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formed in 1967 but remained very much
at the margins. For example, the British
National Party won 9.1% of the vote in
the constituency of Southall in the west
of London in1964. The NF was mainly
successful in the 1970s on issues relating
to immigration and won up to 16%
of the vote in individual wards in local
elections. It continues to demand the
(if necessary, forcible) repatriation of
immigrants from Great Britain. Due to
the party’s lack of success in the parliamentary
elections of 1979, open internal
disagreements broke out, eventually
leading to the departure in 1980
of John Tyndall, who had been leader
of the party since 1976 (and previously
in the period 1972-74). Tyndall had at
the time already been convicted several
times, including in 1962 for having
founded a paramilitary group. Since the
1990s, the NF has been fighting with a
small and outdated membership, failing
to achieve any electoral success. 65
In 1982, parts of the NF membership
founded the current British National
Party (BNP), again under the leadership
of John Tyndall. However, in the 1980s
the governing Conservative Party under
Margaret Thatcher understood the need
to address some of the issues of the
right-wing extremists. Internal wrangling
prevented any further major successes
in the political debate.
In October 1990, the EP Commission
on Racism and Xenophobia (today the
EUMC) observed that the BNP was
an: “openly Nazi party ... whose leadership
have serious criminal convictions”.
In reply to the question whether
the BNP was a racist party, Richard Edmonds,
deputy leader up to the end of
the 1990s, stated that: “We are 100 per
cent racist, yes.” 66 Nick Griffin (member
of the NF up to 1989, and member
of the BNP since 1995) took over the
BNP leadership from Tyndall in 1999.
The latter had increasingly come under
criticism in the 1990s because of failure
to build on the party’s initial minor
electoral successes. After his election
to party leader, Griffin tried visibly to
change the party’s image, doing away
with the image of a Nazi party and aggressive
behaviour at public marches. 67
He hoped in this way to be able to address
a broader electorate, even though
he personally remained closely linked to
the far right. Above all, the BNP blames
non-white immigrants for the lack of jobs
and general social problems. When, on
26 May 2001, ethnic tensions in Oldham/Greater
Manchester spilt over into
violent confrontations between white
and Asian youngsters, the BNP ranted
against “Muslim gangs”. Shortly after,
the BNP achieved its best-ever result in
parliamentary elections, taking 3.9% of
the vote. In Oldham, Griffin was able to
win 16.4% of the vote. In Burnley, where
there had also been violent confrontations,
the BNP benefited with 11.3% of
the vote. Despite the change of image
under Griffin, the BNP clearly continues
to belong to the fascist tradition. Until
a change was forced by a court ruling
at the beginning of 2010, party membership
was reserved exclusively for
whites.
In the last general election on 6 October
2010, the BNP attracted 563,743 votes,
or 1.9%. It was thus unable to achieve
its ambitious aim of winning two seats.
Nevertheless, it had almost trebled its
vote compared to 2005, when it had obtained
192,746 votes (0.7%). Although
the party failed to win any seats in the
House of Commons, it has still been
able to continue building support over
recent years: in 1992 it only won around
7,600 votes, but by 2001 this had risen
to more than 47,000. It was mainly the
increased turnout of 65.1% (compared
to 61.3% in 2005) that enabled the democratic
parties to cancel out this growth.
The BNP achieved its best result in
the constituency of Barking (Greater
London), where party leader Nick Griffin
won 14.8% of the vote. The BNP is
mainly successful in local and regional
elections and is seeking in the longer
term to persuade people to adopt its
world view. “While the number of seats
contested by the BNP is not large in
absolute terms it does indicate that the
party is building local support bases in
certain areas.” 68 It is notable that the
BNP is still the UK’s most successful
far-right party in terms of electoral
performance. However, the country’s
“first-past-the-post” system marginalises
smaller parties. If there had been
proportional representation, it is possible
that the BNP would have won seats
in the House of Commons.
Alongside the BNP and NF, the England
First Party, the Britain First Party,
the New Nationalist Party, the Freedom
Party and the British People’s Party are
currently active in Great Britain, but they
are all marginalised in the political debate
and have not achieved any electoral
successes worth mentioning.
COUNTRY REPORT: UNITED KINGDOM 38
39 COUNTRY REPORT: UNITED KINGDOM