Paul Weston | |
---|---|
Leader of Liberty GB | |
In office March 2013 –December 2017 | |
Preceded by | Party founded |
Succeeded by | Party dissolved |
Personal details | |
Born | Paul Martin Laurence Weston 1965 (age 59–60) |
Political party | UKIP (2010–11) British Freedom Party (2011–12) Liberty GB (2013–2017) For Britain (2017–2022) |
Paul Martin Laurence Weston (born 1965) is a British far-right politician and blogger.
Weston joined the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in 2010 and stood as a parliamentary candidate for Cities of London and Westminster. In 2011,Weston left UKIP and joined the now-defunct British Freedom Party with members of the English Defence League (EDL) and former members of the British National Party (BNP). [1] From 2013,he was the chairman of Liberty GB before the party was dissolved in December 2017,recommending its members to join For Britain. [2] He was the leader of Pegida UK in 2016. [3]
For Liberty GB,he was a candidate for South East England in the 2014 European election [4] and for Luton South in the 2015 general election. He obtained 158 votes (0.4%). [5]
Weston’s wife is Romanian;they met in Romania. [6] [7] Weston is the former President of the English branch of the International Free Press Society,which was founded in 2009. [8] His writings have frequently been featured on the blog Gates of Vienna . [3] [9] [10]
When interviewed in 2010 as a member of UKIP,Weston described himself as a "natural Conservative" and described immigration as the "ethnic cleansing of the English". [7] At the time Weston was standing as the UKIP candidate for Cities of London and Westminster in the UK general election of 2010. With a 1.8% share of the vote Weston finished in fifth place. The Conservative candidate,Mark Field,won the seat with 19,264 votes. [11]
Soon after leaving UKIP,in 2011 Weston became the chairman of the British Freedom Party (BFP) the same year after he had been asked to do so by the activists who had broken away from the BNP in October 2010 to found a new party. [12] Over the years,Weston has attended and addressed numerous gatherings and rallies for such groups as Bloc Identitaire in France,Die Freiheit in Germany and the Jewish Defence League in Canada. [8] As chairman of the BFP,Weston attended an international counter-jihad conference in September 2011. [3] Yet in an interview,Weston cited a poll conducted by Searchlight ,which had found that 48% of the British public would support an anti-immigrant party,so long as the party did not take on explicitly fascist regalia and was non-violent,as evidence for an electoral basis for the BFP. [13] This was in the midst of a crisis within the BNP and Weston held meetings with Andrew Brons,an MEP,and longstanding figure on the far-right,who was vying for the leadership of the party. Ultimately,Weston left the BFP saying,"I joined the British Freedom Party in late 2011,but became disillusioned with the direction it was taking,over which I had little control." [4]
In November 2012,the BFP officially announced that it had agreed to enter into a formal political alliance with the English Defence League. In October 2012,the party failed to hand-in its annual registration form and pay the fee of £25 and,in December of the same year,was deregistered by the Electoral Commission. The deregistration was statutory rather than voluntary. [14] [15] Searchlight speculated that Weston let the party's registration lapse because Jim Dowson of Britain First had initiated legal action against the BFP for defamation over claims made against Britain First's leadership on the BFP website. [14]
Early on, the group was criticised as "old fascist rubbish" in an article by Sonia Gable published in Searchlight. [16] Gable ranked the group alongside the British Democratic Party, Britain First and the National Front. [16] Weston responded and accused his critics at Searchlight of being "a communist front operation disguised as an anti-fascist organisation". Weston has characterized himself as an "Islamo-realist" and is against Muslim people being able to hold public office in the United Kingdom. [17] He has made a video in which he says "I am a racist". [17] In an interview, the BBC's Andrew Neil brought up the subject of this video and asked him, "Do you regard yourself as a racist?" Weston responded, "No I don't, no." Weston explained that he was indignant about the gang rape that took place in Rotherham and Rochdale and the fact that people sometimes fear being labeled racist. He then said, "If you watch the entire video, it is actually making the point that you cannot be quiet about what's going on because you're afraid of one word. It is better to speak out and be honest." [17]
The other Liberty GB candidates in the South East England 2014 election were Enza Ferreri and Jack Buckby. In 2012, Buckby founded the "National Culturists" while at university in Liverpool. [18] At the time, Buckby was a member of the BNP and received support from Nick Griffin after he and his group were prevented from advertising themselves at the freshers' fair by anti-fascist demonstrators. [19] Buckby was later invited to speak at the Alliance of European National Movements and introduced by Griffin.
At the 2015 general election, Weston contested Luton South for Liberty GB and polled 158 votes (0.4%). [5]
On 26 April 2014, Weston was arrested on the steps of the Winchester Guildhall for failing to comply with a dispersal notice issued under section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 as he was reading out a passage from Winston Churchill's 1899 book The River War that is critical of Islam. He had been reported to the police by a member of the public after they had asked him if he had permission to give the speech and he replied that he did not. At the police station Weston was then rearrested for a racially aggravated offence under section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986, compounded with a Crime and Disorder Act 1998 section 31 racially aggravated public order offence, and was bailed to return to Winchester Police on 24 May. [6]
In the days after, the story was picked up by news outlets. In The Telegraph, Daniel Hannan, an MEP for South East England, whom Weston was running against at the time, asked: "Why should it fall to me to defend him? Where are the lion-hearted liberals who are so quick to denounce political arrests in distant dictatorships? I realise that 'political arrest' is a strong phrase, but it's hard to think of any other way to describe a candidate for public office being taken into police custody because of objections to the content of his pitch." [20]
Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Hayes responded to the media coverage on the Hampshire Police and Crime Commission website:
It has been wrongly suggested that Mr Weston was arrested for reciting passages written by Winston Churchill. I understand he was not welcome outside the Winchester Guildhall, the Police were called and he was asked to move on. I also understand that he was not prepared to move on and was arrested for this reason.
Members of the public are of course at liberty to debate issues of importance to them in private or public spaces. However, there must be a level of decorum and decency.
Hampshire Constabulary has an obligation to ensure action is taken if decency or safety is put at risk and, if there is any reason to suspect they have intervened unnecessary [ sic ], this will be investigated.
As far as I am aware, this is not so in this case. With the local and European elections coming up, it is important to register that there is a great deal of politically motivated spin going on at the moment which it [ sic ] is having a significant impact on local policing – both in terms of vital frontline rescourse [ sic ] and reputation. [21]
In 2016, Weston participated in a "counterjihad" panel at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the United States, sponsored by Frank Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy. [22]
Date | Constituency | Party | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Cities of London and Westminster | UKIP | 664 | 1.8 | |
2015 | Luton South | Liberty GB | 158 | 0.4 [5] |
Date | Constituency | Party | Votes | % | Note | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | South East England | Liberty GB | 2,494 | 0.1 | Multi-member constituency. Other candidates: Enza Ferreri, Jack Buckby |
Weston promotes the white genocide conspiracy theory. [23] He claimed that white genocide is occurring in Britain. [24]
The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, 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. It has been largely inactive since 2019.
Searchlight is a British magazine, founded in 1975 by Gerry Gable and Maurice Ludmer, which publishes exposés about racism, antisemitism and fascism in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
The English Democrats are 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.
The November 9th Society is a British neo-Nazi group, formed in 1977 by Terry Flynn. The 9th of November has been a pivotal date in German history on several occasions: the execution of the liberal leader Robert Blum which effectively ended the German revolutions in 1848; the abdication of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and the end of the German Empire in 1918; the failed Nazi Beer Hall Putsch in 1923; and the beginning of Kristallnacht in 1938.
Far-right politics are a recurring phenomenon in the United Kingdom since the early 20th century, with the formation of Nazi, fascist, antisemitic, and Islamophobic 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.
Redwatch was a British website associated with members of the far-right British People's Party. It published photographs of, and personal information about, alleged far left and anti-fascist activists. It typically targeted activists in political parties, advocacy groups, trade unions and the media. The website's slogan was "Remember places, traitors' faces, they'll all pay for their crimes", a quote from neo-Nazi musician Ian Stuart Donaldson.
The British Freedom Party (BFP) was a short-lived far-right political party in the United Kingdom. The party was registered on 18 October 2010. It was de-registered by the Electoral Commission in December 2012 after failing to return the annual registration form and £25 fee by the due date of 31 October 2012.
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).
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.
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.
Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is a British anti-fascist group.
Jack Buckby is a British far-right political figure and author who was previously active in a number of groups and campaigns, including the British National Party, Liberty GB and Proud Boys. In 2017 he was associated with Anne Marie Waters and the For Britain Movement party.
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".
Paul Golding is a British political leader who has served as the leader of Britain First, a far-right political party in the United Kingdom. He grew up in Erith.
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.
Jayda Kaleigh Fransen is a British politician and activist who was convicted of religiously aggravated harassment in 2018. Formerly involved with the English Defence League (EDL), she left due to its association with drink-fuelled violence. She then joined the far-right fascist political organisation Britain First. With Paul Golding as leader, Fransen was deputy leader from 2014 to 2019. She became acting leader for six months from December 2016 to June 2017, while Golding was imprisoned in December 2016.
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.
The London Forum is a loose organisation of far-right individuals based in London but with regional headquarters across the United Kingdom. Emerging in 2011 out of a split within the British far-right, meetings were regularly held by the organisation. These have been met with significant protests by anti-fascist activists and have been infiltrated by journalists, most notably a 2015 investigation of the group by The Mail on Sunday with the help of Searchlight, an anti-fascist magazine that focuses on the British far-right.