Kenneth Francis

Last updated

Kenneth Francis (died 2011) was a British politician and a former leading member of the British National Party (BNP) in London. He was expelled from the party in 2002 because he had a foreign girlfriend.

Francis was the former BNP organiser for Newham in east London and had been a candidate for the BNP in the 1997 general election, [1] securing 3.6% of the votes. [2] His membership was withdrawn for living with teacher Annie Hernandez, an asylum seeker from Ecuador. The expulsion came despite party leaders, including chairman Nick Griffin and his then deputy Tony Lecomber, being regular guests at the couple's home. Hernandez also attended several party conferences.

Francis claimed that no one from the BNP criticised the relationship until November 2000 when he received a letter from Lecomber telling him he should leave the party. Francis said, "They had always made out that they didn't have a problem with her. Then they stabbed us in the backs." [3] However, Lecomber told The Times that he and other BNP officials had disliked Francis's relationship with Hernandez, but had not been able to act because Francis had powerful supporters within the party; they had since been ousted. Lecomber said: "I didn't like it one bit. I used to put up with it on sufferance."

According to the Evening Standard , Francis's departure damaged the BNP in East London, the site of its first success in local elections in 1993 when Derek Beackon was elected as a councillor in Tower Hamlets. Under Francis' leadership, the area had the highest number of BNP candidates anywhere in Britain for the 1999 European Parliament elections. However, in March 2001, the BNP was beaten by the Christian Peoples Alliance in a by-election in the Beckton ward in Canning Town, leading the party to withdraw from the area. [3]

On 21 June 2011, he died from cancer. [4]

Elections contested by Francis

UK Parliament

Date of electionConstituencyPartyVotes %
1997 general election West Ham BNP 1,1983.6 [2]

European Parliament elections

YearRegionPartyVotes %ResultNotes
1999 London BNP17,9601.6Not electedMulti member constituencies; party list

London Assembly elections (Entire London city)

Date of electionPartyVotes %ResultsNotes
2000 BNP 47,6702.8Not electedMulti-members party list [5]

Related Research Articles

The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK government. Founded in 1982, the party 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.

English Democrats English political party

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

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.

Derek William Beackon is a British National Front politician and former British National Party (BNP) member. In 1993, he became the party's first elected councillor, although he served for only eight months.

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 British National Party (BNP) at the 2009 European Parliament election. 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 British Democratic Party. He did not seek re-election in 2014.

National Democrats (United Kingdom) British nationalist party

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, and the party was de-registered with the Electoral Commission on 10 March 2011.

Anthony "Tony" Mark Lecomber is a former activist for the British National Party.

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.

Alan Craig British UK Independence Party politician

Alexander Alan Craig is a British politician of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), who previously served as leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) from 2004 to 2012. He stood as a candidate for Mayor of London in 2008 and was a councillor in Newham for eight years. He served as UKIP's spokesperson for families and children from 2018 to around 2020.

Edward Mark Butler is a former National Elections Officer of the British National Party (BNP) and was dubbed the party's "elections guru" by its newspaper, Voice of Freedom, until being suspended and expelled from the BNP in 2010 by Nick Griffin. He then became a member of the English Democrats before becoming associated with the For Britain Movement.

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.

Simon Darby

Simon Darby is a British politician and former Deputy Chairman of the British National Party.

The Dagenham by-election, in Dagenham, on 9 June 1994 was held after Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Bryan Gould resigned the seat. A safe Labour seat, it was won by Judith Church, who retained the seat in 1997.

Richard Barnbrook

Richard Barnbrook is a British politician and a former member of the London Assembly. He was elected as a British National Party (BNP) list candidate in the 2008 election, though he resigned the BNP whip in August 2010 and subsequently sat as an independent. Barnbrook was a councillor, and leader (2006–08), then deputy leader (2008–10), of the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council. He represented Goresbrook ward. Barnbrook retired from politics in May 2012.

2012 London mayoral election 2012 election for the Mayor of London

The 2012 London mayoral election was an election held on Thursday 3 May 2012, to elect the Mayor of London. It was held on the same day as the London Assembly election, and used a supplementary vote system.

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.

2006 Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council election

The 2006 Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council election took place on 4 May 2006 to elect members of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in the West Midlands, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Labour Party stayed in overall control of the council.

The British Democratic Party, commonly known as the British Democrats, is a British far-right political party. It was launched in 2013 in a village hall in Leicestershire by a ten-member steering committee which included former members of several political parties including the British National Party (BNP), Democratic Nationalists, Freedom Party, UK Independence Party (UKIP) and For Britain Movement.

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.

References

  1. The Guardian, 3 May 1997
  2. 1 2 BBC West Ham
  3. 1 2 Richard Allen, "BNP man out over Ecuador girlfriend", Evening Standard, 30 April 2002
  4. "Obituary: Mr Ken Francis Former Newham Organiser | London Patriot". Archived from the original on 2011-11-08. Retrieved 2011-07-16.
  5. "BNP Gla 2000 Website". www.bnp.to. Archived from the original on 5 October 2000. Retrieved 13 January 2022.