election. The BNP's average vote was less than the National Front, and in the two constituencies where both parties stood candidates, the NF was clearly more popular. However, unbeknownst to the BNP, Ray Hill was actually working for the 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 increase in the deposit required of parliamentary candidates hindered the party during the 1987 general elections, when it put up just two candidates.

1990s

After some financial troubles, the party's national headquarters were established at Welling in south-east London in 1989. 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 where perceived increasing immigration from Bangladesh in an area of housing pressure led to the campaign "Defend Rights for Whites" (a campaign directed by Eddy Butler). At two local council by-elections in 1990, the party came in third, and on October 1, 1992 the party won 20% of the vote in the 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, by 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 a successful anti-fascist campaign), 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 linked its presence to racial crimes in the surrounding area. A near-riot ensued on 16 October, 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).

The BNP under Nick Griffin

Nick Griffin joined the BNP in 1995. In 1999 he knocked out Tyndall as BNP leader after a contested leadership election. Once comfortably in position Griffin began a programme of modernising the BNP's image, rephrasing the policy of the compulsory repatriation of non-whites and rewording it as a "firm encouragement" for voluntary repatriation.

In the 2002 local elections, the BNP won 3 seats in Burnley and averaged 20% of the votes where it positioned councillors. The party was accused, however, of exploiting the high tensions in areas that had recently undergone racially-motivated riots.

Increasing electoral 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". In his speech, Griffin also stated that "For saying that, I tell you, I will get seven years if I said that outside", 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". 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, but were found not guilty. (see below).

2000s

The party has increasingly positioned itself against Islam, which Griffin has repeatedly called "wicked and vicious". In the wake of the 7 July 2005 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 was criticised by the Daily Mail as playing on people's high emotions and grief following a 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). Preparing for the worst, Griffin nominated West Midlands organiser Simon Darby as his temporary replacement if he was imprisoned. John Tyndall was also due to appear in court but had died three days earlier. Eventually 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; Griffin and Collett were also cleared of these. They used the result of the trial to criticise the BBC. Following the trial, the possibility of tightening race hate laws has been discussed.

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 anti British slogans and a "Which one do YOU find offensive?" caption.

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 put most of their resources, one in four voters was 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, also highlighted the increase in support by saying that eight out of ten white working class people in her London constituency of Barking were "tempted" to vote for the BNP. The increase in support for the BNP was described by some as a protest vote due to 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 reached 7% in the wake of media attention, a more than tenfold 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 were associated with the BNP was 55%. Most of the statements put, however, coincided with views also put forward by other political parties. There were also certain BNP propositions which 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 among those who were told that the policies were those of the BNP.

On 5 May 2006, the results of the 2006 local elections were reported by the BBC and showed a marked increase for the BNP. The party presented about 350 candidates, of which 33 were initially declared to be winners and a further 70 were placed second. 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 became, according to many newspapers, the first council in the United Kingdom to have the BNP as the second-biggest party.

Despite the increase, however, BNP councillors number just 53 out of over 20,000 in the UK.

The Guardian's infiltration

On December 21, 2006 the Guardian newspaper revealed that one of its journalists, Ian Cobain, had worked undercover in the BNP for seven months, and had become the party's Central London organiser. Amongst the accusations made by the paper was that the BNP used "techniques of secrecy and deception.... in its attempt to conceal its activities and intentions from the public". It asserted that the BNP operated with a "network of false identities" and organised rendezvous points to allow members to be directed to "clandestine meetings" elsewhere. Members of the party were directed to avoid "any racist or anti-semitic language in public". Cobain also claimed that the membership in central London had expanded beyond the party's traditional range, now including "dozens of company directors, computing entrepreneurs, bankers and estate agents, and a handful of teachers".

In the aftermath of the Guardian’s report, campaign group Unite Against Fascism called for the “BNP ballerina” Simone Clarke to be sacked from the English National Ballet, with UAF vice-chair Weyman Bennett claiming her views on immigration were "incompatible with a leading arts institution such as the English National Ballet" and that she had “used her position to support a party which fosters division”. However, Clarke defends her personal political opinion, stating that "the BNP is the only party to take a stand ".

The BNP was being investigated by the Electoral Commission on April 12 2007 after The Guardian revealed that senior figures in the BNP had set up a front organisation in an attempt to raise money from sympathisers in the United States.

Policies

Since Griffin took over its leadership, the BNP has become less extreme, promoting similar policies to 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 cited as a factor in such parties' increased electoral successes in the 1990s and 2000s.

Law and order

In addition to the reintroduction of corporal punishment for petty criminals and vandals, and the reintroduction of capital punishment for paedophiles, terrorists and murderers where their guilt has been proven to be beyond doubt (for example by DNA testing), the BNP promises a mandatory jail term for anyone assaulting an National Health Service worker. Party leaders say the BNP would introduce what it calls "restorative justice", meaning that petty criminals would pay fines to the victims instead of to the government.

Defence

In addition to increasing military defence spending, the BNP plans to reintroduce compulsory national service for all, and to deny some civil rights, including the right to vote, to those who refuse to perform this service.

Right to bear arms

The BNP propose that all males, upon completion of compulsory national service, are to maintain a standard-issue military assault rifle and live ammunition in their home.

Economic Protectionism

The BNP would pursue protectionist economic measures, in opposition to what they perceive as economic liberalism.

Reunification with the Republic of Ireland

The BNP propose the reunification of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland into a "federation of the nations of the British Isles". The party plans to restrict foreign aid to those countries receiving repatriated members of ethnic minorities from the UK.

The EU

The BNP states it would withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union.

Domestic policies

Central to the BNP's domestic policies are greater share ownership and the establishment of worker co-operatives. The party advocates the provision of extra resources for "especially gifted children" and the reversal of closures of special needs schools.

Organic farming

The party promotes organic farming.

The role of women

The BNP intends to allocate government funding to encourage mothers to stay at home and care for their family members.

Racial policies

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 now publically repudiates racism, instead advocating a form of 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 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 of the "Indigenous Caucasian racial group".. 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 Cypriot / half British councillor in Lawrence Rustem.

Despite this in 2006, Sharif Abdel Gawad, a grandson of an Armenian refugee (also of partial Greek ancestry), 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 supported Leeds University lecturer Dr. Frank Ellis, who was suspended from his post after stating that the Bell Curve theory "has demonstrated to me beyond any reasonable doubt there is a persistent gap in average black and white average intelligence". Ellis called the BNP "a bit too socialist" for his liking and described himself as "an unrepentant Powellite" who would support "humane" repatriation.

In April 2006, Sky News confronted the party's national press officer, Phil Edwards. It has been claimed that this is a pseudonym for Stuart Russell, with a tape of telephone conversation the previous year. On the tape Russell could be heard to say 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

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 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.

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.

The 2002 Channel 4 documentary "Young, Nazi and Proud" featured hidden-camera footage of the then 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 changed his views on the subject.

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 .

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.

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 2006 Lebanon War: "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."

Nick Griffin has made it clear that this shift in emphasis is designed to increase the party's appeal. On one occasion, 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 speech to local party activists in Burnley in March 2006, he said:

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.

Suggested policies to help police this 'threat to all of us' include a Muslim no fly policy. This would dictate that Muslims would be banned from flying in and out of the UK.

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.

Opposition to gay rights

The BNP had traditionally maintained a policy of re-criminalisation of homosexuality. The BNP opposes the introduction of civil partnerships in the United Kingdom.

Explaining the party's stance, spokesman Phil Edwards said homosexuality "is unnatural" and "does not lead to procreation but does lead to moral turpitude and disease". Thus, alongside the suggestion 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". The BNP are particularly worried about the possibility of homosexuality being promoted in schools.

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 a councillor and the BNP's London leader. Although some portrayed this as gay pornography, Barnbrook and the BNP claimed that the film was artistic, and about "sexuality, not homosexuality"

Despite this, some members of the BNP have shown hostility to homosexuals. For example, Mark Collett, former chairman of the Young BNP, described homosexuals as "AIDS Monkeys", "bum bandits" and "faggots" and said the idea of homosexuality was a "sickening thought".

There have been allegations that Nick Griffin has been involved in homosexual relationships with other BNP members. Accused of hypocrisy over this matter, he vehemently denies it.

Electoral performance

National parliament

For full details of candidates and votes in parliamentary elections, see British National Party election results

The BNP has contested seats in England, Wales and Scotland. Since 2002 the party has expressed interest in contesting elections in Northern Ireland and previously promised to stand candidates in the 2003 Assembly Election , 2004 European Election and 2005 local council elections but in each case failed to put forward candidates. No BNP candidate has ever won a seat as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons. It has been noted that the UK's first-past-the-post system causes electoral difficulties for smaller parties such as the BNP whose support is not geographically concentrated in a few constituencies.

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 and exit poll predictions of 3%.

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 local government elections. 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.

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.

During these 2003 elections, the BNP contested a record 221 seats nationwide (just under 4% of the total available). They won 11 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 contested 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. In fact, although their share of the vote increased to 4.9% (placing them as the sixth biggest party overall), they failed to win a single seat. The Party also hoped to pick up an increased share of the vote in the South West of England, where its strongly eurosceptic policies were believed to be most popular. However, in that region it gained only 3.0% of the vote. Given that parties with other lower total percentages of the vote, but a higher regional concentration of support, gained seats, their lack of a geographical stronghold can be seen as a disadvantage against the party.

The party's biggest election success to date was a gain of 52% of the vote in the Goresbrook ward of Barking on 16 September 2004. However, the turnout was just 29%, and the councillor Daniel Kelley retired just 10 months later, claiming 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 4 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 was awarded to the BNP, following 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 Bradford, Havering, Solihull, Redditch, Redbridge, Pendle and Leeds. They were initially declared to have won the Birmingham seat of Kingstanding but this was due to a counting error and subsequently overturned in court.

In 10 August 2006 the BNP gained their first parish councillor in Wales when Mike Howard of Rhewl Mostyn, Flintshire, previously an Independent, joined the BNP. Hence as of 10 August 2006, the party had 53 councillors in local government.

In the 2007 Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections the BNP fielded candidates. In the Welsh elections the party fielded 20 candidates, four in each of the five regional lists with party chairman Nick Griffin standing in the South Wales West region. It came fifth behind the major parties in some areas. They did best in north east Wales, polling 9% in Wrexham and 7% in both Alyn and Deeside and in Clwyd South. However, they did not get any seats in the Welsh assembly.

In the Scottish Parliament election the party fielded 32 candidates which entitled the BNP to public funding for its campaign and an election broadcast, something which was attacked by far left groups. The BNP got about 1% of the vote and no seats.

In the UK local elections which took place on the same day as the Scottish and Welsh elections, the BNP fielded a record 754 council candidates, more than double the number the previous year. It won increased support in Windsor and Maidenhead but did not increase its number of councillors in Sandwell from 4 and saw its seats in Burnley reduced from seven to four. It won both Hugglescote and Whitick - the first seats to be won by the BNP in Leicestershire. Before the poll, the BNP's declared aim was to double its number of elected councillors to around a hundred. In the event, it increased its net representation by just one councillor.

See also: Elections in the United Kingdom

Structure of the BNP

The chairman of the BNP has final say in all policy matters. There are then fifteen further members of the 'party leadership', who have responsibility for various areas of its operations (for example, Mark Collett is Head of Publicity; Steve Blake is the Website Editor etc.). These executive positions work alongside the Advisory Council, the party's senior policy body. This group meets at least three times a year. Its role is to "inspect the party's accounts, ensuring proper conduct of the party's finances, and to act as a forum for the party's leadership to discuss vital issues and carve out the party's agenda". After this, the party is organised on a regional basis, based upon the European Parliament constituencies within the UK. The Trafalgar Club is the party's fundraising arm.

The BNP is structured on regional lines, with 12 defined regions, each with an organiser . The party also organises four groups that deal with specific areas of activity i.e. Land and People (which deals with rural affairs), Pensioners' Awareness Group, the Friends of European Nationalism (a New Zealand-based organisation) and the Ethnic Liaison Committee, which co-ordinates work with non-whites. The BNP also has 16 specifically defined party officials, with the current holders of the major offices being as follows:

• Chairman - Nick Griffin
• Deputy Chairman - Scott McLean
• National Press Officer - Dr. Phil Edwards
• Director of Administration - Kenny Smith
• National Treasurer - John Walker
• Editor of Identity - John Bean
• Editor of Voice of Freedom - Martin Wingfield

BNP claims of repression of free speech

The BNP claims 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 level of support nationally.

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 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 considers them racist. A similar policy has been discussed in the Fire Brigades and Civil Service. Many of the major trade unions are affiliates of Searchlight.

On April 24, 2007 an election broadcast (which was scheduled to air at 9:55PM) was pulled by BBC Radio Wales' lawyers, who believed that the broadcast was defamatory of the Chief Constable of North Wales Police, Richard Brunstrom. The broadcast was made available to download from the BNP's website.

Relations with neo-Nazi, terrorist and paramilitary groups

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 terrorist group that was alleged to have carried out the Bologna massacre, which killed 85 people and injured 200 others in a railway station.. However, no connection to the bombing was ever proven, and the case is still open.

The terrorist group Combat 18 (C18), was formed in 1992 (although not originally under this name), to act as stewards for BNP rallies, which were often attacked by groups such as Anti-Fascist Action. C18's first publicly-acknowledged terror action was an incendiary attack on a Communist Party premises in March 1992. The BNP did not repudiate the attack until nearly two years later, when John Tyndall did so in an Organisers Bulletin on 14 December 1993. 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. In 2002, Adrian Marsden was elected as a councillor for the BNP, having previously had his house raided by the Special Branch in raids on Combat 18 supporters in 1999.

When Tyndall was still chairman, the BNP's 1995 national rally was addressed by William Pierce, the then-head of the US National Alliance. Pierce wrote the novel 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 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 and anti-war activists — and which has led to death threats, harassment and a knife attack — was set up by ex-BNP member Simon Sheppard in 2001. The BNP has warned its members not to use the website.

David Copeland, who exploded a nail bomb at the Admiral Duncan pub in the heart of London's homosexual community, was a former BNP member. Although the BNP distanced itself from Copeland, Griffin wrote in the aftermath of the bombing that homosexuals 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."

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

Griffin has urged white nationalists to join the BNP and use the ballot box instead of violence to achieve political aims.The openly neo-Nazi British Peoples Party, Blood and Honour, and the November 9th Society actively oppose the BNP, which they consider too moderate.

Violence and criminal behaviour

Historically the BNP has been associated in the public mind with violent protest and clashes with anti-BNP organisations. 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 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.

A BBC Panorama programme reported on a number of BNP members who have had criminal convictions, some racially motivated. The BBC's list is extensive. 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.

The Tony Lecomber cases

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).

The Robert Cottage case

In October 2006, Robert Cottage, a BNP candidate earlier in the year for election to represent Colne on Pendle Council, "was arrested under the Explosives Act on suspicion of possessing chemicals that may be capable of making an explosion." Cottage was also reported as having possessed the largest quantity of explosives of its type ever found in this country. Cottage's party membership was said to have lapsed at the time of the arrest. An associate of Cottage, David Bolus Jackson, whom he had met at a BNP meeting was also arrested at this time.

The case came before Manchester Crown Court on February 12, 2007 where it was claimed by the prosecution that Cottage had plans to assassinate Tony Blair and Liberal Democrat peer Lord Greaves. Cottage pleaded guilty to one count of the possession of explosives, but denied the count pertaining to conspiracy to cause an explosion. Jackson pleaded not guilty. In a statement read in court by the prosecution counsel, Cottage's wife said that he believed that "civil war" was imminent in the UK.

The jury in the trial was unable to reach verdicts and the case was set for retrial in July 2007, when, once again, the jury failed to reach a verdict. The prosecution indicated that it would not seek a further retrial. On 31 July 2007, Cottage was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment for the charge he had admitted of possessing explosives

Opposition to the BNP

The BNP is condemned by many 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 12 seats out of 13 contested 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 far 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, RESPECT, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, the Socialist Workers 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.

Some opponents of fascism 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. A more militant position is that of "No Platform", which seeks to deny perceived 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.

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. Anti-Fascist Action is the group most associated with this sort of direct action, criticised by more liberal anti-fascists (for example in the Anti-Nazi League) as squadism.

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 The Telegraph Newspaper put the number substantially lower at just 3,000.

In May 2007 a presentation by Nick Griffin was organised by Danny Lake, Young BNP organiser and a politics student, to be held at the University of Bath. The University administration agreed to hosting the meeting on the grounds of freedom of speech, yet it was opposed by a sizable portion of the student and lecturer population. At a meeting of the Student Union a motion was passed to criticise the BNP and oppose the meeting, mainly due to the BNP's opposition to the Unions equal opportunities policy, the fact that the meeting was an invitation only event with no opposition debate and that it was to be held on the first day of the exam period. The University later withdrew permission for the event due to concerns over the large number of people opposing the meeting and possible disruption it could cause.

BNP-affiliated organisations

Alleged front organisations of the BNP

• Solidarity – The Union for British Workers Solidarity's president, Patrick Harrington, and the BNP both deny that Solidarity is a BNP front organization.
• Civil Liberty (UK)
• The Christian Council of Britain was set up by BNP members and supporters to organise Christians "in defence of traditional Christian values". Mainstream Christian groups have criticised the BNP for using Christianity to further their agenda.

Groups officially linked to the BNP

• The Trafalgar Club is the BNP fundraising club, and the name the party uses to book hotels and conference facilities.
• The BNP Ethnic Liaison Committee is an organisation that people from ethnic minorities can join. The committee has joined with BNP members in staging demonstrations.
• Great White Records is a record label launched in January 2006 that is described by the BNP as "a patriotic label." It launched a campaign to introduce British folk music to schoolchildren. Most of the songs were sung by Doncaster folk musician Lee Haggan, and were written by Nick Griffin.
• Albion Life Insurance 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 BNP.
• The BNP obtains funding from the sale of books and heraldic or Norse jewellery. These are usually sold through their brand Excalibur.

Companies alleged to be linked to the BNP

Lancaster UAF has accused all of the below companies of being directly affiliated with the BNP.

• Project Iona
• Avocado Mortgages
• Skip Hire Registry
• Brightahomes (double-glazing)
• Horse Matters
• Civitas
• The Centre For Social Cohesion

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 in 2006. The BNP has links with Germany's National Democratic Party (NPD). 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. In the run-up to the 2004 European Parliament election campaign, Nick Griffin visited Sweden to give the National Democrat 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 fourth appearance in British politics. The original BNP emerged after World War II 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. Around 1970, Eddy Morrison briefly attempted to organise a group of this name in Leeds but he quickly abandoned the idea to join the NF.

See also

• British nationalism
• Young BNP

Footnotes

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Bibliography

• Nigel Copsey: Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and its Quest for Legitimacy: Houndmills/New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2004: ISBN 1403902143

• Nigel Copsey and Andrew Renton (eds) British fascism, the Labour Movement and the State: Houndsmills: New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2005: ISBN 1403939160

• Andrew Sykes: The Radical Right in Britain: From Social Imperialism to the British National Party: Houndsmills: New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2005: ISBN 0333599241

External links

• BNP TV
• BNP website

• Articles with unsourced statements from January 2007
• British National Front breakaway groups
• British National Party
• Eurosceptic parties
• Nationalist parties
• Political parties established in 1982
• Political parties in the United Kingdom
• Discrimination