New Britain was a minor

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

founded by Dennis Delderfield in 1976.Boothroyd, David, ''Politicos Guide to the History of British Political Parties'' (2001), p. 207. The party was de-registered in November 2008.

Founding

It was led from its creation by Dennis Delderfield, a former Common Councilman of the City of London and editor of the ''City of London & Dockland Times''. In 1980, the party absorbed the

anti-immigration Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory ...

United Country Party, which had been chaired by TV astronomer

Patrick Moore Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore (; 4 March 1923 – 9 December 2012) was an English amateur astronomer who attained prominence in that field as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter. Moore was president of the Brit ...

. Around this time it also absorbed a small anti-devolution group called the Keep Britain United Party. This party had contested a single seat (

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...

) in the 1979 general election.

Positions

New Britain was described as an "avowedly racist party" by ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

''. It campaigned for the return of

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

, and was supported by the Christian Affirmation Campaign, a right-wing traditionalist movement opposed to what it saw as the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most juri ...

' support for

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

regimes in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Delderfield signed a letter in 2000 that argued that "suburb after suburb and town after town across the land have been taken over by Asians, Africans and Afro-Caribbeans.... In the not too distant future they will have direct control in many areas."

Electoral history

The party became active participants in by-elections, contesting those held in City of London and Westminster,

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, west-northwest of central London and south-southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High W ...

, Penrith and the Border and

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, a ...

, as well as putting up two candidates in the general elections of 1979 and

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

. Its best performance was at the Bournemouth East by-election of November 1977, but the party's candidate in the Ilford North by-election of March 1978 was revealed to be a convicted child abuser after nominations had closed, and his endorsement was withdrawn. In the

1994 European Parliament election The 1994 European Parliamentary election was a European election held across the 12 European Union member states in June 1994. This election saw the merge of the European People's Party and European Democrats, an increase in the overall number ...

, the last to be held under

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

, it achieved moderate success, saving its deposit in one seat and nearly doing so in another. In the 2010 general election, standing as an

independent candidate An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...

in the Cities of London and Westminster

Parliamentary constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

, from the contact address listed on the New Britain website.

Membership

Some former members later joined the

United Kingdom Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member ...

, including

Mike Nattrass Michael Henry Nattrass FRICS (born 14 December 1945) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands constituency, from 2004 to 2014. He was elected as a candidate for the UK Independence ...

, later a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

for UKIP, who stood as New Britain candidate in the Dudley West by-election of 1994, gaining 146 votes. His fellow UKIP MEP Jeffrey Titford was also a briefly a member after the

Referendum Party The Referendum Party was a Eurosceptic, single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 1997. The party's sole objective was for a referendum to be held on the nature of the UK's membership of the European Union ...

folded. Another UKIP candidate, Brian Smalley, joined in 1994 and was a member of the national committee.

References

{{Authority control Political parties established in 1976 Political parties disestablished in 2008 Eurosceptic parties in the United Kingdom Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom Far-right political parties in the United Kingdom 1976 establishments in the United Kingdom