The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, British fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and is led by Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK government. The party was founded in 1982, and reached its greatest level of success in the 2000s, when it had over fifty seats in local government, one seat on the London Assembly, and two Members of the European Parliament.
The UK Independence Party is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of parliament and was the largest party representing the UK in the European Parliament. UKIP's visibility and success was chiefly associated with two-time leader Nigel Farage; since his second departure in 2016, the party has seen a steep decline in support and eleven different leaders, the most recent being Lois Perry since May 2024.
Alan Sked is a British Eurosceptic academic. He founded the Anti-Federalist League and its successor the UK Independence Party (UKIP). He is Professor Emeritus of International History at the London School of Economics and has stood as a candidate in several parliamentary elections.
Batley and Spen is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The current MP is Kim Leadbeater, a Labour politician, elected in a 2021 by-election by a 323-vote margin. The seat has returned Labour MPs since the 1997 general election.
Mark Adrian Collett is a British neo-Nazi political activist. He was formerly chairman of the Young BNP, the youth division of the British National Party (BNP), and was director of publicity for the party.
Far-right politics in the United Kingdom is a recurring phenomenon in the United Kingdom since the early 20th century, with the formation of Nazi, fascist and antisemitic movements. One of the earliest examples of Fascism in the UK can be found as early as 1923 with the formation of British Fascisti by Rotha Lintorn-Orman. 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. The idea stems from belief of white supremacy, the belief that white people are superior to all other races and should therefore dominate society. Examples of such groups in the UK are the National Front (NF), the British Movement (BM) and British National Party (BNP), or the British Union of Fascists (BUF). 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.
Jonathan William Arnott is a British politician and former schoolteacher. After the 2014 European Parliament election, he served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North East England region. Originally sitting as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) representative, he resigned from the party on 19 January 2018 to sit as an independent until designating as Brexit Party on 17 April 2019.
Hope not Hate is an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom which campaigns against racism and fascism. It has also mounted campaigns against Islamic extremism and antisemitism. It is self-described as a "non-partisan, non-sectarian organisation." The group was founded in 2004 by Nick Lowles, a former editor of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight. It is backed by various politicians and celebrities, and it has also been backed by several trade unions.
Britain First is a far-right, British fascist and neo-fascist political party and hate group formed in 2011 by former members of the British National Party (BNP). The group was founded by Jim Dowson, an anti-abortion and far-right campaigner. The organisation's co-leaders are former BNP councillor Paul Golding and Ashlea Simon. Jayda Fransen formerly served as its deputy leader.
Paul Martin Laurence Weston is a British far-right politician and blogger.
Liberty Great Britain or Liberty GB was a minor far-right British nationalist political party founded and led by Paul Weston that described itself as "counter-jihad".
National Action was a British right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi terrorist organisation based in Warrington. Founded in 2013, the group is secretive, and has rules to prevent members from talking about it openly. It has been a proscribed organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000 since 16 December 2016, the first far-right group to be proscribed since the Second World War. In March 2017, an undercover investigation by ITV found that its members were still meeting in secret. It is believed that after its proscription, National Action organised itself in a similar way to the also-banned Salafi jihadist Al-Muhajiroun network.
Helen Joanne Cox was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Batley and Spen from May 2015 until her murder in June 2016. She was a member of the Labour Party.
Henry David Bolton is a former British politician who was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 29 September 2017 to 17 February 2018. He served in the British Army, attaining the rank of lance corporal, and went on to reach the rank of captain following his transfer to the Territorial Army from the Regular Army. Bolton has also served as a police officer.
Anne Marie Dorothy Waters is a far-right politician and activist in the United Kingdom. She founded and led the anti-Islam party For Britain until its dissolution in 2022. She is also the director of Sharia Watch UK, an organisation launched in April 2014. In January 2016, Waters launched Pegida UK in conjunction with activist Tommy Robinson and far-right politician Paul Weston.
On 20 October 2016, a by-election was held in the UK parliamentary constituency of Batley and Spen. It was triggered by the murder of the incumbent member of parliament (MP), Jo Cox, on 16 June 2016. The Labour candidate, Tracy Brabin, won with 85.8% of the vote. Four parties with parliamentary representation did not enter candidates, out of respect for Cox. Nine candidates contested against Labour, and none reached the 5% threshold to keep their deposit.
On 16 June 2016, Jo Cox, a British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Batley and Spen, died after being shot and stabbed multiple times in Birstall, West Yorkshire. In November 2016, 53-year-old Thomas Alexander Mair was found guilty of her murder and other offences connected to the killing in an act of terrorism. The judge concluded that Mair wanted to advance white supremacy and exclusive nationalism most associated with Nazism and its modern forms. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.
Raheem J. Kassam is a British political activist, former editor-in-chief of Breitbart News London, and former chief adviser to former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage. He has been described as far-right and right-wing by several media publications. Kassam formerly ran in the party's November 2016 leadership election before dropping out of the race on 31 October 2016. He is the former global editor-in-chief of Human Events and most recently became the editor-in-chief of The National Pulse.
The 2017 UK Independence Party leadership election was called following the resignation of Paul Nuttall as leader of the UK Independence Party on 9 June 2017, following the poor performance of the party in the 2017 general election. Former party chairman Steve Crowther was chosen three days later to serve as interim leader.
The For Britain Movement was a minor far-right political party in the United Kingdom, founded by the anti-Islam and "counter-jihad" activist Anne Marie Waters after she was defeated in the 2017 UK Independence Party leadership election.
