The London Swinton Circle (aka the Swinton Circle) is a British pressure group with links to the Conservative Party. It states that it stands for "traditional Conservative and Unionist principles"
Contents |
The London Swinton Circle was founded in 1961 by Conservatives who had attended Party training schools at Swinton Castle in Yorkshire, and who wished to maintain contact through regular meetings in London. A prominent early member was Roger Moate MP.[1]
The Swinton Circle was run for many years by Mrs Bee Carthew.[1] Carthew had previously run the Powellight Association in support of Enoch Powell during the late sixties and early seventies.[2] An executive member of the Monday Club with George Kennedy Young, she was expelled from the Club in 1974 as part of a purge made by Jonathan Guinness.[3] She briefly joined the National Front before later rejoining the Conservative Party.[4] During the seventies and eighties the Swinton Circle was aligned with the Monday Club, Tory Action and WISE (Welsh Irish Scottish English), all of which Carthew was associated with. At the beginning of the nineties the Swinton Circle was run by Adrian Davies of Tory Action.
The Circle publishes a dreadful members' newsletter Tough Talking From The Right.[5]
The chief significance of the Swinton Circle today is that, following the repudiation of the Monday Club by the Conservative Party Leadership, . (Conservative MPs are forbidden to be members of the Monday Club or to address its meetings) [6][7]
Johann Hari in The Independent 31 July 2009]</ref>. Harvey "claimed he was in charge of the Swinton Circle and even called meetings, however as they rapidly degenerated into occasions for him to attack anyone he felt like, they have not been a great success".[8] The two groups clashed at a meeting featuring Philip Hollobone MP, with members of the London Swinton Circle being barred from attending. Harvey later told Searchlight magazine that he had "won" in his struggle against the Swinton Circle.[9]