National Democrats (United Kingdom)

Last updated
National Democrats (UK)
AbbreviationND
Founded1995
Dissolved2011
Ideology British nationalism
Right-wing populism
Third Position
Euroscepticism
National conservatism
Political position Far-right
National Democrats logo National Democrats (UK) logo.jpg
National Democrats logo

The National Democrats (ND) was a British nationalist party in the United Kingdom (UK). The former party chairman, Ian Anderson, died on 2 February 2011, [1] and the party was de-registered with the Electoral Commission on 10 March 2011.

Contents

Formation

The party evolved out of the Flag Group wing of the British National Front (NF), which gained control of the NF during the early 1990s. Party leader Ian Anderson sought to change the name of the NF to the National Democrats. 72% of the membership voted for the change in a postal ballot; by changing the name it was hoped to avoid the connotations associated with the NF name. [2] However, the move was resisted by other NF members and so the National Democrats came into existence as a new party.

History

The party contested two parliamentary by-elections in 1996. In Hemsworth, Mike Cooper received 111 votes (0.5%) and, in South East Staffordshire, Sharron Edwards received 358 votes (0.8%). [3] Although the NDs never took part in regularly scheduled European elections, it did contest the Merseyside West by-election in which Simon Darby stood but only gained 718 votes (1.2%). [4]

In the 1997 general election, the party contested 21 seats and received a total of 10,829 votes, compared to 35,832 for its rivals in the British National Party (BNP), and 2,719 votes for the NF. The party's best result was in West Bromwich West, where Steven Edwards received 11.4% of the vote. However, this was not a normal constituency, since this was the constituency of then House Speaker Betty Boothroyd, which major parties by convention do not contest. The party was severely damaged immediately before the 1997 election when it was revealed by The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail that leading member Andy Carmichael was working for MI5. [5] Where the West Midlands had been a stronghold, it now began to fall apart, and in 1998, the local branch, which included leading ND activist Simon Darby, defected to the BNP, leaving only a small number of party loyalists behind. The party did not nominate candidates in the 2001 general election.

In the early 1990s, the National Front was left a legacy of almost one hundred thousand pounds by a party supporter. Following the 1995 name change to the National Democrats the legacy remained with the National Democrats under the control of Ian Anderson. The money was spent on the purchase of Britannia House the building doubled as party HQ and the site of Anderson's printing business. [6]

The National Democrats attempted to give the impression of attracting a mass membership. It never did; most people who left the NF joined the BNP instead, resulting in the legacy being used for election work and costly deposits, all of which were lost. The party printed a glossy monthly magazine called Vanguard that was edited by Blackburn-based Stephen Ebbs which lost money on every print and was subsidised by legacy cash. [6] [7] Publication of the former NF paper, The Flag, continued, now in support of the new party. [8]

Anti-paedophile campaign

In January 1998, Ian Anderson accompanied members of the anti-paedophile campaign People Power when they delivered a letter to Downing Street demanding tougher action against child abusers. [9] Also in attendance were other extreme right wingers, including Paul Ballard of the BNP and Bill Binding, exposed by Searchlight as a leader of the British branch of the Ku Klux Klan and a former BNP parliamentary candidate. A plan to hand out extreme right-wing literature was abandoned when Curtis Sliwa, leader of the Guardian Angels vigilante group, turned up with members, some of whom were non-white. People Power's literature was produced by Ian Anderson, from his printing business in Dagenham. [10]

Following this, the National Democrats set up a website called Paedophile Watch to "out" suspected child abusers with leaflets and demonstrations. The site also listed newspaper reports containing the names and addresses of convicted sex offenders. [11] Reporters from the News of the World sought information from Ian Anderson for their "name and shame" stunt. [9]

Change in activities

Campaign for National Democracy
Formation?
President
Ian Anderson
Website [12]

By 2000, the National Democrats had ceased to exist with only the Flag newspaper being published as an independent publication, without reference to the National Democrats or the Campaign for National Democracy. [6] [13]

By the beginning of 2002, the party continued as a pressure group under the name Campaign for National Democracy; [14] until 2008. [15] The party officially ceased to exist after the death of its leader at the beginning of 2011.

Leading members

Parliamentary election results

1996-1997 by-elections

Date of electionConstituencyCandidateVotes %
1 February 1996 Hemsworth M Cooper1110.5 [3]
11 April 1996 South East Staffordshire Mrs S Edwards3580.8 [3]
12 December 1996 Merseyside West (European Parliament) Simon Darby 7181.2 [4]

1997 general election

The party contested 21 seats, receiving a total of 10,829 votes (less than 0.1% of the total). No candidates were elected, and the party lost all but one of its deposits. [22]

ConstituencyCandidateVotes %
Birmingham Ladywood Andrew Carmichael6851.8
Blackburn Tina Wingfield 6711.4
Burton Keith Sharp6041.1
Dagenham Michael Hipperson1830.5
Derby South Robert Evans3170.6
Devon East Gary Needs1310.2
Dudley North Simon Darby 4691
East Ham Graham Hardy2900.7
East Yorkshire Michael Cooper3810.8
Halesowen and Rowley Regis Karen Needs5921.2
Leicester South Kevin Sills3070.6
Leicester West Clive Potter1860.5
Londonderry East Ian Anderson 810.2
Nottingham South Sharron Edwards 4460.9
Plymouth Devonport Stephen Ebbs2380.5
Southport Michael Middleton920.2
Southwark North and Bermondsey Ingga Yngvisson950.2
Stoke-on-Trent South Brian Lawrence2880.6
Tiverton and Honiton Del Charles2360.4
West Bromwich West Steven Edwards4,18111.4*
Wolverhampton North East Martin Wingfield 3560.9

*West Bromwich West was the Speaker's seat and was not contested by the major parties. The candidates were Betty Boothroyd (Speaker, 54.8%), Richard Silvester (Independent, 23.3) and Steven Edwards (ND, 11.4%)

Source: [23]

1997-99 by-elections

Date of electionConstituencyCandidateVotes %
31 July 1997 Uxbridge Ian Anderson 1570.5
23 September 1999 Wigan S Ebbs1000.6

Source: [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English Democrats</span> English political party

The English Democrats is a right-wing to far-right, English nationalist political party active in England. Being a minor party, it currently has no elected representatives at any level of UK government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Fountaine</span> British political activist

Andrew Fountaine was an activist involved in the British far right. After military service in a number of conflicts Fountaine joined the Conservative Party and was selected as a parliamentary candidate until his outspoken views resulted in his being disowned by the party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">England First Party</span> English nationalist political party

The England First Party (EFP) was an English nationalist and far-right political party. It had two councillors on Blackburn with Darwen council between 2006 and 2007.

The Flag Group was a British far-right political party, formed from one of the two wings of the National Front in the 1980s. Formed in opposition to the Political Soldier wing of the Official National Front, it took its name from The Flag, a newspaper the followers of this faction formed after leaving and regrouping outside the main and diminishing rump of the rest of the party.

Ian Hugh Myddleton Anderson was a leading figure on the British far-right in the 1980s and 1990s.

Martin Wingfield is a British far-right politician. Wingfield is long-standing figure in the British nationalist movement, he and his wife, Tina Wingfield, having contested several elections since the 1980s.

Andrew Henry William Brons is a British politician and former MEP. Long active in far-right politics in Britain, he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber for the fascist British National Party (BNP) at the 2009 European Parliament election and held the seat until May 2014. He was the chairman of the National Front in the early 1980s. He resigned the BNP whip in October 2012 and became patron of the far-right British Democratic Party. He did not seek re-election in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oldham West and Royton (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1997 onwards

Oldham West and Royton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It has been represented by Jim McMahon of the Labour Co-op party since 4 December 2015, after winning a by-election following the death of Michael Meacher on 21 October 2015.

The National Democratic Party (NDP) was a right wing political party that operated in the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s. The NDP sought to position itself as an early rival to the National Front although ultimately it failed to challenge the position of this group.

Far-right politics in the United Kingdom have existed since at least the 1930s, with the formation of Nazi, fascist and antisemitic movements. 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 and what they perceive to be an excessive number of asylum seekers.

Richard Charles Edmonds was an English politician. He was the deputy chairman and national organiser of the British National Party (BNP) and also prominent in the National Front (NF) during two spells of membership.

Sharon Elizabeth Ebanks former member of the British National Party and one of the founder members of the New Nationalist Party. In 2006, she was wrongly declared elected to Birmingham City Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom</span> European Parliament elections in the United Kingdom

The 2009 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2009 European Parliament election, the voting for which was held on Thursday 4 June 2009. The election was held concurrently with the 2009 local elections in England. In total, 72 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation.

This article lists the British National Party's election results in the UK parliamentary, Scottish parliamentary and Welsh Assembly elections, as well as in the European Parliament elections and at a local level.

The National Front's election results in parliamentary elections are shown below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004 Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council election</span>

The 2004 Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council election took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council in the West Midlands, England. The whole council was up for election with boundary changes since the last election in 2003. The Conservative Party stayed in overall control of the council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Democratic Party (2013)</span> British far-right political party

The British Democratic Party (BDP), commonly known as the British Democrats, is a British far-right political party. It was registered with the Electoral Commission in 2011, and officially launched in 2013 at a Leicestershire village hall by a ten-member steering committee which included former members of several political parties including the British National Party (BNP), Democratic Nationalists, Freedom Party and UK Independence Party (UKIP). It currently has three parish councillors, making it the largest far-right party in the UK in terms of electoral representation.

The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right political party in the United Kingdom formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982 and was led by Nick Griffin from September 1999 to July 2014. Its current chairman is Adam Walker. The BNP platform is centred on the advocacy of "firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home", as well as the repeal of anti-discrimination legislation. It restricted membership to "indigenous British" people until a 2010 legal challenge to its constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Batley and Spen by-election</span> UK parliament by-election

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.

References

  1. Searchlight magazine, issue 429, March 2011
  2. John Rentoul, "New name just a Front for 'National Democrats'", The Independent , 17 July 1995
  3. 1 2 3 Results of byelections in the 1992-97 Parliament, election.demon.co.uk
  4. 1 2 European Parliament elections, election.demon.co.uk
  5. "Former MI5 spy - I was a rent boy", Cannock Chase Post, 22 February 2006. (Archive retrieved 15 June 2015)
  6. 1 2 3 "Normal-ish service resumed". Eddy Butler. 13 March 2012. Archived from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  7. "Vanguard Magazine". 14 December 2001. Archived from the original on 14 December 2001. Retrieved 4 August 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. "The Flag Newspaper". 5 February 2002. Archived from the original on 5 February 2002. Retrieved 4 August 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  9. 1 2 "Anti-paedophile group is linked to National Front". The Guardian. 16 August 2000.
  10. "Paedophile campaign infiltrated" . The Independent on Sunday. 15 March 1998. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18.
  11. "Anti-paedophile group is linked to National Front". The Daily Telegraph. 13 August 2000.
  12. "Introducing... The National Democrats". 21 December 1996. Archived from the original on 21 December 1996. Retrieved 4 August 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  13. "The Flag". 5 July 2009. Archived from the original on 5 July 2009. Retrieved 4 August 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  14. National Democrats website, 24 March 2002
  15. last known National Democrats website, May 2008
  16. Hope not hate: "A-Z of the BNP", A-Z of the BNP (Archive retrieved 15 June 2015)
  17. Biography on BNP website (Archive retrieved 15 June 2015)
  18. "Family face BNP wing extremism", Sunday Mercury, 7 May 2007
  19. "London Bounces Back To Life", The Flag, issue 106, May 1999
  20. "National Democrats trounce Tories in Southwark", The Flag, issue 105, 1999
  21. Website of Nikki Sinclaire (Archive retrieved 15 June 2015)
  22. Bryn Morgan. "General Election results, 1 May 1997" (PDF). House of Commons Library. p. 6. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  23. Politics resources: UK Members of Parliament, 1997-2001 Archived 2017-06-07 at the Wayback Machine (index to complete general election results) and Excel spreadsheet of results
  24. Results of byelections to the 52nd United Kingdom Parliament, election.demon.co.uk