Far right political groups have been in existence in the United Kingdom since the end of World War II, though earlier antecedents can be discerned in the fascist and anti-Jewish movements of the 1930s. It went on to acquire more explicitly racial connotations, being controlled in the 1960s and 1970s by self-proclaimed White Nationalist individuals and organisations that oppose non-white and Muslim immigration and multiculturalism, such as the British National Party (BNP) and the National Front (NF). Since the 1980s, the term has mainly been used to express the wish of such groups to remove the UK from the European Union, to preserve what they perceive to be British culture, and to campaign actively against the presence of non-indigenous ethnic minorities and what they perceive to be an excessive number of asylum seekers. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into far right. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... White Nationalism (WN) advocates a racial definition (or redefinition) of white national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. ... The term multiculturalism generally refers to a state of both cultural and ethnic diversity within the demographics of a particular social space. ... The British National Party (BNP) is a white nationalist political party in the United Kingdom. ... The British National Front (most commonly called the National Front) is a British far right political party whose major political activities were during the 1970s and 1980s. ... This article is about the concept of a minority. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Far right in UK politics

Broadly, two strands can be identified in British nationalist politics since the split in the League of Empire Loyalists in the late 1950s. The White Nationalist National Front and the British National Party have been strongly opposed to non-white immigration. They have encouraged the repatriation of ethnic minorities: the NF favours compulsory repatriation, while the BNP favours a slightly more moderate approach, and in the past they have been associated, as the BNP was until the 1990s, with race riots and violent street politics. They have never achieved representation in the House of Commons, although they have had a number of local councillors in some inner-city areas of East London and one or two small mill towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire, such as Burnley and Keighley. East London had provided the bedrock of far-right support as long ago as the 1930s, whereas BNP success, such as it is, in the north of England is a newer phenomenon. The only other part of the country to provide any significant level of support for such views, now or in the past, is the West Midlands. The League of Empire Loyalists was a pressure group campaigning against the dissolution of the British Empire in the 1950s and 1960s. ... White Nationalism (WN) advocates a racial definition (or redefinition) of white national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. ... Type Lower House Speaker Michael Martin, (Non-affiliated) since October 23, 2000 Leader Harriet Harman, (Labour) since June 28, 2007 Shadow Leader Theresa May, (Conservative) since May 5, 2005 Members 659 Political groups Labour Party Conservative Party Liberal Democrats Scottish National Party Plaid Cymru Democratic Unionist Party Sinn Féin... East London area East London is the name commonly given to the north eastern part of London, England on the north side of the River Thames. ... For other uses, see Yorkshire (disambiguation). ... Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ... For other meanings see Burnley (disambiguation) , Burnley is a large town in the borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a population of about 73,021. ... For the constituency of the same name, see Keighley (UK Parliament constituency). ...

On the centre-right, a more moderate form of nationalism has existed in the League of Empire Loyalists and the Conservative Monday Club - both pressure groups within the Tory party - and more recently in United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and Veritas, which both campaign against Britain's European Union membership and have also been strongly against uncontrolled immigration. There has been a long history of Euroscepticism in these groups, which became focused in parties such as UKIP after the Maastricht Treaty was passed. At one time, the Conservative Monday Club included a number of Members of Parliament (MPs), though this group has now been disowned by the Conservative Party. Other nationalist parties on the right have never had an MP, but UKIP has a number of MEPs and Councillors, and gained its first MP when Bob Spink, elected as a Tory, defected in April 2008. The centre-right is a political term commonly used to describe or denote political parties or organizations (such as think tanks) that stretch from the centre to the right on the left-right spectrum, excluding far right stances. ... The Conservative Monday Club (widely known as the Monday Club) is a British pressure-group with its origins in the Conservative Party. ... An advocacy group, interest group or lobbying group is a group, however loosely or tightly organized, doing advocacy: those determined to encourage or prevent changes in public policy without trying to be elected. ... The Conservative Party, officially though less commonly known as the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. ... The United Kingdom Independence Party (commonly known as UKIP, pronounced ) is a British political party. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Euroscepticism is scepticism about, or disagreement with, the purposes of the European Union, sometimes coupled with a desire to preserve national sovereignty. ... The Maastricht Treaty (formally, the Treaty of European Union, TEU) was signed on February 7, 1992 in Maastricht, Netherlands after final negotiations in December 1991 between the members of the European Community and entered into force on November 1, 1993 during the Delors Commission. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... A Member of the European Parliament (English abbreviation MEP)[1] is a member of the European Unions directly-elected legislative body, the European Parliament. ... Dr Robert Michael Spink (born 1 August 1948, Worth Valley, Yorkshire) is a politician in the United Kingdom. ... The Conservative Party, officially though less commonly known as the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Era (or Anno Domini), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ...

History

Post-War and the decline of Empire

The British Nationalist movement rose out of the dying embers of the British fascist movement. Although leader Oswald Mosley actually went on to form a pro-European party, a number of members of the British Union of Fascists, which had been banned during World War II, became members of parties attempting to defend the British Empire. Fascism is a term used to describe authoritarian nationalist political ideologies or mass movements that are concerned with notions of cultural decline or decadence. ... Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (November 16, 1896 – December 3, 1980), was a British politician known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... The flag of the British Union of Fascists showing the Flash and Circle symbolic of action within unity The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

The Empire had begun to break down as nationalist movements rose in the early 20th century, though this had largely been resisted in the UK. After 1945, pressure from the United Nations and the United States, together with the financial costs incurred by the war, led to a general acceptance that the empire was both immoral and economically unsustainable, and needed to be disbanded. This occurred over a thirty-year period, with the larger territories and Dominions being first to gain independence in the late 1940s - India in 1947 as an example. UN redirects here. ...

The League of Empire Loyalists was the main group to develop in this era. Founded by A. K. Chesterton in 1954, it was a pressure group rather than a political party, and refused to contest elections. The majority of its members were part of the Conservative Party, and they were known for their politically embarrassing stunts at party conferences. J. R. R. Tolkien is claimed on the flimsiest evidence to have been a supporter ^[1], despite his expressed dislike of "Britain", the British Empire and especially apartheid (see Tolkien's letters passim). It has been argued that the majority of this group were more 'Colonel Blimpish' traditionalists, rather than fascists. However, its more extreme elements wanted to make the group more political. The League of Empire Loyalists was a pressure group campaigning against the dissolution of the British Empire in the 1950s and 1960s. ... Arthur Keneth Chesterton (1896 — August 16, 1973) was an ultra right-wing politician and journalist, instrumental in founding a number of right-wing organisations in Britain, primarily in opposition to the break-up of the British Empire, and later adopting a broader anti-immigration stance. ... An advocacy group, interest group or lobbying group is a group, however loosely or tightly organized, doing advocacy: those determined to encourage or prevent changes in public policy without trying to be elected. ... The Conservative Party, officially though less commonly known as the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. ... Tolkien redirects here. ... The cartoonist David Low first drew Colonel Blimp for Lord Beaverbrooks London Evening Standard in the 1930s: pompous, irascible, jingoistic and stereotypically English. ...

This led to a number of splinter groups forming, including the White Defence League and the National Labour Party. These both stood in local elections in 1958, and merged in 1960 to form the British National Party. The White Defence League was a British extreme right-wing political group. ... The National Labour Party was founded in 1957 by John Bean. ... The British National Party was a far right political party that operated in the United Kingdom from 1960 to 1967. ...

1960s-1980s - The National Front and anti-immigration

With the decline of the British Empire becoming inevitable, the explicitly British-Nationalist parties turned their attention to internal matters. The 1950s had seen a lot of immigration to the UK from its former colonies, particularly from India, Pakistan, the Caribbean and Uganda. Led by John Bean and Andrew Fountaine, the British National Party opposed the admittance of these people to the UK. A number of its rallies, such as a 1962 rally in Trafalgar Square, London, ended in race riots. After a few early successes, the party got into difficulties and was destroyed by internal arguments. In 1967 it joined forces with John Tyndall and the remnants of Chesterton's League of Empire Loyalists to form the National Front at another violent rally. West Indies redirects here. ... John Bean is a veteran of the far right scene in Britain. ... Andrew Fountaine (1918-1997) was a veteran of the far right scene in British politics. ... Trafalgar Square viewed from the northeast corner. ... John Hutchyns Tyndall (born 14 July 1934;died 19 July 2005) was a far-right British nationalist politician best known for leading the National Front in the 1970s and for founding the British National Party in the 1980s. ...

The NF quickly grew to be the biggest explicitly British-Nationalist party in the UK. It polled 44% in a local election in Deptford, London and finished third in three by-elections, though these results were completely untypical of the country as a whole. The party supported extreme unionism in Northern Ireland, and attracted Conservative members who had become disillusioned after Harold Macmillan had recognised the right to independence of the African colonies, and had criticized Apartheid ^[2] in South Africa. During the 1970s the NF's violent rallies became a regular feature of British politics. Election results remained strong in a few working-class urban areas, with a number of local council seats won, but the party never came anywhere near winning representation in Parliament. Deptford is an area of the London Borough of Lewisham, on the south bank of the River Thames in south-east London. ... A by-election or bye-election is a special election held to fill a political office when the incumbent has died or resigned. ... Unionism, in the context of Ireland, is a belief in the continuation of the Act of Union 1800 (as amended by the Government of Ireland Act 1920) so that Northern Ireland (created by the 1920 Act) remains part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. ... Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ...

Other political groups also developed to support British Nationalism. The Conservative Monday Club was a ginger-group within the Conservative Party whose aim was 'to safeguard the liberty of the subject and integrity of the family in accordance with the customs, traditions, and character of the British people'. Again, this meant a general opposition to post-colonial states, and to immigration and immigrant communities in the UK, as well as support for the hard-line unionism in Northern Ireland. The Monday Club also gave strong support to Apartheid in South Africa and to Ian Smith's illegal declaration of independence in Rhodesia. The Conservative Monday Club (widely known as the Monday Club) is a British pressure-group with its origins in the Conservative Party. ... This article is about the constituent country. ...

However, mainstream Conservatism under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who moved the party sharply to the right, and possibly in particular because she talked openly and sympathetically about the indigenous people's fears of being "swamped" by immigrant cultures, recovered the support of many of these people. No doubt as a result, support for the smaller far-right groups declined. They maintained anti-immigration policies, the Monday Group calling for an end to race relations laws in 1981. There was a move, however, towards a more inclusionist vision of the UK, and to opposition towards the European Union. The National Front, for example, began to support non-white radicals such as Louis Farrakhan. This led to the splintering of the various groups, with radical political soldiers such as a young Nick Griffin forming the Third Way group, and traditionalists creating the Flag Group. Membership of the Monday Club, meanwhile, fell to under 600 by 1987. Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (née Roberts; born 13 October 1925) served as British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 until 1990, being the first and only woman to hold either post. ... Louis Farrakhan (born Louis Eugene Walcott, May 11, 1933), is the acting head of the Nation of Islam (NOI) as the National Representative of Elijah Muhammad. ... Political Soldier was a political group within Britains National Front, centred on young radicals Nick Griffin, Patrick Harrington and Derek Holland, that began to emerge in the late 1970s with new destinations in mind for the movement. ... Nicholas John Nick Griffin (born 1959) is a British politician. ... Third Way General Election poster displayed by Party supporters in their windows National Liberal Party - The Third Way poster The Third Way is a British political party that was formed on 17 March 1990. ... The Flag Group represented aone of the two wings of the British National Front in the 1980s and stood in opposition to the Political Soldier wing. ...

1990s and the anti-Europe movement

The New National Front had been formed by John Tyndall in 1980, and changed its name to the British National Party in 1982. They, alongside the Monday Club, campaigned against the increasing integration of the UK into the EU. They developed a policy of eschewing the traditional nationalist methods of extra-parliamentary movements, and concentrated instead on the ballot box. The British National Party (BNP) is the largest political party of the far-right in the United Kingdom. ... The British National Party (BNP) is a white nationalist political party in the United Kingdom. ...

The National Front continued to decline, whilst the more media-friendly BNP, led by Nick Griffin, grew in popularity. Around the turn of the 21st century, a number of councillors were won. However, policies of anti-immigration continued,^[3] and a damaging BBC documentary led to Griffin being charged with incitement to racial hatred (although he was found innocent).^[4] The 2006 local elections brought the BNP the most successful results of any far-right party in British history. They gained 33 council seats, the second highest gain of any party at the elections; in Barking and Dagenham, they gained twelve councillors. Once again, however, their success was geographically concentrated into a small number of areas. Nicholas John Nick Griffin (born 1959) is a British politician. ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... Local government elections took place in England (only) on Thursday May 4, 2006. ... The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham ( ) is a London borough in East London and forms part of Outer London. ...

A less radical branch of nationalism was also born in the 1990s. The United Kingdom Independence Party, formed by Alan Sked in 1993, was born of failed attempts to block the Maastricht Treaty. As its name suggests, its main aim is to assert British national independence. Alongside the Referendum Party, which took a more single-issue approach to British withdrawal from the EU and many of whose members subsequently joined UKIP, it has been the most successful British nationalist party in elections. Despite some internal divisions, which led to MEP Robert Kilroy-Silk forming his own splinter party Veritas, it won 10 MEPs in the 2004 Euro-election. There have since been a number of divisions within the party, with some members leaving to join the English Democrats and the Popular Alliance. UKIP is now led by Nigel Farage MEP, regarded by some as one of the most effective speakers the Right has produced in decades. The United Kingdom Independence Party (commonly known as UKIP, pronounced ) is a British political party. ... Dr Alan Sked (born 1947) is a senior lecturer in International History at the London School of Economics. ... The Maastricht Treaty (formally, the Treaty of European Union, TEU) was signed on February 7, 1992 in Maastricht, Netherlands after final negotiations in December 1991 between the members of the European Community and entered into force on November 1, 1993 during the Delors Commission. ... The Referendum Party were a single-issue party in the United Kingdom formed to contest the 1997 General Election. ... Robert Michael Kilroy-Silk (born 19 May 1942) is a British politician and is well-known as the presenter of his former daytime television confessional talk show Kilroy. ... Veritas is a political party in the United Kingdom, formed in February 2005 by politician-celebrity Robert Kilroy-Silk following a split from the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). ... The English Democrats Party is the largest English Nationalist political party in England committed to the formation of a devolved English Parliament with at least the same powers as those granted to the Scottish Parliament. ... The Popular Alliance is a political party in the United Kingdom that was formed in March 2006 by former members of the Veritas Party. ... Nigel Paul Farage (born 3 April 1964 in Farnborough, Kent) is a British politician, and leader of the eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party. ...

Many UKIP members, like Farage, came from the Conservative Party, which had 'disowned' the Monday Club in 2001 and which has always been deeply split on the issue of Britain's membership of the EU. Nevertheless, the Conservative Party continues to be a British nationalist party in the sense that it stands for the Union (i.e. against Scottish and Welsh nationalism). Its full name until relatively recent times was the Conservative and Unionist Party. Of those Conservative members who do support Britain's membership of the EU, the great majority do so for what they perceive as pragmatic British-nationalist reasons, i.e. on balance they think it is in Britain's best interests to stay in the EU, rather than out of any enthusiasm for the European project itself. (The same is true of many members of the Labour Party, including the current Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, whose attitude towards the EU is noticeably cooler than that of his predecessor, and who in 2006 suggested the introduction of a British national holiday,^[5] in the way that the French celebrate Bastille Day.) It should be noted however that some right-wingers, such as Simon Heffer, have shifted away from the promotion of Britishness towards English nationalism, partially because they believe (quite understandably) that their own views would be politically stronger in England should the Celtic parts of the United Kingdom go their own way. This article is about the French holiday. ... Simon James Heffer (born July 18, 1960) is an English journalist and writer. ... Englands (in red) location within the United Kingdom English nationalism is the name given to a nationalist political movement in England that demands self-government for England, via a devolved English Parliament. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This article concerns those peoples who consider themselves, or have been considered by others, to be Celts in modern times, ie post 1800. ...

Influential figures in British Far Right

• A. K. Chesterton
• John Bean
• Andrew Fountaine
• Enoch Powell
• Nick Griffin
• John Tyndall
• Martin Webster
• Oswald Mosley

Arthur Keneth Chesterton (1896 — August 16, 1973) was an ultra right-wing politician and journalist, instrumental in founding a number of right-wing organisations in Britain, primarily in opposition to the break-up of the British Empire, and later adopting a broader anti-immigration stance. ... John Bean is a veteran of the far right scene in Britain. ... Andrew Fountaine (1918-1997) was a veteran of the far right scene in British politics. ... John Enoch Powell, MBE (June 16, 1912 – February 8, 1998) was a British politician, linguist, writer, academic, soldier and poet. ... Nicholas John Nick Griffin (born 1959) is a British politician. ... John Hutchyns Tyndall (born 14 July 1934;died 19 July 2005) was a far-right British nationalist politician best known for leading the National Front in the 1970s and for founding the British National Party in the 1980s. ... Martin Guy Alan Webster (born May 1943) was a leading figure on the far-right in British politics. ... Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (November 16, 1896 – December 3, 1980), was a British politician known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists. ...

References

Further Reading

• A history of fascism in the UK
• The Phora: British Nationalism Forum