[6] The BLP was eager to accelerate the process of integration, in part because it was running out of funds and hoped that the LEL could help to financially sustain it.
[18] Chesterton emphasised the idea that the NF should be an elite movement, something perceived as a rebuke to many ex-BNP members, who began calling him "the Schoolmaster".
[17] The majority of the BNP had hoped and expected that Tyndall and his GBM would join them in the NF,[20] and on taking power of the party they called for this to happen.
[21] Tyndall had written a book titled Six Principles of British Nationalism in which he had espoused more moderate positions than those he previously promoted; he believed that this was the most important factor in Chesterton changing his mind on GBM membership.
[22] Chesterton then publicly welcomed Tyndall and the GBM as members,[23] contravening his earlier commitment to keeping those associated with Neo-Nazism away from the NF.
[25] In January 1968 the Liverpool-based British Aid for the Repatriation of Immigrants joined the NF, to be followed later that year by another Liverpudlian group, the People's Progressive Party.
[33] In March 1968, the NF stood in the Acton by-election, securing 5.5% of the vote, likely drawing upon concerns regarding the recent arrival of Kenyan Asians into Britain.
[45] The party had faced militant left opposition, including a lorry that was driven into their Tulse Hill building in 1969,[46] and to counter this the NF installed a spy in the London anti-fascist movement.
[29] O'Brien and his supporters soon grew frustrated with Tyndall and Walker's continuing friendship with German Neo-Nazi groups and their links with the Northern League.
[59] In 1972, the Ugandan Asians were expelled from Uganda by its president, Idi Amin, with the British government offering these refugees sanctuary in the UK.
[60] As well as opposing this new wave of immigration and exploiting the hostility toward Prime Minister Edward Heath that it had generated, they also used this issue to argue that black Africans were unfit to govern themselves and had been better off under European colonial rule.
[69] The British Left recognised the threat that this posed and fought back by publicising the Neo-Nazi past of many of the NF's senior members.
[70] In the 1973 West Bromwich by-election the party fielded Webster as its candidate and gained 16% of the vote; the NF had passed the 10% threshold and had its electoral deposit returned for the first time.
[72] It also stood six candidates for that year's Greater London Council election, gaining an average vote of 6.3%;[73] this rose to 11.4% in Feltham and Heston.
[72] In 1973, the NF agreed that when the next general election was called, they would field a minimum of fifty candidates, thus ensuring that they would be granted a free party political broadcast.
[81] "Paki-bashing", a form of racist violence against Pakistanis and other South Asians, peaked during the 1970s–1980s, with many of the attackers often being members or supporters of the National Front.
[85] The Populist faction was angry that the NF Directorate was dominated by former members of the BNP and GBM, claiming that this was not representative of the wider movement.
[93] In response, NF members disrupted the April 1975 NRC meeting at Conway Hall, storming the platform and having to be removed by police.
[98] Read, Richard Lawson, and Carl Lane then held a private meeting of the executive committee, unanimously voting to suspend Tyndall and nine of his supporters on the directorate.
[101] In December 1975, Read, Painter, Lawson, and Brown then split from the NF to form their own rival organisation, the National Party (NP).
Encouraged by Webster and new confidante Richard Verrall, in the mid-1970s Tyndall returned to his openly hardline approach of promoting biological racist and antisemitic ideas.
[121] There developed a great rivalry between the two groups,[123] and as the NF's new leadership moved it away from the Tyndellite approach, Tyndall realised that he may never have the opportunity to regain his position within it.
[126] The Strasserites described themselves as "radical, youthful and successful", contrasting their approach with the "out-dated conservative policies" of their opponents, whom they claimed wanted the NF to be a "reactionary anti-immigrant pressure group".
[129] In contrast to the Strasserite NF's increased centralisation as a response to perceived state repression, the Flag Group gave autonomy to its branches, seeking to focus upon local issues.
[130] In their publications they began promoting positive articles about black nationalism, claiming that they both had the common goal of global racial separatism.
[131] In issue 99 of National Front News, the slogan "Fight Racism" was prominently featured, resulting in the party's Manchester branch refusing to distribute it.
[132] In March 1990 the Official National Front was then disbanded by its leaders, Patrick Harrington, Graham Williamson, and David Kerr, who instead established a new group, the Third Way.
[132] Following the Lansdowne Road football riot of 1995, which was caused by English far-right hooligans, the NF's Chairman Ian Anderson reformed the party as the National Democrats.
[139] As the EDL declined in the following years, the NF collaborated with some of the street-based far-right protest groups that had split from it, like the North West Infidels and South East Alliance.
[144] In October, he and his girlfriend attracted press attention for posing for photographs with individuals dressed in Ku Klux Klan uniforms in Newtownards, Northern Ireland.