The For Britain Movement was a minor far-right

political party in the United Kingdom The Electoral Commission's Register of Political Parties lists the details of political parties registered to fight elections in the United Kingdom, including their registered name. Under current electoral law, including the Registration o ...

, founded by the anti-Islam and "

counter-jihad Counter-jihad, also spelled counterjihad and known as the counter-jihad movement, is a self-titled political current loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, street movements and campaign organisations all linked by apocalyptic bel ...

" activist

Anne Marie Waters Anne Marie Dorothy Waters (born 24 August 1977) is a far-right politician and activist in the United Kingdom. She founded and led the anti-Islam party For Britain until its dissolution in 2022. She is also the director of Sharia Watch UK, an or ...

after she was defeated in the

2017 UK Independence Party leadership election The 2017 UK Independence Party leadership election was called after the resignation of Paul Nuttall as leader of the UK Independence Party on 9 June 2017, following the poor performance of the party in the 2017 general election. Former party ...

History

The far-right activist Anne Marie Waters left UKIP and formed For Britain after she and her supporters were described as "Nazis and racists" by Henry Bolton and UKIP's former leader

Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage (; born 3 April 1964) is a British broadcaster and former politician who was Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Brexit Party (renamed Reform UK in 2021) from 2 ...

. The name is taken from her UKIP leadership campaign slogan, "Anne Marie For Britain". Waters said that the party would "speak to the forgotten people". On 9 March 2018, For Britain registered with the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

, a requirement for any political party wishing to put up candidates in elections and to solicit donations for campaigns, as "The For Britain Movement". The party received the support of Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the

English Defence League The English Defence League (EDL) is a far-right, Islamophobic organisation in the United Kingdom. A social movement and pressure group that employs street demonstrations as its main tactic, the EDL presents itself as a single-issue movement ...

. Its platform includes reducing Muslim immigration to the UK to near zero, and to "bring the entire EU project down". Sean O'Driscoll, writing in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' after Waters had announced her intention to form a party, but before it had been launched, described the proposed party as intending to fill the space left by the demise of the

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

(BNP). In November 2017, the far-right British nationalist political party Liberty GB merged into For Britain. In April 2018, the singer-songwriter Morrissey declared his support for For Britain. The party fielded 15 candidates in the 2018 local elections, none being elected. The party came last in almost all the seats it contested. In June 2018, the party expelled two of its local election candidates after

Hope Not Hate Hope not Hate (stylized as HOPE not hate) is an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom which campaigns against racism and fascism. It has also mounted campaigns against Islamic extremism and antisemitism. It is self-described as a "non-par ...

linked one of them to the proscribed neo-Nazi group National Action and the white nationalist group

Generation Identity A generation refers to all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It can also be described as, "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and gr ...

, and showed another as having posted racist and anti-Semitic content on social media. The party briefly had one councillor, who sat on Stoke-on-Trent City Council. Richard Broughan, who was elected as a UKIP councillor in 2015, had previously been suspended from UKIP and suspended from a group of local independents before being expelled after a caution for assault. Broughan lost his seat to

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

in the 2019 local elections, coming in last place in his ward. Some former BNP figures who are unable to join UKIP have headed For Britain meetings, including former councillors and the expelled former election chief

Eddy Butler Edward Mark Butler (born in Bloomsbury 13 November 1962) is a former National Elections Officer of the British National Party (BNP) and was dubbed the party's "elections guru" by its newspaper, ''Voice of Freedom'', until being suspended and expe ...

. The party has been associated with a number of figures from the extreme right, including the Traditional Britain Group and Generation Identity. In September 2018, the media personality

Katie Hopkins Katie Olivia Hopkins (born 13 February 1975) is an English media personality, columnist, far-right political commentator, and former businesswoman. She was a contestant on the third series of ''The Apprentice'' in 2007; following further app ...

and the writer and political commentator

Ingrid Carlqvist Ingrid Kristina Carlqvist (born 9 November 1960) is a Swedish journalist and member of the white supremacist organization Asatru Folk Assembly. According to Expo (magazine), Expo, Carlqvist is a far-right extremism, far-right extremist with close ...

, who has been accused of

Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

, spoke at For Britain's conference. The American author Robert Spencer, then banned from entering the UK, appeared via video. Before the conference, Hope Not Hate published results of an internal poll from the party, showing nearly half of For Britain's members supported a ban on immigration from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia. The party made a complaint to the

Independent Press Standards Organisation The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) is the regulator of the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK. It was established on 8 September 2014 after the windup of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), which had been the main ind ...

(IPSO) about a newspaper column in ''

The Northern Echo ''The Northern Echo'' is a regional daily morning newspaper based in the town of Darlington in North East England, serving mainly southern County Durham and northern Yorkshire. The paper covers national as well as regional news. In 2007, its ...

'' which described the party as far-right. IPSO ruled in favour of ''The'' ''Northern Echo'', saying that many of the party's characteristics "are established conventions of both national socialism and far-right ideology". In November 2020, Julian Leppert, a For Britain councillor on

Epping Forest District Council Epping may refer to: Places Australia * Epping, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Epping railway station, Sydney * Electoral district of Epping, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly * Epping Forest, Kearns, a ...

, was formally sanctioned by the council and made to attend classes on equality and diversity. He had spread false claims about local asylum seekers, and answered in the affirmative when asked by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' if he wanted to set up a "whites-only enclave". In December 2020, Karen King, a councillor for the party in Hartlepool, described coverage of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

as "scaremongering". On 13 July 2022, the party chair, Anne Marie Waters, announced on the party's website that the party was ceasing operations immediately. Two councillors who were elected standing for the For Britain Movement then joined the far-right

British Democratic Party The British Democratic Party (BDP) was a short-lived far-right political party in the United Kingdom. A breakaway group from the National Front, the BDP was severely damaged after it became involved in a gun-running sting and was absorbed by the ...

Electoral performance

Parliamentary elections

Waters contested the 2018 Lewisham East by-election, receiving 266 votes (1.2% of the total) and losing her deposit. In April 2019, the For Britain candidate, Hugh Nicklin, came last in the Newport West by-election with 159 votes, a 0.7% share. Waters contested the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election coming 12th of 16 candidates. The party nominated Frankie Rufolo for the

2022 Tiverton and Honiton by-election A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Tiverton and Honiton was held on 23 June 2022. The vacancy was caused by the resignation on 4 May 2022 of the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Neil Parish of the Conservat ...

Local elections

In the 2019 local elections, For Britain lost its only incumbent councillor, Richard Broughan (elected as UKIP to Stoke City Council) who had defected to the party. The party won two seats, one in De Bruce ward on Hartlepool Borough Council, and one in Waltham Abbey Paternoster on

. In the 2021 local elections, For Britain nominated 60 council candidates, of which the advocacy group Hope Not Hate identified ten as former members of the BNP. The party had no successes, with 25 of the 47 candidates whose election results were published first receiving under 50 votes each. The party's councillor for De Bruce ward in Hartlepool lost her seat, serving only two years due to changes in council boundaries. Waters also unsuccessfully stood for election for the party in De Bruce ward. In the 2022 local elections, the party targeted 14 seats, including the home ward of Waters, De Bruce in Hartlepool. No candidates were elected, with Waters receiving 203 votes, and the two candidates in

receiving 11 and 16 votes.

References

External links

Official website
{{UKIP 2017 establishments in the United Kingdom Eurosceptic parties in the United Kingdom Far-right political parties in the United Kingdom UK Independence Party breakaway groups Anti-Islam sentiment in the United Kingdom Political parties established in 2017 Political parties disestablished in 2022 Anti-Islam political parties in Europe Counter-jihad Right-wing populist parties Member parties of the Identity and Democracy Party