John O'Brien (20 January 1922 – 21 September 1982) was a leading figure on the far right of

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during the early 1970s. John O'Brien was born in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

in 1922. He was educated at St. Peter's College in

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before beginning work as a publicity copywriter and served for five years in the

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during the

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. After the war, he spent some time in industry before returning to Shropshire where he ran his own horticultural business. A fruit farmer by trade, O'Brien had initially been a member of the

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in Shrewsbury. A supporter of

Enoch Powell John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...

, he attempted to organise a 'Powell for Premier' movement following the

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. When this failed to get off the ground he briefly joined the National Democratic Party before emerging as a member of the National Front. O'Brien gained a reputation for working towards unity on the far right, establishing contacts not only with the NDP, but also the

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, the

Union Movement The Union Movement (UM) was a far-right political party founded in the United Kingdom by Oswald Mosley. Before the Second World War, Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) had wanted to concentrate trade within the British Empire, but the Uni ...

, the Integralists led by

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n George Knuppfer and a number of local anti-immigration groups, with the NF ultimately absorbing a number of such groups. Following internal wranglings within the party, O'Brien was appointed leader of the NF in 1970, following the resignation and removal of

A. K. Chesterton Arthur Kenneth Chesterton (1 May 1899 – 16 August 1973) was a British far-right journalist and political activist. From 1933 to 1938, he was a member of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Disillusioned with Oswald Mosley, he left th ...

(who had brought O'Brien in to be NF Office Manager). Initially seen as a compromise candidate (after the rebellion against Chesterton, no one was willing to take the post), he soon set about trying to modernise the party and clashed with John Tyndall and

Martin Webster Martin Guy Alan Webster (born 14 May 1943) is a British neo-nazi, a former leading figure on the far-right in the United Kingdom. An early member of the National Labour Party, he was John Tyndall's closest ally, and followed him in joining t ...

over the issue, who had backed the O'Brien candidacy because they thought erroneously that he could be easily manipulated. The simmering conflict came to a head when O'Brien accused Webster of working with the Northern League, which had been proscribed in the NF. O'Brien moved to expel Webster but failed to get Tyndall's backing leading to open conflict. During the resulting struggle O'Brien briefly departed from the scene to go on honeymoon and during his absence the pro-Tyndall contingent made moves to expel a number of his supporters. O'Brien and his supporters, appalled at the extent to which a small neo-Nazi clique around Tyndall had taken over most of the facets of the party, failed to win the struggle and left to join John Davis' National Independence Party as a group. Although the NIP initially looked like it might challenge the NF, Tyndall's party was galvanised by the arrival in Britain of

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population, who had been expelled by

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. The opposition to their resettlement in the UK gave the better-known NF a boost and meant that the NIP failed to gain any momentumalthough they famously beat former Tory candidate turned National Front candidate Roy Painter in

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at the February 1974 General Election (despite his campaign enjoying a campaign-diary spot during the election with ''

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'')and struggled on until 1976, when it was closed down. O'Brien did not return to the political arena after this although he contributed to the British nationalist journal '' Candour''. He died suddenly on 21 September 1982 aged 60. The former leader of the NF can claim to have made one of the most significant blows against neo-Nazism in post-war Britain. His involvement with the ''This Week'' documentary on ITV about the NF (

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, ITV, September 1974where he was also interviewed at length about the party he left whilst its chairman) caused immense damage to the National Front and instigated fury within the party's ordinary membership that they had not been made aware as to the full extent of the neo-Nazi pasts and continuing links of the likes of Tyndall and Martin Webster. Within one month of the broadcast, Tyndall was fired as NF Chairman. O'Brien should not be confused with the John O'Brien involved with the White Nationalist Party,Antisemitism and Racism - United Kingdom
as the latter long survived him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, John 1922 births 1982 deaths British far-right politicians English people of Irish descent Leaders of the National Front (UK) Politicians from Shropshire