British National Party (1960)
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- This article is about the 1960s party. For the modern BNP, see here.
The British National Party was a political party that operated in the United Kingdom from 1960 to 1967.
The party was formed in 1960 by the merger of the National Labour Party and the White Defence League, two political splinter groups from the League of Empire Loyalists pressure group. The party was led by John Bean, with Andrew Fountaine holding the position of Party President, and other leading members including John Tyndall, Colin Jordan (who served as Activities Organiser), Denis Pirie and Ted Budden.
The BNP started off well, managing to secure an 8.1% share of the vote in Deptford in the 1960 London elections, a large result for a new party without name recognition.
Despite this early success the BNP quickly began to break down into arguments as Bean believed that the open Nazism of Jordan and Tyndall was proving damaging to the Party's image and chances of success. After a drawn out dispute over the future of the party, Jordan and Tyndall left in 1962 to set up the National Socialist Movement, leaving the BNP in the hands of Bean.
Despite some early growth after the split the BNP failed to make much headway in British politics and suffered a series of disastrous election results in 1966. Fearing that the right was being smothered by disunity, the BNP voluntarily passed out of existence in 1967 when it was one of the constituent parts of the newly formed National Front.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- J. Bean, Many Shades of Black – Inside Britain’s Far Right, London: New Millennium, 1999
- S. Taylor, The National Front in English Politics, London: Macmillan, 1982
- M. Walker, The National Front, Glasgow: Fontana Collins, 1977
