British National Party This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website British National Party Image by Randy Young, 27 February 2015 This original PNP Flag was used until 1982. On this Page: United Kingdom Introduction: British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right political party founded by John Tyndall in 1982 by merging several similar fascist and neo-Nazi parties including the old National Front. The BNP identified with Nazism in its activities, associations and publications, and its active denial of the Holocaust. Tyndall proudly proclaimed that "Mein Kampf is my bible." In 1999, Nick Griffin became the new leader of the BNP party and continued its policies of right-wing populism, white nationalism, and called for "ethnic cleansing" in the United Kingdom. Although the BNP describes itself as a "ethno-nationalist" party and call for a "voluntary resettlement" of all immigrants and their descendants back to the countries of their origins. They support all anti-immigration policies, demand a return of capital punishment, and oppose all forms of gay and same-sex marriage.

They oppose Islam and actively campaigns against the establishment of mosques, halal meat, and what they call the "Islamification" of the United Kingdom. Pete Loeser, 27 February 2015 British National Party Banner c1982 Image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 February 2014 In 1986, Tyndall was imprisoned for inciting racial hatred, and the BNP floundered in the late 1980s losing much of its support and practically ending its local electoral activities. During this period, the party leadership began to attempt to change its image by removing "careless extremist" elements and attempting to move the Party's platform more towards the mainstream in appearance (not in reality). As part of this image change the party's banner was changed to a white circle centered on a blue field, with the block letters "BNP" in red centered in the circle.

Pete Loeser, 27 January 2015 British National Party Flag 1999 Image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 February 2014 In 1999, Nick Griffin successfully challenged Tyndall for leadership of the party. He began modernizing the BNP's sagging image and undertaking and attempting to change the image of the BNP for the next general election. During this time, the party flag design was changed once again, this time changing to a plain white field, with less bold lettering in red with a blue circle drawn around it. Pete Loeser, 27 February 2015 British National Party - SourceWatch British National Party Jump to: navigation , search The modern British National Party, commonly known as the BNP, was founded in 1982 by John Tyndall , a former chairman of the National Front . The current National Chairman, Nick Griffin , joined the BNP in 1995, and replaced Tyndall after a leadership election to become leader in 1999.

He was also a previous chairman of the National Front and spent time as an activist whilst reading law at Downing College, University of Cambridge. Tyndall was expelled from the BNP in 2003. The reasons for this mainly related to articles published in his magazine, Spearhead, which were highly critical of the BNP leadership. It was also believed that his often 'extremist' views did not tally with contemporary party policies. However, Tyndall was readmitted to the party in December 2003, after an out of court settlement with Nick Griffin. In 1998, before he was chairman of the BNP, Griffin was convicted of violating section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to incitement to racial hatred. He received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was fined ï¿½2,300. In recent years the BNP has reflected many aspects of a concept known as Euronationalism . This is a pattern of emphasis and presentation of policies that has been adopted by a number of far-right parties in Europe. It is often cited as a factor in their increased electoral successes of the 1990s.

Contents British National Party - Metapedia British National Party For other uses see, British National Party (disambiguation) . British National Party Colours Red, white, blue The British National Party (BNP) is a British nationalist party. It was founded in 1982 by John Tyndall after a split within the National Front in 1980. At first, before 1982, the party was called the New National Front. The party absorbed the British Democratic Party (1979-1982) , the Constitutional Movement and a faction of the British Movement . Nick Griffin replaced Tyndall in 1999. He "modernised" the party by softening its positions and views on various issues. This contributed to the creation of new parties by dissatisfied former members such as the British Democratic Party and Britain First . Adam Walker is the party leader since 2014. The British National Party peaked in 2009 when it received 6.3% of the votes (943,598 votes) in the European Parliament election.

In the 2010 general election it received 1.9% of the votes (563,743 votes). In the 2015 general election it received only 1,667 votes. Various internal and external factors have been proposed as explaining the decline but it is likely not due to a lessening of the opposition to the mass immigration as shown by the increasing support for the UK Independence Party . External links British National Party - RationalWiki British National Party rolls over in his grave (old BNP logo). A guide to “”Yes. There is a wider range of takeaway food. That's it. —Nick Griffin, "The Battle for Barking" [1] [When asked if there was anything good about immigration.] The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right British political party tracing back to a 1980 split with the National Front . The party was created by John Tyndall and in the 1980s had a bovver boot image because of racist skinheads and football hooligans.

A populist faction in the early 1990s tried to loose the violent subcultures and fascist bully-boys attracted to the party for professional local-electioneering which resulted in the BNP gaining a councillor in Tower Hamlets. The populist wing of the party was later led by Nick Griffin who replaced Tyndall as chairman in October 1999 with the intention of modernising the party by removing what he called "careless extremism" [2] and "swapping bovver boots for sober suits" [3] [4] to gain electoral support. The heyday of the BNP (2006-2009) saw the party win 55 local councillors, including 12 on Barking and Dagenham council and a seat on the London Assembly. At their height, the BNP achieved nearly a million votes in the 2009 European parliament election; Griffin and Andrew Brons were elected as MEP's. In the 2010 general election the BNP failed to win a single seat and lost all of its councillors in Barking and Dagenham.

Infighting and party splits resulted in a collapse of the BNP's vote in the 2011 and 2012 local elections; its membership halved, with former members going off to join the English Democrats . By 2013 it was clear UKIP was the popular alternative to the BNP with Nigel Farage boasting: "I am proud to have taken a third of the BNP's support". [5] Brons resigned from the BNP in October 2012 and lost his seat with Griffin in the 2014 European parliament election; Griffin was replaced as chairman by Adam Walker. In January 2016 the BNP was deregistered as a political party by the Electoral Commission for failing to send in financial reports. [6] However, it was later re-registered. [7] Contents [ edit ] Origins John Tyndall left the National Front in June 1980 and set up the New National Front (NNF); Tyndall cooperated with Andrew Brons of the National Front creating a Committee for Nationalist Unity (1981) and managed to absorb the membership of various NF splinter groups (including the British Democratic Party ).

In 1982, the New National Front was renamed by Tyndall as the British National Party. The BNP throughout the 1980s had a bovver boot image like the NF, associated with racist skinheads . This showed in poor election results for the party and Tyndall in 1989 complained "during all these long years we cannot claim to have broken through to greatly increased public support". [8] Tyndall a virulent anti-Semite had little interest in trying to make the party moderate and respectable in terms of how the electorate perceived the BNP; in 1986 Tyndall was imprisoned for inciting racial hatred and The Sunday Times exposed that Richard Edmonds deputy leader of the party was a Holocaust denier . Tyndall is also known to have remarked, " Mein Kampf is my bible" [9] and Edmonds had described the BNP in the 1980s as "100 per cent racist".

[10] In contrast to the hardliners in the party, a populist faction associated with Eddy Butler appeared by 1990 with the aim of losing the bovver boots and violence for professional local-electioneering: “”Where during the 1980s the BNP had purposely refrained from heavy engagement in local electoral arenas, at the beginning of the 1990s the Tower Hamlets branch stole the initiative and set itself on a course of local electioneering. The origin of this strategy did not lie with John Tyndall, who rarely left his Sussex redoubt, but with Eddy Butler the Tower Hamlets branch organiser... Butler's strategy was local community politics, addressing neighbourhood concerns through a populist campaigning style. [11] [ edit ] Tower Hamlets, Rights for Whites Butler was responsible for creating a stronghold in Tower Hamlets for the BNP by focusing on a local political campaign for social housing. Butler's campaign highlighted a "bias" that Bangladeshi immigrants were being housed by the council before white residents who had family in the Tower Hamlets London borough going back decades.

His campaign Rights for Whites benefited from the Liberal Democrats who made the same argument and therefore the BNP could not be accused of racism since a mainstream political party was saying the same thing. [12] The BNP however put out leaflets stating the Liberal Democrats only pretend they are against immigration and the "trick failed, as local whites had heard it all before". [13] In 1990, a BNP candidate polled 130 votes (8%) in a Tower Hamlets council ward; the BNP built on this success. [14] In October 1992, a local by-election in Millwall ward of Tower Hamlets saw the BNP obtain 657 votes (20%) and the following year in the same ward, the BNP polled 1480 votes (34%) winning the seat; Derek Beackon was the first elected BNP councillor. In the 1994 local elections, Beackon lost his seat despite polling 2041 votes (28%). This was because a large turn out increased the Labour Party vote in opposition to the BNP.

In three surrounding wards in Tower Hamlets, the BNP averaged 22% of the vote; in the neighbouring London borough of Newham, a BNP candidate came within 65 votes of winning a council seat. [15] During the early 1990s the BNP had overtaken the NF in terms of electoral activity and its membership (estimated at 2000 in 1994 [16] ). “”Millwall was just the beginning. The British National Party will soon be enjoying greater electoral successes. —British Nationalist (BNP newspaper) October, 1993, p. 1 In total, 29 BNP candidates in the May 1994 local elections (mostly based in the East End of London ) averaged 13% of the vote in council seats contested. Eddy Butler remarked "Compared with results achieved by nationalist candidates in the recent past, our votes were nothing short of phenomenal". [17] In June 1994 Tyndall stood in a parliamentary by-election in Dagenham retaining his deposit, polling 1,511 votes (7%).

The BNP's rise in electoral support in the East End of London was met with hostility by the national and local press at the time; the Daily Mirror after Beackon's win printed its front-page: "SIEG HEIL... and now he's a British councillor". [18] The East London Advertiser formerly neutral also adopted an anti-BNP stance. The bad publicity may have caused a slump in the BNP vote; Beackon polled 562 votes (19%) in a Tower Hamlet council by-election (Lansbury ward ) in December 1994; another by-election in 1995 saw the BNP vote fall to 16%, although these are relatively high figures. [ edit ] Populists vs.

Tyndall, 1996-1998 Eddy Butler, the BNP's press-officer Michael Newland and Mark Deavin a PhD student at the London School of Economics who had close ties to the BNP wanted the party to model itself on the right-wing populism of the Front National and Austrian Freedom Party for the 1997 general election, by making the BNP "less abrasive" through non-threatening political discourse, i.e. moderating its policies on race and immigration. [19] Tyndall disagreed, "who insisted that the drive for acceptability would lead the BNP down the path to oblivion". [20] Butler and Newland briefly resigned from the BNP in 1996 joining the Bloomsbury Forum an ultra-conservative think-tank founded by Adrian Davies, formerly an executive council member of the Conservative Monday Club . Both though re-joined the BNP at the beginning of 1997 with the intention to reform the party for the general election: "A properly run party free from Nazi cranks could do far better" remarked Newland.

[21] The populists were marginalised by Tyndall who invested £60,000 in contesting 57 parliamentary seats in the general election with minimal to no electioneering; the BNP's average vote was a mere 1% in contested seats and membership declined. [22] [ edit ] Leadership election, Nick Griffin After more disappointing election results (34 BNP candidates in the May 1998 local elections averaged only 3% [23] ) the populists challenged John Tyndall for chairmanship of the party. Their candidate was Nick Griffin who joined the populist faction in November 1998 after defending Michael Newland's comments about immigration made on the James Whale Talk Radio show (however Griffin had previously opposed the populists as much as Tyndall, even describing them as a "spiral of sickly moderation" [24] ). Newland criticized the BNP's policy of compulsory repatriation as too extreme for the electorate: "NICK GRIFFIN says the 'extremists' need to grow up", was how his [Griffin's] Spearhead article started in its support for Newland's comments.

Significantly, Griffin recommended that the party should drop its commitment to compulsory repatriation - a policy move that he had ridiculed less than three years earlier. By launching a stinging attack on those hardliners who this this move as a 'sell out'. Griffin was now all but certain of the support of the modernisers. [25] Griffin borrowed the language of Deavin who earlier wrote: "we must present ourselves nationally as the party of democracy against plutocracy, of freedom against Euro-tyranny, of security against fear and of identity against multi-culturalism". [26] Griffin used these same four words as a "rejection of the verbal extremism of the past... a remodelling of the BNP's political style (if not its core ideology) on national-populism". [27] In September 1999 Nick Griffin succeeded in winning the leadership contest against Tyndall; Griffin won with 1,082 votes (70%) of paid-up BNP members with a high turnout.

[28] [ edit ] Modernisation, 2000-2005 For the 2000 local elections and London mayoral election, Griffin modernised the BNP by revamping its structure, softening its views on race and immigration (i.e. dropping the compulsory repatriation policy) and making the party voter-friendly by "seeking to shed the party of associations with skinheads and violent behaviour, for instance by recruiting more female election candidates". [29] Griffin was impressed by the electoral gains achieved by Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National and the BNP's new journal Identity seems to have taken its title from the FN's Identité. The BNP stood 13 candidates in the 2000 local elections, averaging 8% of the vote in contested seats. [30] While no councillors were elected, Stephen Edwards the BNP candidate in Sandwell polled 781 votes (24%). [31] Newland, the BNP mayoral candidate polled 33,569 votes (2%) across London; his vote share in the East End was a high as 9%.

[32] In December 2000 Edwards left the party with Newland to form the ring-wing populist Freedom Party , both criticised Griffin for not moderating its policies enough on immigration as well as financial irregularities. [33] The Freedom Party's emphasis was culture , not race. Subsequently, despite Griffin's "sober suit" modernisation he managed to keep "hardliner support in the BNP, because many activists regarded the Freedom Party as not being hard-line enough in their policies". [34] Disillusioned with the government over the 2001 Oldham and Burnley race riots, a significant number of white working class voters turned to the BNP. In the June 2001 general election, Griffin stood in Oldham West and Royton polling 6,552 votes (16%) and in Burnley, Steven Smith, the local BNP branch organiser also received quite a high vote share (11%). After the result, Griffin commented: "There are large numbers of whites who feel there is nothing for them in the political process." [35] In other words the British National Party hoovered up protest votes which had normally gone to the Liberal Democrats .

In three Burnley council by-elections in November 2001, the BNP averaged 21% of the vote. The following year, the BNP won 3 councillors in Burnley. [36] The BNP campaigned on the perceived imbalances in council spending on different ethnic communities as well as Muslim attacks on white British, Hindus and Sikhs; Griffin attempted to forge links with the Sikh and Hindu communities to appear non-racist. [37] [38] Rajinder Singh working with Griffin set up an "Asian Friends of the BNP" group for Sikhs and Hindus sympathetic to the BNP's anti-Islamic stance. Although a handful of Sikhs and Hindus joined forces with the BNP, Singh's group was condemned by all leading Hindu and Sikh organisations at the time. In the 2003 local elections the BNP stood 217 candidates, averaging an impressive 17% of the vote in seats contested. [39] The BNP won a further 7 councillors in Burnley, making it the official opposition to the Labour Party ; Griffin described the gains as "absolutely fantastic".

[40] The modernisation of the BNP was opposed by Tyndall who argued it was unnecessary since the success of the party was because of "favourable external circumstances" such as the Oldham and Burnley race riots. [41] Tydnall wanted the compulsory repatriation policy restored. Griffin responded by expelling Tyndall in August 2003, but after an out of court settlement he was reinstated as a party member. In September 2003, a BNP candidate won a Thurrock council by-election, polling 552 votes (38%). [42] For the 2004 European election, Nick Griffin promised more policy moderation and ideological change: "the essential difference between the old BNP of John Tyndall and the new BNP, Griffin claimed, was the rejection of fascist totalitarianism". [43] Griffin now allowed some ethnic minorities to join the party, despite the official party constitution restricting membership to "indigenous British". [44] Patricia Richardson was the first Jewish candidate to stand for the BNP, winning a seat on Epping Forest District Council.

[45] In the 2004 European election the BNP polled 808,200 votes (5%) and came close to winning a seat in the North West . [46] Griffin permanently expelled Tyndall from the party in December 2004 after he criticized Richardson's membership and Rajinder Singh being allowed to write an article in the BNP's newspaper (Singh also appeared in the 2004 local election broadcast [47] for the BNP). It is often argued "even if the image and tactics have changed under Griffin there has been little modification of the party’s core ideology". [48] Copsey (2007) who has analysed Nick Griffin's modernisation of the party leading up to the BNP's 2005 general election manifesto, concludes while the BNP opposes totalitarian government and has adopted a populist agenda, there is a "recalibration of fascism": ...ideological renewal under Griffin constitutes a recalibration of fascism rather than a fundamental break in ideological continuity. All the same, the party's ideological face-lift lends support to Griffin's broader normalization strategy...

The party's opposition to a central state, rejection of ID cards, it call for devolved and decentralized government, its demand for a bill of rights, and the introduction of citizens initiative referenda hardly conveys the impression of a fascist party that seeks totalitarian control over state, society and the individual... Outward appearances suggest that personal freedom and cultural pluralism would remain under a BNP government. But, if we probe its manifesto more closely, we soon find evidence of an instinctive susceptibility to illiberal thinking. The proposals include the introduction of a Clause-28 style proscription against the promotion of racial integration in schools and media... its promise that law-abiding minorities would "enjoy the full protection of the law against harassment or hostility" starts to ring somewhat hollow. (emphasis added) Goodwin & Ford (2014) similarly argue the BNP has not completely transformed into a right-wing populist party like UKIP and still has fascist undertones. Others disagree with this analysis and categorize the BNP as "radical populist right" with the Front National , Lega Nord and Party for Freedom .

[49] For Kessel (2015) the modern BNP is no longer a fascist party because: "In recent years, the BNP explicitly aimed to present itself as a democratic party. The manifesto for the 2005 general election was actually titled 'Rebuilding British democracy' and warned against excessive central state control." Some have argued Griffin's own comments reveal his "modernisation" is a deceptive strategy: “”Once we're in a position where we control the British broadcasting media, then perhaps one day the British people might change their mind and say, ' yes, every last one must go '. But if you hold that out as your sole aim to start with, you're not going to get anywhere. So, instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity ... The British National Party isn't about selling out its ideas, which are your ideas too, but we are determined now to sell them, and that means basically to use the saleable words, as I say, freedom, security, identity, democracy. Nobody can criticise them. Nobody can come at you and attack you on those ideas. They are saleable. —Nick Griffin, addressing an audience with David Duke by his side.

The BNP stood 117 candidates in the 2005 general election polling 192,746 votes (averaging 4% in seats contested [50] ). In Barking, BNP candidate Richard Barnbrook polled 4,916 votes (17%) which remains the highest vote share for a far right party in a parliamentary seat; Griffin contested Keighley and gained 9%; in Burnley the BNP vote was 10%, a minor decrease from the previous election. [ edit ] Heydey of the BNP, 2006-2009 The BNP launched an intensive campaign in Barking for the 2006 local elections; Eddy Butler the same year was made National Elections Officer by Griffin. By attempting to broaden its appeal to voters, more ethnic minorities stood as candidates for the party. These included Sharif Abdel Gawad, a Greek-Armenian.

[51] However this "provoked a backlash among BNP hardliners who described Mr Gawad as an 'ethnic' who should be barred from the party on race grounds." [52] According to Griffin, the BNP is no longer a white nationalist party; writing in Identity he said: "unlike racial nationalist purists, we would be opposed to the arrival at Dover of several million German or Swedish immigrants". [53] The BNP clings to an ethnic view of British identity, but calls its his new ideology "Popular Nationalism": “”...while we are determined to become a party of Popular Nationalism, we are not bend-with-the-wind populists. Our proposals are not a mishmash of simplistic short-term policies cynically designed to evoke maximum sympathy and minimum hostility from an electorate bored with political ideas. They are instead a tightly argued, moderately presented, blueprint for the radical transformation of Britain and British society. —Nick Griffin [54] In May 2006 the BNP stood 363 council candidates and got 33 elected, averaging a record 18% of the vote in contested seats.

[55] Twelve councillors were elected onto Barking and Dagenham council and Barnbrook won a seat in Gorebrook ward , polling 1,434 votes (42%). Elsewhere, the BNP won council seats in Epping Forest, Stoke-on-Trent and Sandwell. [56] This success led to a journalist to infiltrate the BNP. He reported in December 2006 that: "techniques of secrecy and deception [are] employed by the British National party in its attempt to conceal its activities and intentions". [57] The BNP expected to keep up momentum at the 2007 local elections with 744 candidates, but their average vote in council seats fell to 13%. [58] They did though win a few more councillors. [59] In the Welsh Assembly elections held the same year the BNP came just short (2,580 votes) of gaining a regional seat on the Assembly. [60] In August 2007 the BNP won a council by-election in Epping Forest, polling 393 votes (32%).

[61] Griffin fought off an attempted leadership challenge in December 2007. For the 2008 London Assembly election , the BNP spent £75,000 on producing and delivering over a million leaflets across London; Barnbrook narrowly secured a seat on the Assembly, polling 130,714 votes (5%). In the FPTP constituency seat covering Barking and Dagenham, the BNP won 18,020 votes (10%). The BNP also slightly increased their average vote (14%) in contested local council seats that year, winning three seats on Stoke-on-Trent council and another in Epping Forest. [62] In November 2008, the entire 11,000 BNP membership list with names, addresses, telephone numbers and employment details was leaked on the internet.

[63] Simon Darby deputy leader of the BNP commented: "In a way it's a compliment, a sign of how worried people are about how well we're doing." Griffin has argued since the list contains members from all backgrounds, jobs and professions — the BNP is respectable: "What could do more to distance the party from its image as a reservoir of white working-class discontent than a ballerina - Simone Clarke - with a Cuban boyfriend espousing the party's anti-immigration policies?" [64] WikiLeaks map showing geographical distribution of BNP members. Support for the BNP peaked in the 2009 European parliament election when the party won 943,598 votes (6%); Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons were elected as MEP's by proportional representation. In Yorkshire and the Humber , Brons won a seat with 10% of the vote share and Griffin with 8% in the North West . Griffin has stated the electoral breakthrough was the result of the Labour Party , Liberal Democrats and Conservatives allowing mass-immigration from eastern European Union countries: "by leaving the door to Britain open, has forced people to turn to a party which speaks openly about the problem of immigration".

[65] Nick Griffin appeared in October 2009 on BBC's political discussion show Question Time with 8 million viewers, three times its normal audience. [66] There was an organised protest outside the BBC Television Centre; Griffin accused the protesters of "attacking the rights of millions of people to listen to what I've got to say and listen to me being called to account by other politicians". [67] Griffin is regarded to have performed poorly on the show by members of his own party. [68] A YouGov poll taken hours after Griffin’s appearance on the show, found 22% would "seriously consider" voting for the BNP in a future election. [69] [70] However of these, only 4% said they would "definitely" vote for the party. A study by Dr. Robert Ford (2009) found that the BNP is only "realising a fraction of its electoral potential". [71] One in five of the British electorate agree with key BNP policies but the majority are "reluctant to endorse a policy when they become aware of a BNP connection" because of a "severe image problem".

In November 2009 the BNP contested a parliamentary by-election in Glasgow North East . The BNP candidate polled 1,013 votes (5%) and nearly pushed the Conservatives into 4th place, coming within 20 votes of saving his deposit, which was a shock to the Scottish parties; the BNP rarely stood any candidates north of England. [72] At the end of 2009, BNP had 55 councillors. [73] [ edit ] Membership policy change The Equality and Human Rights Commission took legal action against the BNP's "indigenous British" membership policy. [74] Griffin had already allowed ethnic minorities to join such as Lawrence Rustem a Turkish Cypriot, but a small section in the BNP constitution said membership was restricted to "indigenous British ethnic groups" including the "Anglo-Saxon (English) folk community" and the "Celtic Scottish folk community". In February 2010, the BNP agreed to amend the constitution with Griffin proclaiming: "We recognise legal reality... they can't call us racist anymore".

[75] Griffin used the change to persuade voters who consider voting BNP but are off-put by the party's "angry white men" image. [76] Rajinder Singh who became a member expressed his opinion: "They are trying to soften up. Shouldn't the nation welcome that? It's a positive move if they get people like me, and if I'm sitting in a BNP meeting they won't say 'Throw all of them out' because they'll realise one of 'them' is among 'us'." [77] The membership was still ruled be discriminatory by a judge, who said, "I hold that the BNP are likely to commit unlawful acts of discrimination within section 1b Race Relations Act 1976 in the terms on which they are prepared to admit persons to membership under the 12th addition of their constitution." [78] This remains a matter of legal compliance, and is unlikely to signify any more policy change. [ edit ] The Battle for Barking, 2010 In the 2010 general election the BNP stood 338 candidates polling 564,321 votes.

Their average vote (4%) for parliamentary seats contested was the same as the previous election. [79] A documentary was produced called The Battle for Barking which filmed the BNP campaign in Barking where Nick Griffin was a candidate. Griffin failed to win the seat, polling 6,620 votes (15%). In Burnley, the BNP vote share fell to 9%. Simon Darby stood for the party in Stoke-on-Trent Central and thought he had a good chance of winning. [80] However, Darby polled only 2,502 votes (8%). Overall, the BNP won no seats and £132,500 was wasted on lost deposits. [81] In the 2010 local elections, the BNP lost 26 council seats, including all of its councillors in Barking and Dagenham. [82] [83] The new image Griffin was trying to sell to the electorate — a respectable multi-ethnic BNP with a black member on the Barking campaign [84] was jeopardised by violence when white BNP activists brawled with Asians on a street-corner.

[85] In June 2010 Eddy Butler challenged Griffin for the leadership of the party, but failed to obtain the nominations required. Infighting over Griffin as chairman led to around a hundred members to leave and create the British Freedom Party which made contacts with the English Defence League ; Griffin in response called the BFP "militant homosexuals " (it had a gay member) and the EDL as " Zionists ", ending his phase of trying to appear moderate. In July 2010, Barnbrook stood in a council by-election in Barking (in the same ward he was formerly a councillor); he came second with 642 votes (34%). [86] [ edit ] Vote collapse, 2011-present The BNP's vote fully collapsed in the 2011 and 2012 local elections when they lost all their councillors in Stoke-on-Trent and Burnley. [87] [88] Brons resigned from the BNP in October 2012.

[89] Half of the BNP's membership (including Eddy Butler) quit to join the English Democrats or form their own splinter-groups such as the British Democratic Party , Britain First , Patria and Britannica Party. Hardliners like Richard Edmonds re-joined the National Front . The poor election results were not the only reason for members resigning; Griffin was accused of financial mismanagement and being a dictator. In the 2012 London Assembly election , the BNP polled 47,024 votes (2%) and failed to re-elect a candidate. By 2013, the United Kingdom Independence Party emerged as the popular alternative to the BNP: “”What we did, starting with the Oldham by-election in the North of England is for the first time ever try to deal with the BNP question by going out and saying to BNP voters, if you are voting BNP because you are frustrated, upset with the change in your community, but you are doing it holding your nose because you don't agree with their racist agenda, come and vote for us. I would think that we have probably taken a third of the BNP vote directly from them.

— Nigel Farage [90] Farage admits UKIP has been campaigning to attract BNP voters since the 2011 parliamentary by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth where UKIP polled 2,029 votes (6%) and the BNP, 1,560 (5%). In 2012 by-elections the BNP vote further declined, while the UKIP vote massively increased; an exception was Rotherham where the BNP managed to retain a fairly significant vote share (9%) based on the local popularity of its candidate Marlene Guest. In the 2013 local elections the BNP stood 100 candidates averaging a mere 6% in seats contested; UKIP stood 1742 candidates and averaged a spectacular 24%. [91] The BNP won no councillors, but UKIP gained 147. According to Matthew Goodwin: "There is a clear relationship between the rise of UKIP in local elections and the disintegration of the BNP". [92] He also notes UKIP can succeed where the BNP failed since UKIP "is not tainted by a violent, fascist past".

Free of extremist baggage, it is able to appeal to a more diverse range of voters. Griffin lost his seat in the 2014 European parliament election and was later expelled from the party and replaced as chairman by Adam Walker. By 2015 the BNP was left with a single councillor in Pendle, Lancashire. The collapse of the BNP has recently seen the party abandon trying to appear moderate and respectable, calling UKIP "plastic nationalists" and Farage having "sold out to the Zionist lobby". [93] In January 2016, the BNP was temporarily stripped of official political party status by the Electoral Commission after failure to submit its annual accounts and other reporting formalities. At this time, it was estimated that BNP assets totalled less than £50,000. [94] The BNP re-registered with the Electoral Commission for the May 2016 London Assembly election , but polled a dismal 15,833 votes (1%).

[ edit ] Policies The BNP had long been "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948." [96] In 2009 Griffin said he "no longer wants to see an all-white United Kingdom" because "nobody out there wants it or would pay for it." [97] [ edit ] Immigration “”We are pledged to stemming and reversing the immigration and migration of peoples into our British Homeland that has, without the express consent of the Indigenous British, taken place since 1948, and to restoring and maintaining, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the Indigenous British as the overwhelming majority in the make up of the population of and expression of culture in each part of our British Homeland. — BNP Constitution 2010, v12.2, Section 3, Clause 3.2.3, page 7. The raison d'etre of the BNP has always been strong opposition to immigration with few exceptions; Griffin has described this as "exceptional immigration".

The 2005 BNP manifesto states immigration from: "Africa, Asia, China, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America would all be placed on an immediate ‘stop’ list", but would accept foreign students with visas. [98] The BNP would deport all illegal immigrants and opposes refugees since "international law provides that such persons must be given – and must seek – refuge in the nearest safe country.

So, unless a flood of refugees from a civil war in France or Denmark shows up on our shores, these refugees are simply not Britain’s responsibility and have no right to refuge here." In their 2010 manifesto, the BNP says it will allow for foreign work permits, but "only [to] be issued in exceptional circumstances, for example, when the Government determines there is a need to rebuild British industry or when there is a genuine shortage of skills." Regarding ethnic minorities: "The BNP recognises the right of legally settled and law-abiding minorities to remain in the UK and enjoy the full protection of the law, on the understanding that the indigenous population of Britain has the right to remain the majority population of our nation." [99] [ edit ] Voluntary repatriation The BNP would offer immigrants already settled 50,000 per person to leave the country as part of its "voluntary repatriation" programme. [100] The BNP's voluntary repatriation policy would apply not to just to recent immigrant arrivals in the last few decades, but all members of the sizeable Asian and West Indian communities that have grown in Britain since the 1950s (two or three generations).

[ edit ] Racism In a statement of the party's policies and intentions, Griffin repeatedly emphasised that the party is " not racist ," while describing Britain as a "fundamentally white nation," condemning miscegenation as unnatural, and reiterating that he considers non- Caucasians , or white citizens who choose non-whites as sexual or marriage partners, are unsuitable for party membership. He stated that, once the BNP has removed the majority of immigrant groups from the country, "[t]hose non-Europeans who stay will have British passports and will be protected by our laws, but they will be regarded as permanent guests, and not as native English, Scots, Welsh or Irish, because such status springs from blood and not from printers’ ink." [101] Griffin claims to be opposed to racism, describing the Ku Klux Klan as "a vile organisation" despite meeting with its Grand Dragon. He also claims to be "the most loathed man in Britain in the eyes of the Nazis ," saying that they see him as "a sell-out." Clearly he hasn't read his article on Metapedia .

Anti-Semitism has also been a significant aspect of BNP ideology, and BNP leaders have made several statements of Holocaust denial . On Question Time, Nick Griffin was challenged on it but refused to comment on why he changed his views or why he originally denied it, muttering something about it being illegal and free speech or something, even after Justice Secretary Jack Straw pointed out that he could not, and would not be prosecuted for it (Holocaust denial is not a crime in the UK, as it is some European countries ). However, in recent years the party has decided that its major enemy is — you guessed it — Islam . A BNP statement during 2006 asserted that "[t]he real enemies of the British people are home grown Anglo-Saxon Celtic liberal-leftists who seek to destroy the family as the building blocks of society and impose multiculturalism on a reluctant indigenous population and the Crescent Horde - the endless wave of Islamics who are flocking to our shores to bring our island nations into the embrace of their barbaric desert religion ." [102] Presumably they would enjoy the deep family values of Islam if that ever actually happened.

The BNP's attempts to disguise its racialist roots and pose itself as a legitimate political force are hardly convincing, especially as many of its prominent members have past convictions for violent offences and hate crimes . Its attempts to sound the alarm about the supposed Islamic "threat to all of us" also comes off as hollow in the wake of this quote from Mr. Griffin, which manages to be both bigoted and unprincipled: “”We bang on about Islam. Why? Because to the ordinary public out there it's the thing they can understand . It's the thing the newspaper editors sell newspapers with. If we were to attack some other ethnic group — some people say we should attack the Jews... But... we've got to get to power. And if that was an issue we chose to bang on about when the press don't talk about it... the public would just think we were barking mad. They'd just think oh, you're attacking Jews just because you want to attack Jews. You're attacking this group of powerful Zionists just because you want to take poor Manny Cohen the tailor and shove him in a gas chamber . That's what the public would think. It wouldn't get us anywhere other than stepping backwards.

It would lock us in a little box; the public would think 'extremist crank lunatics, nothing to do with me.' And we wouldn't get power." [103] Predictably, their law and order policies follow the "hang um and flog um" line. But they mean it literally. They would "re-introduce corporal punishment for petty criminals and vandals" [104] and "Restore capital punishment for paedophiles , terrorists and murderers as an option for judges in cases where their guilt is proven beyond dispute." [105] [ edit ] Splinters As with its predecessor the National Front, the BNP has spawned a good number of splinter groups. Generally, these were founded by people loyal to far-right politics but critical of Nick Griffin's leadership. Examples include the British "Freedom" Party , the British "Democratic" Party, Britain First and Patria . [ edit ] People associated with the BNP Man with the knickers on his head: Britain First leader, Paul Golding, former BNP activist (here he was still in the National Front ). The man in the middle of the photo appears to be Mark Collett.

[ edit ] Sources Akkerman, T., De Lange, S. L., Rooduijn, M. (2016). "Inclusion and mainstreaming?" in: Akkerman, T (ed.) Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe: Into the Mainstream?. Routledge. Copsey, N. (1996). "Contemporary Fascism in the Local Arena: The British National Party and Rights for Whites" in: Cronin, M. (ed.) The Failure of British Fascism. Macmillan: 118-140. Copsey, N. (2004). Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy. Palgrave Macmillan. Copsey, N. (2007). "Changing Course or Changing Clothes? Reflections on the Ideological Evolution of the British National Party, 1999–2006". Patterns of Prejudice. 41(1): 61-82. [3] Ford, R., Goodwin, M. (2010).

"Angry White Men: Individual and Contextual Predictors of Support for the British National Party". Political Studies. 58(1): 1-25. Goodwin, M. (2011). New British Fascism: Rise of the British National Party. Routledge. Goodwin, M., Ford, R. (2014). Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain. Routledge. Kessel, S. V. (2015). Populist Parties in Europe: Agents of Discontent?. Palgrave Macmillan. Tetteh, E. (2009). "Electoral performance of the British National Party in the UK". House of Commons Library. [4] Wilks-Heeg, St. (2009). "The Canary in a Coalmine? Explaining the Emergence of the British National Party in English Local Politics. Parliamentary Affairs. 62(3): 377-398. Willis, J. R. (2011).

Explaining the support of the British National Party in the 1999, 2004 and 2009 European Parliament Elections. Florida State University. M.A. Thesis. Political parties of the United Kingdom - RationalWiki Political parties of the United Kingdom From RationalWiki v - t - e Ten political parties are represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom , with a further two represented in the European Parliament and quite a few more with representation at a local level. As elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom are operated under a ' first past the post system' and elections to the Parliament of the European Union are operated under a proportional representation system, minor parties who have support spread throughout the country, but not enough concentrated support to win an entire constituency, can often find representation in the EU. For this reason, the United Kingdom Independence Party and the British National Party have MEPs but no MPs. There are four legislative bodies in the United Kingdom alongside the European Parliament which are made up of officials elected by residents of the United Kingdom who hold citizenship to the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland , or any Commonwealth nation.

The House of Commons, located in London, England , is the primary governing body in the United Kingdom responsible for creating and upholding national law, except for areas devolved to the constituent nations, and with the power to alter and repeal those brought into effect by its devolved counterparts. Elections to the House of Commons take place once every five years under a first-past-the-post system. Members of the House of Lords are unelected; rather, they are made Lords and Ladies for their services, or for otherwise being incredibly rich. Members of the Scottish Parliament , the National Assembly for Wales , and the Northern Ireland Assembly can be voted for by the aforementioned citizens living within jurisdiction of the legislative body concerned, each devolved body using a variation of the proportional representation system. Elections to the devolved Parliament and Assemblies take place once every four years. Elections to the European Parliament take place once every five years by proportional representation.

Contents Members of the European Parliament: 20 Members of the House of Lords: 228 Scottish Parliament: 15 Welsh Assembly: 14 The Conservative Party , officially the "Conservative & Unionist Party", and commonly known as "The Tory Party" or "the Tories" is one of the two largest political parties in the United Kingdom. Since World War Two, every Prime Minister has come from the Conservative Party or the Labour Party. Generally standing for lower taxation, a smaller state and lower welfare, the Conservative Party is the traditional right-wing party in the UK. Given that the Conservative Party vehemently opposed almost all of Blair's early manifesto promises and that the party leadership has now accepted many of them (minimum wage, Bank of England independence, civil partnerships, various anti-discrimination laws), the party can be quite fractured at times, with a significant minority being very much opposed to membership of the European Union . Notable figures include Winston Churchill , Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron . Members of the European Parliament: 20 Members of the House of Lords: 212 Scottish Parliament: 38 Welsh Assembly: 30 The Labour Party is the other main party.

Founded as a socialist party, the Labour Party had a huge role in the creation of the Welfare State and the National Health Service . After nearly two decades of Conservative rule, the Labour Party moved much closer to the centre, stepping away from its socialist roots and becoming a "big tent" centrist party . This step clearly made them an electable opposition, as they won in a massive landslide in 1997, but it's now somewhat unclear exactly what they stand for other than "we're nicer and less right-wing than those bastard Tories". New leader Jeremy Corbyn , while restoring self-belief among the party faithful, appears less popular among the general public - and they're the ones who decide elections. Notable Labour figures include Clement Attlee, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and a wealth of celebrity supporters. Members of the European Parliament: 1 Members of the House of Lords: 101 Scottish Parliament: 5 Welsh Assembly: 5 The Liberal Democrats were traditionally the third party in the United Kingdom but severely reduced their MPs and popular vote in the 2015 General Election. Their predecessors the Liberal Party declined severely before World War Two as the Labour Party took over as the main left-wing party.

The Liberals were not a strong serious force in British politics, but they merged with the Social Democrat Party (a splinter group of the Labour Party) in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats were hugely popular among students and have often been the go-to 'protest vote' of the middle classes. Advocating progressive taxation, nuclear disarmament and electoral reform, the Liberal Democrats saw a large surge in support as they were the only major party to seriously oppose the Iraq War. In a weird twist, they formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party in 2010, with the idea of 'taking the edge' off the Tory spending cuts and making them fairer for the poor. Their complete failure to do this severely damaged their support among students, public sector workers, all those affected by the budget cuts; they lost them a lot of support at local government level, losing them control of many local councils. in the 2015 election they lost nearly two-thirds of their support, and lost nearly 50 MPs. Notable figures include Nick Clegg , Charles Kennedy (the UK's favourite alcoholic), Vince Cable, and former leader Paddy Ashdown, who effectively ran Bosnia for a four year period.

Members of the European Parliament: 2 Members of the House of Lords: 1 The Green Party are a left-wing party who advocate environmentalism, pacifism, eco-socialism and no-growth economics. They also take a very liberal approach to gay rights, electoral reform, drug policy, animal rights and human rights. Their roots as a political party go back to various ecological campaign groups from the 1970s. From the 1990s onwards they began to achieve some limited electoral success at local government elections in a handful of the UK's more progressive cities (Oxford, Norwich, Brighton), and MEP seats in European elections. Tightening themselves up somewhat (including booting out loonies like David Icke , and decided at last to have a party leader, rather than simply a governing committee), they finally secured their first first seat in the House of Commons in the general election of 2010, when party leader Caroline Lucas took Brighton Pavillion. This was followed by the Greens forming a minority administration running Brighton & Hove City Council in 2011. Lucas stood down as leader in 2012, in an attempt to boost the profile of other colleagues.

The party is notably more eurosceptic than almost all left-wing parties, although they wish to stay in a reformed Europe. [1] [ edit ] Really minor parties [ edit ] British National Party The British National Party is the product of years of in-fighting, mergers and hissy fits from extreme-right 'politicians' and racists from the United Kingdom (including the National Front ). Holding a few dozens seats in local government (mainly in areas of racial tension) and two seats in the European Parliament, the BNP are not a major force in British politics, but get a lot of negative attention and condemnation as the only notable extreme-right group in the UK. Advocating an end to international aid and immigration, as well as deportation for recent immigrants, the party has had more than its fair share of controversies. Sickeningly, the party tries to claim Winston Churchill as their own. The judiciary recently ruled that their 'whites-only' membership policies are illegal.

Notable figures include current leader Nick Griffin, whose leadership led them to short-lived national prominence, and is now leading disgruntled members to split off into tiny parties of their own, and party founder the late John Tyndall , an unabashed neo-Nazi who was replaced by Griffin in 1999. The future of the BNP includes the words "circling" and "drain." As is typical with such organisations, the BNP is in danger of becoming eclipsed by splitters, in this case in British Freedom and the English Defence League . They chiefly found themselves eclipsed by the rise of the more moderate Nationalist party, the UK Independence Party . [ edit ] Liberal Party The Liberal Party was formed in 1989 by a group of individuals within the original Liberal Party who disagreed with the merger with the Social Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democrats. They claim to be the legal continuation of the old Liberal Party, resulting in them being jokingly referred to as the Continuity Liberal Party. They have about two dozen local government councillors, and occasionally beat the LibDems in Parliamentary elections in Liverpool.

[ edit ] Socialist Labour Party Founded by veteran trade unionist Arthur Scargill, this lot rejected New Labour 's moderation in favour of old-school policies. The SLP scores 1-2% of the vote in places where it stands (chiefly urban areas). [ edit ] Official Monster Raving Loony Party The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) are the most prominent joke party in UK politics. The current party leader is Alan "Howling Laude" Hope. They are the only party to have put forward a concrete global warming reduction strategy, namely the installation of air conditioning units onto the outside of buildings in order to lower the atmospheric temperature. Their idea of passports for pets managed to become law, somehow. [ edit ] National Front The ancestor of the BNP, the National Front was once the fourth largest political party in the country, with members elected to a few town councils in the late 1970s. It declined considerably with the rise of the BNP (same policies but dressed in suits and ties instead of the hooligan's favourite "bovver " gear).

[ edit ] Veritas Robert Kilroy-Silk, former Labour Party shadow minister turned daytime TV host and tanning advocate, stood under the UKIP banner then decided he didn't really like UKIP, he decided to set up a party called "Veritas" ( Latin for truth). It did even worse, although due to defectors from UKIP, it did have some seats in Brussels and in the London Assembly. After standing zero candidates in the 2010 general election, they are now mostly forgotten (sadly, thanks to reality TV show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, Kilroy-Silk has not been forgotten along with them). [ edit ] National Health Action Party National Health Action Party (formerly Heath Concern) began as a fringe party with the single issue of reopening their local hospital's casualty unit. Amazingly their candidate, a local doctor , was elected to Parliament in 2001, and kept his seat until 2010. Although still centred on their Kidderminster heartland, their gain of a council seat in a neighbouring county, and having a candidate in the Eastleigh by-election a hundred miles away, suggests this tiny party has ambition.

[ edit ] Independent Network The Independent Network was created in 2005 to support and advise independent candidates. It is headed by Martin Bell , a former independent MP. It doesn't have policies (although it won't support anyone with discriminatory views), and so probably doesn't really count as a political party. [ edit ] We Demand a Referendum A single-issue party whose goal is to force a referendum on the UK's membership in the EU. Founded by MEP Nikki Sinclaire in 2012, after she was expelled from UKIP for refusing to work with other far-right parties in the EFD group. [ edit ] Referendum Party Another anti-EU party, dating back to the 1990s, when it was formed by eccentric businessman James Goldsmith . Its celebrity supporters included former That's Life! presenter Gavin Campbell. After winning 0 seats in the 1997 General Election, it changed into a pressure group under James's wife Annabel. Members of the European Parliament: 2 Scottish Parliament: 64 The Scottish National Party is a centre-left party who advocate Scotland's independence and full membership of the European Union.

They have 69 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, making them the first majority government in Scottish Parliament's history (starting 1999). They are often more left-wing than the Labour Party, and advocate, progressive taxation, free higher education and are massive supporters of the National Health Service. As part of seeking to improve public health in Scotland by limiting alcohol consumption, the SNP has also pushed for minimum pricing for alcohol [2] and some limitations on availability (e.g. at football [3] stadiums [4] ). The party is traditionally very anti-war, although it have recently voted to maintain NATO membership. Notable figures include Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, respectively the former and current First Minister of Scotland. They won a load of seats in Scotland formerly held by Labour in the 2015 election. [5] [ edit ] Scottish Green Party Scottish Parliament: 2 Although working closely with the other Green Parties in the United Kingdom, the Scottish Green Party is fully independent and also wants an independent Scotland. The party previously held 7 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and came very close to gaining a seat in the European Parliament.

Generally a very uncontroversial party, their co-leader is the first openly bisexual party leader in the UK. [ edit ] Scottish Socialist Party Local government: 1 Until recently was led by Tommy Sheridan who was later jailed for lying to court about his visits to swingers clubs and participating in other sexually interesting activities, the SSP is what it says on the tin. [ edit ] Margo McDonald (Independent) [ edit ] Northern Irish parties Since the partitioning of Ireland and creation of Northern Ireland in 1922, Northern Irish politics has remained doggedly arranged on sectarian lines, with one set of parties being Unionist (and overwhelmingly Protestant), favouring continuation of the Union of Northern Ireland with Great Britain, and the other being Nationalist (and overwhelmingly Catholic) and campaigning for Northern Ireland to leave the UK and join with the Republic of Ireland in a 'United Ireland'. The mainstream British political parties have generally declined to field candidates in Northern Ireland. On the basis of their standing on a left wing/right wing axis, the Labour party regard the nominally socialist SDLP as their counterpart, the Conservatives likewise with the Ulster Unionist party, with the Liberals/LibDems paired against the Alliance party.

This rather glosses over the Northern Irish parties' sectarian nature, although since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement the parties have been obliged to broaden their scope somewhat from their single-issue sectarian agendas. [ edit ] Democratic Unionist Party Members of the European Parliament: 1 Northern Irish Assembly: 38 The Democratic Unionist Party (or DUP) was founded in the 1970s, by Rev Ian Paisley . It was a split from the mainstream Unionist party. The iconoclastic Paisley had already formed his own church denomination, the Free Presbyterian Church, as a split from the Presbyterians. Like his church, the DUP tended to cater for the more fundamentalist, working class flavour of protestant bigot unionist. However following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the DUP grew to become larger than the Ulster Unionist Party it had split from. It is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland assembly and the fourth largest in the United Kingdom Parliament. Contrary to Sinn Féin on not only constitutional matters, the DUP is viewed as a socially conservative right wing party, with strong links to Protestant churches.

It is softly eurosceptic, has had several prolific members come out against homosexuality, and, most uncommonly in the United Kingdom, has also advocated the promotion of creationism in Northern Irish classrooms. Notable figures include founder Ian Paisley , current leader Peter Robinson, and his wife Iris Robinson . Iris was enveloped in a scandal in 2011 when it transpired she had been embroiled in a sexual relationship with a teenage orphan, whom she had known since he was nine, his late father being a family friend who had entrusted the boy to her care. She had also loaned five-figure sums of money to this lover, in business deals of dubious proprietary. Meanwhile she had been outspoken in her condemnation of homosexuality, referring her gay constituents for psychiatric treatment, and declaring in a House of Commons select committee that sodomy was a worse crime than paedophilia. Unsurprisingly, she has seen be forced to resign her Westminster seat and is said to be currently undergoing psychiatric care. DUP "environment" minister Sammy Wilson is a trenchant climate denialist .

Members of Parliament: 4 (abstentionist) Members of the European Parliament: 1 Northern Irish Assembly: 29 Sinn Féin (Irish for "we ourselves") is the largest Irish nationalist party in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland , advocating the secession of Northern Ireland from the Union and its unification with the Irish Republic . Its political positioning and ideology is considered to be left-wing nationalist, advocating varying forms of welfare and the establishment of an Irish equivalent to the British National Health Service . Sinn Féin is the "political wing" of the Provisional IRA (the "provos"), with several SF members holding convictions for IRA membership and terrorist offences. Despite Irish nationalism typically being closely associated with Roman Catholicism , the party has no specific links to the Catholic church in Ireland, as officially the church takes a rather dim view of murder, racketeering and so forth. Notable figures include current party president Gerry Adams, and Martin McGuinness, a candidate for the 2011 Irish presidential election.

Sinn Féin operates a policy of 'abstentionism' regarding the UK parliament in Westminster: it contests parliamentary seats in Northern Ireland, but if a candidate wins, they refuse to take their seat in the House of Commons, as they will not swear the necessary oath of allegience to the British Crown . This does not stop them, however, from claiming parliamentary expenses, including having an office provided for their use in Westminster. This of course leaves their constituents without representation in the UK parliament, and costs them the chance to help defeat the government in parliamentary votes. [ edit ] Ulster Unionist Party Peers of the House of Lords: 2 Members of the European Parliament: 1 Northern Irish Assembly: 13 Formerly the largest unionist party in Northern Ireland, the UUP were overtaken by their erstwhile splitters the DUP in 2003, and devastated in the 2005 election. They have been in steady decline ever since. They are seen as more moderate than the DUP. However, they would not be considered 'real unionists' by quite a large portion of DUP voters.

Much of this perception stems from the party's support for the Good Friday Agreement, which the DUP opposed to at the time, seeing it as a concession to Irish republican terrorism. The pre-split Unionist party was the dominant instrument of government in Northern Ireland following the partition of the island of Ireland in 1922. Although Catholic voters constituted well over 40% of the Northern Ireland electorate, Unionists used gerrymandering tactics to ensure they held the overwhelming number of seats in the Northern Irish parliament in Stormont. This, combined with institutionalised state discrimination against Catholics in housing, jobs and other areas let to increasing civil unrest as the decades went by, culminating in the eruption of 'The Troubles' in 1968. Unionist rule of Northern Ireland was suspended by the UK Government in 1972, who imposed direct rule from Westminster. A notable defector to the Ulster Unionist party was Enoch Powell , who had been expelled from the UK Conservative party in 1968 over his notorious "Rivers of Blood" speech against immigration. Powell held a Westminster seat in South Down for the UUP until his death.

[ edit ] Social Democratic and Labour Party Members of Parliament: 3 Northern Irish Assembly: 14 The SDLP were formerly the largest Irish nationalist party in Northern Ireland and, along with the UUP, were instrumental in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. They were overtaken by Sinn Féin in the 2003 Assembly Election, though they had a brief stint as the once again second largest party following the devastation of the UUP in the 2005 election and continued abstentionism by Sinn Féin. Nevertheless, they have been declining since then and continually place fourth in the Assembly Elections. [ edit ] Alliance Party Northern Irish Assembly: 8 Formerly considered a party of moderate unionism, the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland have come to focus on nonsectarianism and pragmatic liberal policies, often focusing on concerns of social equality and the environment. They have become a significant political force in the Belfast area and have been steadily rising. They have had a significant effect on the diminishing support for the UUP in Belfast.

[ edit ] The Workers Party & the Irish Republic Socialist Party (ISRP) In a series of splits which will strike a resonance with those familiar with Monty Python's Life of Brian, the "Provisional" IRA split from the Irish Republican Army in 1968, in protest at the latter's lack of interest in murdering people. The dormant rump of the Irish Republican Army then became known as the "Official" IRA. The Workers Party arose as the "political wing" of the Official IRA, a counterpart to Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Provisional IRA. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) were a further set of (particularly bloodthirsty) paramilitary splitters in the 1970s, and they in their turn had their own obligatory "political wing", the IRSP. Both the IRSP and Worker's Party tended to devote themselves to radical left-wing ideologies, along the lines of neo-Leninism or neo-Trotskyism. Neither of them ever achieved any degree of electoral success besides a handful of councillors in local government. With the coming of the 21st century, they appear to have largely shrivelled up and died.

In any case, the INLA's numbers diminished greatly due to a murderous feud, which only ended when the last remaining member realised that to continue the killing would be suicide. A new breed of post-Good Friday Agreement dissident splitters have taken to the stage instead, including the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA, with their own inevitable political wings such as the '32 County Sovereignty Committee', whose mission is to non-consensually liberate the people of Ireland from their bipartisan decision not to murder each other, by murdering them. [ edit ] English Democrats The English Democrats is an English federalist party which primarily campaigns for the formation of an English parliament with powers at least equal to those of Scotland's government and considers its self England's answer to Wales' Plaid Cymru and Scotland's Scottish National Party. The English Democrats support independence from the European Union though would call a referendum to determine England's position on it. They advocate a tougher policy on immigration, supporting a points-based system for entry to the country. The English Democrats declare themselves totally opposed to racism, with no connection to the British National Party, simply campaigning for English national identity - although some ex-BNP members have moved to the English Democrats.

Local government: 4 Mebyon Kernow (Cornish for "Sons of Cornwall") is a small party based in Cornwall , which seeks a return to that county's status as a distinct legal entity; they also seek various protections for, and recognition of, the Cornish language. On this basis they would probably not like to be called an English party. Mebyon kernow have made a habit of coming last in general elections, even the Cornish Democrats, who are are basically a "one man and a website" set up, have no party machine, no access to funds, no publicity, in the 2010 general election they still managed to beat MK in the one seat they stood in. [1] [ edit ] Former parties The UK's political landscape is littered with the wreckage of former parties, some of which left a mark, or even a stain, on history. The Chartists were a 19th century party who campaigned for the right of the working class to vote. They were most powerful in the industrial cities, and they rioted in Wales , but had faded away long before the universal franchise came into being.

Oswald Mosley 's British Union of Fascists was a serious menace in the 1930s, so much so that the government saw fit to ban it, and imprison Mosley, during World War II . Mosley attempted to return to politics after the war, capitalising on anti-immigrant feeling, but was a spent force. However he remained a shadowy influence on the far right until his death in 1980. In 1981 the Labour Party , defeated at the previous election, decided to wallow in a left-wing version of Tea Party -style ideological orthodoxy. This caused a group of moderates led by the former foreign secretary David Owen to split off and form the Social Democrats . They then formed an electoral pact with the Liberals for the elections of 1983 and 1987. The main effect of this was to undermine an already unpopular Labour, giving the Tories a free hand to sell off Britain's industrial base to the highest bidder. Cheers, guys. In the end the SDP fizzled out after internecine squabbling with the liberals doomed their electoral chances.

In 2013 Nigel Farage described Tony Blair as "an SDP Prime Minister." [6] The Respect Party was a socialist party whose driving force was George Galloway . The party de-registered in 2016 after 12 years of an existence that didn't go beyond being Galloway's personal soapbox. [7]

Question: Who became leader of the British National Party in 1999?
Answer: Nick Griffin