List of British far-right groups (1945–present)
The far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, fascist-right and are terms used to discuss the position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics.
[1] Far right politics usually supremacism — a belief that superiority and inferiority is an innate reality between individuals and groups — and a complete rejection of the concept of social equality as a norm.
[4] Many of these parties stem from either the legacy of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, or the political views held by either John Tyndall, Andrew Fountain, Eddy Morrison, Ian Anderson, Colin Jordan and A.K.
[10] The radical right does not have a clear structure, but rather consists of overlapping subcultures with diverse styles of rhetoric, dress and symbolism whose cohesion comes from the use of alternative system of communications.
It was a small group of current or former members of the Conservative Party led by Arthur K. Chesterton, a former leading figure in the British Union of Fascists, who had served under Oswald Mosley.
[21] The BNP managed to secure an 8.1% share of the vote in Deptford in the 1960 London County Council (LCC) elections, a large result for a new party without name recognition.
The National Socialist Movement was formed on 20 April 1962, Adolf Hitler's birthday, by Colin Jordan, with John Tyndall as his deputy.
[24] The group disappeared in the mid-1980s following revelations from Ray Hill but returned in September 1983 and has continued to exist in some form to the present day.
The Racial Preservation Society (RPS) was a right-wing pressure group opposed to non-white immigration and in favour of white supremacy.
The group attracted local pockets of support but struggled to cope with the emergence of the National Front the following year and faded in the 1970s.
[26] The NF failed to make any headway at the 1979 general election, resulting in the group falling apart as various factions left to found the British Democratic Party, the Constitutional Movement and the New National Front.
Under Andrew Brons the remaining members were regrouped for a time but in 1986 the NF fell apart completely as two parties, the Official National Front and the Flag Group, emerged.
[28] The National Socialist Group, led by the Olliffe brothers and Dave Courtney, was a paramilitary organisation linked to the British Movement in the late 1960s.
The group, which was linked to the League of St. George, helped to organised the White Defence Associations, armed gangs of vigilantes active in areas of racial tension.
[44] The National Democratic Freedom Movement was a violent group led by Morrison, David Myatt and Joe Short of Column 88.
Subsequently, led by Nick Griffin the party achieved levels of political representation hitherto unseen by the far-right in Britain, including seats in the European Parliament in 2009.
The National Socialist Action Party was formed in 1982 by Tony Malski, who split from the British Movement, which was by that period in terminal decline.
[citation needed] The group had connections in France and these were exposed in 1984 by the Channel 4 documentary about Ray Hill, during which Malski was shown by a hidden camera claiming to have imported explosives.
Malski, who was dismissed by many on the far right in Britain as something of a Walter Mitty character, has occasionally surfaced at meetings, including speeches by David Irving, although the NSAP is defunct.
The party's last appearance in the public eye came in 1986 when member Graham Paton was convicted of sending propaganda and a concealed razor blade to an anti-apartheid activist.
[45] The UK Patriotic Front was a minor extreme right-wing party that contested some council seats in the urbanised parts Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.
[citation needed] The National Socialist Workers Initiative, active in the early 1980s, was a Neo-Nazi group which also drew on elements of Ecofascism.
The National Socialist Movement (NSM) was a British neo-Nazi group, best known in the UK for its association with David Copeland, the London nail-bomber, who was a member, and local unit leader for his area.
Its main leaders were initially Eddy Morrison and John G. Wood, both leading figures in the White Nationalist Party which it effectively replaced.
[60][61][62] Ian Anderson was the leader of the short-lived and allegedly far right Epping Community Action Group, which was registered with the Electoral Commission as a political party in April 2006.
[65][66] The group was proscribed in December 2016 after they celebrated the murder of Jo Cox MP by Thomas Mair, with comments including "Don't let this man's sacrifice go in vain."
[67][68] Britain First, a far-right group founded by Jim Dowson who had formerly worked a call centre for the BNP before leaving after allegedly groping a female employee.
[76] And in 2022 the BDP experienced a sharp increase in membership, with several nationalist local councillors and prominent far-right activists like Derek Beackon joining the party.
The British Hand started by a teenage boy recruiting fellow extremists on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
[citation needed] The Light is a self-published, monthly British far-right and conspiracy theory newspaper founded by Darren Scott Nesbitt.
