Far-right politics in the United Kingdom
Far-right politics are a recurring phenomenon in the United Kingdom since the early 20th century, with the formation of Nazi, fascist, antisemitic, and Islamophobic movements.
[1][2] It went on to acquire more explicitly racial connotations, being dominated in the 1960s and 1970s by self-proclaimed white nationalist organisations that opposed non-white and Asian immigration.
Since the 1980s, the term has mainly been used to describe those groups, such as the English Defence League, who express the wish to preserve what they perceive to be British culture, and those who campaign against the presence of non-indigenous ethnic minorities.
The BNP have had a number of local councillors in some inner-city areas of East London, and towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire, such as Burnley and Keighley.
These groups tended to present a low risk to national security but in recent years multiple attacks have been carried out by people who hold such views.
[8] During the 1950s and 60s, the landscape of ERW groups continued to evolve with the emergence of organisations such as the League of Empire Loyalists (LEL) and the National Front (NF).
The rise of ERW ideologies during this period can be attributed, in part, to the dismantling of the British Empire, due to a sense of national decline.
Election results remained strong in a few working class urban areas, with a number of local council seats won, but the party never came anywhere near winning representation in parliament.
Throughout its active years, the NF were involved in several violent incidences, notably the 1974 Red Lion Square disorders,[15] over the amnesty of illegal immigrants and the 1977 ‘Battle of Lewisham', which aimed to intimidate local minority residents.
[16] However, by the late 90s, its popularity began to decline following the emergence of the [British National Party] (BNP), receiving just 2,716 votes in the 1997 General Election.
[17] The smaller far right groups maintained anti-immigration policies, but there was a move towards a more inclusionist vision of the UK, and a focus on opposing what became the European Union.
However, with Thatcher in her prime and Tyndall's reputation of a 'brutal, street fighting background' and his admiration for Hitler and the Nazis prevented the party from gaining any respectability.
The National Front continued to decline, whilst Nick Griffin and the BNP grew in popularity and was one of the most successful and fastest-growing far-right parties in the twenty-first century.
The BNP has been essentially inactive since 2019, and has not put forward a single candidate in any elections since 2019, with the only evidence of any activity being the occasional post on its website or Twitter account.
The anti-Islamist group, the English Defence League, oversaw early "rapid and unprecedented" growth,[24] appealing to nationalist sentiments on a cultural rather than explicitly racial basis.
[28][29] UKIP and the EDL benefited over this period from a rightward shift in the electorate, while former far-right parties such as the BNP and National Front became fringe groups declined.
[24] Additionally, It attracted attention by taking direct action such as protests outside homes of alleged Islamists, and what it describes as "Christian patrols" and "invasions" of British mosques,[37][38] and has been noted for its online activism.
[47] And in 2022 the BDP experienced a sharp increase in membership, with several nationalist local councillors and prominent far-right activists like Brian Parker and Derek Beackon joining the party.
[50][51][52] Founded in 2013 by Christopher Lythgoe, National Action is a terrorist organisation and the first extreme right-wing group to be banned by the UK government since World War II.
[60] Jack Renshaw, a neo-Nazi from Lancashire, was charged with the attempted murder of Labour MP Rosie Cooper, and also subsequently jailed for life.
[62][63][64] Unlike most far-right parties that came before them, For Britain were zionist, opposed to antisemitism, and held more moderate views on social issues like LGBT rights.
For Britain had some limited success in local council elections, but failed to make any significant breakthroughs in the parliamentary by-elections they contested.
[70] In November 2018 three people, Adam Thomas, Claudia Patatas and Daniel Bogunovic, were convicted of being members of the proscribed terrorist organisation, National Action, after a seven-week trial at the Crown Court in Birmingham.
[71][72] From 2018 to 2019, under the leadership of Gerard Batten, UKIP was widely described as moving into far-right territory, at which point many longstanding members – including former leaders Nigel Farage and Paul Nuttall – left.
As the new permanent leader, Batten focused the party more on opposing Islam and sought closer relations with the far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, otherwise Tommy Robinson, and his followers.
Since 2019 the former director of publicity of the BNP, neo-Nazi[74] and antisemitic conspiracy theorist[75][76] Mark Collett has led a new far-right party called Patriotic Alternative.
[77] In February 2023, fifteen people were arrested following violent clashes between police and far-right activists who were protesting outside a Merseyside hotel housing asylum seekers.
[22] The Terrorism Act 2000 states that terrorism is "… the use or threat of action… designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public… and is made to advance political, religious, racial, or ideological cause…" This act must "… involve serious violence against a person, damage to property, endangers life, creates a risk to health, and is designed to interfere with an electronic system.
"[110] In recent years, The CONTEST plan highlights that there is a "growing threat" from ERW terrorism and that these groups intend to "exploit any anxieties around globalisation, conflict and migration," so it aims to prevent those who held such views from becoming more radical.
However, as this threat has developed, the government have consistently echoed the need for countering far-right extremism, including in recent weeks by prime minister Rishi Sunak.
