British National Party (1960)
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The British National Party (BNP) was a
neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...
political party in the United Kingdom. It was led by John Bean. The group, which was subject to internal divisions during its brief history, established some areas of local support before helping to form the National Front in 1967. Scholar Nigel Fielding described the BNP as having a "firmly Nazi" ideology.


Formation

The party was formed in 1960 by the merger of the National Labour Party and the
White Defence League The White Defence League (WDL) was a British neo-Nazi political party. Using the provocative marching techniques popularised by Oswald Mosley, its members included John Tyndall. Formation The WDL had its roots in Colin Jordan's decision to split ...
(WDL), two political splinter groups from the
League of Empire Loyalists The League of Empire Loyalists (LEL) was a British pressure group (also called a " ginger group" in Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations), established in 1954. Its ostensible purpose was to stop the dissolution of the British Empire. The Leag ...
pressure group.Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, ''Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century'', Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000, p. 177 Both groups had been active in
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and had been co-operating closely there since the previous year when a merger was agreed. The new group, which was based at
Arnold Leese Arnold Spencer Leese (16 November 1878 – 18 January 1956) was a British fascist politician. Leese was initially prominent as a veterinary expert on camels. A virulent anti-Semite, he led his own fascist movement, the Imperial Fascist League, ...
House in Notting Hill (the former home of the
Imperial Fascist League The Imperial Fascist League (IFL) was a British fascist political movement founded by Arnold Leese in 1929 after he broke away from the British Fascists. It included a blackshirted paramilitary arm called the Fascists Legion, modelled after the ...
leader, used by WDL leader
Colin Jordan John Colin Campbell Jordan (19 June 1923 – 9 April 2009) was a leading figure in post-war neo-Nazism in Great Britain. In the far-right circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly "Nazi" inclination in his open use of the sty ...
as his base of operations), adopted the motto "For Race and Nation" and pledged to oppose the "international Jewish-controlled money-lending system" in its founding policy statement. Indeed, so strong was BNP
antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
that the party advocated the immediate deportation of all Britain's Jews to either
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
or
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, recalling the
Madagascar Plan The Madagascar Plan was a plan to forcibly relocate the Jewish population of Europe to the island of Madagascar which was proposed by the Nazi German government. Franz Rademacher, head of the Jewish Department of the German Foreign Office, p ...
that was briefly considered by
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. It also demanded an end to
immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...
, repatriation of immigrants, and the
impeachment Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...
of the
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government for what the BNP felt to be their complicity in allowing uncontrolled immigration. The party was led by John Bean, with
Andrew Fountaine Andrew Fountaine (7 December 1918 – 14 September 1997) was an activist involved in the British far right. After military service in a number of conflicts Fountaine joined the Conservative Party and was selected as a parliamentary candidate u ...
holding the position of Party President, and other leading members including
John Tyndall John Tyndall FRS (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was a prominent 19th-century Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the ...
, Colin Jordan (who served as Activities Organiser), Denis Pirie and Ted Budden. Leese's widow, who had given Jordan access to her home during his time as WDL leader, served as vice-president of the party.


Activities

The party's early activities were hamstrung by a lack of money, and so it was restricted to the sort of headline-grabbing that had been the stock-in-trade of the WDL. These included demonstrating at railway stations where immigrant-carrying trains were arriving, holding a counter-demonstration to one organised by the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and holding a rally to oppose the Lord Mayor's Show because the presiding
Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...
, Bernard Waley-Cohen, was Jewish. Even so, the BNP managed to secure an 8.1% share of the vote in
Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...
in the 1960
London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kn ...
(LCC) election, a large result for a new party without name recognition. A National Youth Movement was also organised; this was sponsored by General Sir Richard Hilton, who was leader of his own Patriotic Party. Although rumours circulated at the time that
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neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...
groups were funding the BNP, there is no evidence to support this; it seems likely that the party was supported by a mixture of collections held in
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and funds from Fountaine who was personally well-off. Elements within the party also expressed support for
Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...
, and a paramilitary arm, Spearhead, was set up by Tyndall.Barberis et al, ''Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations'', p. 178 Spearhead had initially been set up as group aimed at establishing the BNP outside
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
although its very youthful membership soon lent it a more violent character. Colin Jordan, who would later become a fierce critic of Tyndall would later suggest that Spearhead was set up as much to get Tyndall out of the way as anything else. The party also hosted a summer camp on Fountaine's land and this grew into an international event, beginning in 1961 when delegates attended from the National States' Rights Party and the Nordic Reich Party among others. In early 1962 Oswald Mosley had approached both Jordan and Bean and had offered them positions as national organisers within his group, which would subsume the BNP. However the plan was rejected as neither man had faith in Mosley while the two were increasingly on a collision course within the BNP itself.


Election results


House of Commons


Split

The BNP quickly began to break down into arguments and in-fighting began as Bean believed that the open Nazism of Jordan and Tyndall (who had stated that "Hitler was right") was proving damaging to the Party's image and chances of success. Bean had first raised the issue in 1961 when he almost unseated Jordan from his role as national organiser and in February 1962 he presented a resolution condemning Jordan's open Nazism at a meeting of the national council. The resolution was passed 7 votes to 5 and, after a struggle, the party split with around 80% of the membership backing Bean and the rest, including Tyndall and Pirie, leaving with Jordan to join a new National Socialist Movement. The remaining BNP came under effective control of John Bean, who had previously been limited in his control by the presence of Jordan, as a result of the split.


Opposition

The departure of Jordan and the subsequent arrest of the leaders of the NSM brought a lot of public attention to the far-right in general and the BNP's 1962 summer camp, where a Falangist and an
Organisation armée secrète The ''Organisation Armée Secrète'' (OAS, "Secret Armed Organisation") was a far-right French dissident paramilitary organisation during the Algerian War. The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an atte ...
leader were among the guests, was surrounded by press photographers despite Fountaine telling them that it was merely a "holiday camp". Meanwhile, the BNP, along with the Union Movement and other extremist groups, faced increasing opposition from the Jewish "Yellow Star Movement", which had itself become increasingly radicalised with a group of 40 BNP members attacked and beaten up on 2 September 1962 in London.


Bean's BNP

Under the sole control of Bean the party, like most of its contemporaries on the far right, had a severe shortage of money and as early as 1963 an issue of the party journal ''Combat'' spoke of possible doom for the BNP if new sources of money were not found. However against this backdrop a new area of local support opened up for the BNP. Following changes in the local demographics a group of whites set up a
Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...
Residents Association which, while not specifically anti-immigration, wanted the immigrants already in the area to integrate while stopping further migrants from settling locally. Although this was the official policy some members, notably chairman Arthur Cooney and treasurer Doris Hart, wanted stronger opposition and in the 1963 local elections they nominated two BNP candidates to stand in the Glebe and Hambrough wards. Although neither was elected their votes were respectable, 13.5% in Glebe and 27.5% in Hambrough where the Labour Party lost a normally safe seat to the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
after a swing from Labour to BNP. Bean saw the potential in this sort of local issue as a springboard to finally building the sort of mass party that he desired and as such he stood as a candidate in
Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...
in the 1964 general election. Adopting a platform based on ending all "coloured" immigration and offering National Assistance only to immigrants who agreed to accept repatriation Bean secured 9% of the vote, which was at that point the highest ever won by a candidate running on an avowedly racialist ticket. With a "Stop Immigration Now" campaign the party finally enjoyed some comparative success. However within the political mainstream the major parties began to turn away from the immigration issue and this mood was reflected by the electorate in the 1966 general election with vocal anti-immigration politicians either suffering reduced majorities, as happened to Enoch Powell, or the loss of seats, like Peter Griffiths. This shift in attitudes impacted upon the BNP with Bean's personal vote in Southall falling to 7.4%, a candidate in
Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...
winning 7% and a candidate in
Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider b ...
, where much local work had been undertaken by the party, managing only 1.5%. Under Bean the BNP grew to become the largest political party on the far right and the only one with a comparatively good track record in electoral politics yet its ambitions were consistently hamstrung by a terminal lack of money and increasingly it looked like the future for the BNP lay in working much more closely with other groups.David Boothroyd, ''The Politico's Guide to the History of British Political Parties'', London: Politico's, 2001, p. 21


The National Front

With a new spirit of unity prevalent on the far right, John Tyndall approached the BNP in early 1966 with a request that it should merge with his Greater Britain Movement and the Racial Preservation Society. However Ron Cuddon, a member of the BNP Council and staunch opponent of Tyndall, vetoed the request while it was also rejected by the RPS. In September that same year however the BNP agreed with leading RPS member Dr David Brown that they would seek to unify as the National Democratic Party. Within a week however this plan had been abandoned both due to Bean still wanting to find an accommodation with the GBM and his reluctance to serve under Brown, who insisted on full leadership of the new party for himself. Sensing that his own presence was putting Chesterton off, due to his own neo-Nazi background, Bean resigned from the BNP Council in September 1966 with his place being taken by Philip Maxwell, who was close to Chesterton. As a result, merger negotiations that began with the LEL soon afterwards were not attended by Bean but rather saw Maxwell and Fountaine present the BNP's case. Maxwell addressed the LEL conference in October 1966 by which time merger discussions were so far advanced that the names National Independence Party and British Front were already being considered for the new group. At the conference a working party was established to finalise details of the new group, consisting of Philip Maxwell, Bernard Simmons and Gerald Kemp from the BNP and Austen Brooks,
Rosine de Bounevialle ''Candour'' is a British far-right political magazine founded by A. K. Chesterton, appearing weekly from 1953 to 1960, and in to eight to ten issues per year by 1999. The magazine displayed a "stolidly conservative" stance under the leadership of Ch ...
, Avril Walters and Nettie Bonner representing the LEL. On 7 February 1967 the BNP officially went out of existence as the new movement, by now officially known as the National Front, was declared in existence.


References

; Bibliography * * {{UK far right National Front (UK) Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom Political parties established in 1960 Political parties disestablished in 1967 Far-right political parties in the United Kingdom 1960 establishments in the United Kingdom 1967 disestablishments in the United Kingdom