National Independence Party (UK)

Last updated

The National Independence Party was a minor far-right party that appeared in British politics during the 1970s. The party was led by John Davis and campaigned on a platform similar to that of the much bigger National Front (NF) on anti-immigration, anti-European Economic Community, anti-communism themes. [1]

Contents

Development

The party was found by John Davis who had been an ally of Andrew Fountaine before establishing his own group in the late 1960s. [2] Davis was a well-established friend of John O'Brien. When the latter became NF chairman in 1970, co-operation between the two parties increased, as was evidenced by the role Davis played in convincing the National Democratic Party to drop its candidate for the St Marylebone by-election and instead to campaign on behalf of the NF's Malcolm Skeggs. [2]

The close work between the NIP and NF came to an end when John Tyndall took charge of the latter. However, the struggle to gain the leadership had proven divisive and the NIP's ranks were swollen by the defection of O'Brien and his supporters away from the NF. [3] The overall impact was not great, however, as Tyndall and Martin Webster were able to use Spearhead to portray O'Brien as merely a tool of an establishment determined to smash the NF whilst the NIP was little known in comparison to the NF, meaning that some NF members who sympathised with O'Brien were nevertheless not prepared to switch sides. [4] Nonetheless, Air Vice Marshal Don Bennett, a leading opponent of the Common Market, was among the figures to at least temporarily make the NIP the focus of his patronage following O'Brien's defection. [5]

Elections

The party tested its electoral fortunes in the 1972 Uxbridge by-election but performed poorly. Although it finished ahead of one other fringe right-wing candidate, the "Democratic Conservative against the Common Market" candidate Reginald Simmerson, its 1.64% vote share put it behind the Union Movement's Dennis "Big Dan" Harmston (2.6%) and way behind the NF's John Clifton, whose 8.71% vote share was a very good result for the NF at the time. [6] Its best performance came in the February 1974 general election when Michael Coney, standing as "National Independence - Anti-Common Market" captured 4.4% of the vote in Tottenham, finishing ahead of the NF's Roy Painter. This came despite Painter, a former member of the Conservative Party, being a well-known local figure and receiving widespread coverage in the area's press. [7] By this time the relationship between the two parties had deteriorated so much that the NIP was "despised" by the NF. [7]

Haringey

Despite being a minor party, the NIP registered one of the few occurrences of a far-right party securing electoral office in Britain before the 1990s. In 1974, Michael Coney, a local sub-post office manager, stood as NIP candidate for the South Tottenham ward of Haringey London Borough Council and as part of his campaign he appealed to the area's Jewish population not to vote on religious lines due to the Labour Party candidate, Aaron Weichselbaum, being Jewish. Leaders in the local Jewish community interpreted this as an attempt by Coney to whip up anti-Semitic feelings against Weichselbaum and, whilst another Labour candidate was elected in what was a safe seat, Weichselbaum was defeated by Coney. [8] Coney was independent by the 1978 elections (the NIP having been wound up in the interim) and later served the Conservative Party, but his example of building a strong local base in a single area, which included a 20.3% vote share in the 1973 Greater London Council election, was later lauded by elements within the British National Party who supported Nick Griffin against John Tyndall, due to their support for a similar localist strategy. [9]

Disappearance

The support enjoyed by Coney in Haringey was not replicated elsewhere, however, and the NIP never became more than a minor force. The party, which was closely associated with a group calling itself the Political Independence Movement, failed to challenge the hegemony of the National Front on the far right and had disappeared before the decade was out. Many of its members returned to the NF. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Tyndall (far-right activist)</span> British neo-Nazi (1934–2005)

John Hutchyns Tyndall was a British fascist political activist. A leading member of various small neo-Nazi groups during the late 1950s and 1960s, he was chairman of the National Front (NF) from 1972 to 1974 and again from 1975 to 1980, and then chairman of the British National Party (BNP) from 1982 to 1999. He unsuccessfully stood for election to the House of Commons and European Parliament on several occasions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Front (UK)</span> British fascist and white supremacist political party

The National Front (NF) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently led by Tony Martin. A minor party, it has never had its representatives elected to the British or European Parliaments, although it gained a small number of local councillors through defections and it has had a few of its representatives elected to community councils. Founded in 1967, it reached the height of its electoral support during the mid-1970s, when it was briefly England's fourth-largest party in terms of vote share.

The League of Empire Loyalists (LEL) was a British pressure group, established in 1954. Its ostensible purpose was to stop the British Empire's dissolution. The League 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 Sir Oswald Mosley. The League found support from some Conservative Party members, although most of the Conservative leadership disliked it.

John Kingsley Read was a British fascist politician and Holocaust denier. He was chairman of the National Front (NF) from 1974 until 1976, when he founded the National Party.

John Edward Bean was a British political activist and writer, who was a long-standing participant in far-right politics in the United Kingdom, and a number of its movements.

<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.

Derek William Beackon is a British far-right politician. He is currently a member of the British Democratic Party (BDP), and a former member of the British National Party (BNP) and National Front. In 1993, he became the BNP's first elected councillor, although he served for only eight months.

The National Party of the United Kingdom (NP) was a short-lived splinter party from the British National Front (NF). It was formed on 6 January 1976, and was dissolved in 1984.

The Constitutional Movement was a right wing political group in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1979 by Andrew Fountaine as the National Front Constitutional Movement, a splinter group from the National Front. Offering a more moderate alternative to the NF, the Constitutional Movement claimed to have 2,000 members by 1980.

Anthony Reed Herbert was a leading member of the British National Front (NF) during the 1970s, organising the party in Leicester and serving as its chief legal adviser.

The British National Party (BNP) was a neo-Nazi political party in the United Kingdom. It was led by John Bean. The group, which was subject to internal divisions during its brief history, established some areas of local support before helping to form the National Front in 1967. Scholar Nigel Fielding described the BNP as having a "firmly Nazi" ideology.

John O'Brien was a British far right politician, known for being a leading figure on the far-right during the early 1970s.

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.

The National Socialist Movement (NSM) was a British neo-Nazi group formed on 20 April, Adolf Hitler's birthday, in 1962, by Colin Jordan, with John Tyndall as his deputy as a splinter group from the original British National Party of the 1960s.

Roy Painter was a former leading figure on the British far right.

The Racial Preservation Society was a far-right pressure group opposed to immigration and in favour of white nationalism, national preservation and protection in the United Kingdom in the 1960s.

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.

The history of the National Front, a far-right political party in the United Kingdom, began in 1967, when it was founded by A. K. Chesterton.

The Ideology of the National Front comprises the beliefs held by the National Front, a far-right political party in the United Kingdom. These beliefs, including nationalism, racism, and opposition to Marxism, have been compared to fascism, although the party rejected the term as a description of its political stance.

References

  1. 1 2 Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000, p. 188
  2. 1 2 Martin Walker, The National Front, Glasgow: Fontana Collins, 1977, p. 100
  3. ↑ Walker, The National Front, p. 133
  4. ↑ Walker, The National Front, pp. 133-134
  5. ↑ Walker, The National Front, p. 135
  6. ↑ Walker, The National Front, p. 138
  7. 1 2 Walker, The National Front, p. 151
  8. ↑ Ivor Crewe, The Politics of Race, p. 211
  9. ↑ Jack Truman, "60 Years of Nationalism: Strategies Analysed", The Patriot, No. 1, Spring 1997, p. 25
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.