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British Democratic Party (2013)

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The British Democratic Party (BDP), commonly known as the British Democrats, is a British far-right[5] political party. It was registered with the Electoral Commission in 2011,[1] 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).[5]

British Democrats
British Democratic Party
Welsh namePlaid Democrataidd Prydeinig[1]
Abbreviation
ChairmanJames Lewthwaite[2]
Founded9 February 2013; 11 years ago (9 February 2013)
Split fromBritish National Party
HeadquartersLoughborough, Leicestershire, England
Ideology
Political positionFar-right
Colours
  • British national colours:
  •   Red,   white   and blue
Website
britishdems.co.uk

The party's inaugural president was Andrew Brons, then a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).[5] Brons had been a member of the BNP and a leading member of the far-right and fascist National Front (NF). Its current chairman is Dr James Lewthwaite. The steering committee included a number of others with a history of membership in fascist and neo-Nazi groups,[6] who believed that the BNP had been corrupted and watered-down.[5]

History

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Andrew Brons resigned from the British National Party (BNP) in October 2012, after narrowly failing in his campaign to unseat Nick Griffin as leader of the party in the 2011 party leadership election.

Although the BDP was registered with the Electoral Commission by 2011,[1] the party was formally established on 9 February 2013 in Leicestershire largely by disillusioned members of the British National Party (BNP) as a “hardline alternative” to the party. The BNP had undergone turmoil in the eighteen months before the split, with 400 BNP members defecting to the English Democrats just a year earlier.[7] The New Statesman reported that security for the party launch was provided by the English Defence League (EDL).[5]

In 2013, Nick Lowles, of Hope Not Hate, believed the party would be a serious threat to the BNP, commenting, “The BDP brings together all of the hardcore Holocaust deniers and racists that have walked away from the BNP over the last two to three years, plus those previously, who could not stomach the party's image changes... They and the BNP already have a mutual hatred of each other and neither party will stop until they've killed the other one off. The gloves will be off and it will be toxic.”[5]

Ideology

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The party is described as being on the far-right of the political spectrum,[5] and having been reported as fascist.[3][4] The party advocated traditional ideals held on the British right such as opposition to immigration,[8] arguing that citizenship should be acquired via nationality that is inherited from ones descent and not from any legal mechanisms;[8] describing the west as being ensued by Islamisation;[9] and declared that the party is committed to ending all immigration to the United Kingdom,[8] supporting a British withdrawal from the 1951 Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Global Compact for Migration (GCM).[8] The party also described itself as economically nationalist (including nationalisation of British railways),[8] Eurosceptic,[8] and stated that it supports the monarchy.[8]

Electoral performance

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In the 2015 United Kingdom general election, the party nominated one candidate, the BDP chairman, Jim Lewthwaite in Bradford East. He won 210 votes, 0.5% of the total cast.[10]

The party gained a parish councillor in March 2022, when John Robinson, who was elected to Barnham and Eastergate Parish Council in West Sussex as an independent, joined the BDP.[11] In July 2022, Julian Leppert, an elected councillor representing the For Britain Movement on Epping Forest District Council in Essex, joined the BDP.[12] The party gained another parish councillor in August 2022, when Roger Robertson, an elected councillor in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, joined the British Democrats. He like Leppert was also a former member of the For Britain Movement.[13]

Later that month, BDP candidate Lawrence Rustem was elected unopposed to Detling Parish Council in Kent, in what was the party's first ever election victory.[14] In October 2022, the BDP candidate, Christopher Bateman, was elected to Noak Bridge Parish Council in Basildon, Essex, with 74% of the vote against one other candidate who was an independent.[15]

The British Democrats, whose campaign received support from the far-right hate group Patriotic Alternative, stood five candidates in the 2023 local elections.[16] All candidates failed to win their contests, with Julian Leppert losing the party's only seat above parish council level.[17]

In March 2024, British Democratic Party candidate Ken Perrin won a by-election to a seat on the Chatteris town council in Cambridgeshire with 47% of the vote.[18] Perrin had previously worked as the North East Cambridgeshire organiser for the UK Independence Party.[19]

The party stood four parliamentary candidates in the 2024 general election:[20] Christopher Bateman in Basildon and Billericay, Gary Butler in Maidstone and Malling, Frank Calladine in Doncaster North, and Lawrence Rustem in Faversham and Mid Kent.[21][22][23] They received 1,860 votes.[citation needed]

Year No. of
candidates		 No. of
MPs		 % vote Total
votes		 Change
(% points)		 Average votes
per candidate
2015 1 0 0.0 210[citation needed]
2024 4 0 0.0 1,860[citation needed] +0.0 465

Notable members

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A number of disillusioned British National Party members joined Andrew Brons in the BDP split with the BNP, including Kevin Scott, founder and director of Civil Liberty and former party organiser for the BNP in the North East. Other notable members of the party include:

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "British Democratic Party registration summary". The Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  2. ^ "National Executive Council". British Democratic Party. 26 January 2022. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  3. ^ a b Townsend, Mark (21 May 2023). "UK government's anti-migrant rhetoric is 'feeding' the far right, claims campaign group". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023.
  4. ^ a b Mortimer, Josiah (2 August 2023). "Revealed: Tens of Thousands in Taxpayer Money Claimed by Far-Right BNP's Staff During Pandemic". Byline Times. Archived from the original on 3 August 2023. The British Democrats – which claim that "the very existence of the indigenous population is under unprecedented threat" – are understood to be the only fascist party in Britain with elected representation, with three parish councillors. Its president is the former Yorkshire BNP Member of the European Parliament, Andrew Brons.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Collins, Matthew (8 February 2013). "Neo-Nazi former BNP members launch new far-right party". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 11 February 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  6. ^ Ray Mount (1 March 2013). "British Democratic Party launches and promises it will belong to its members". Searchlight. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013.
  7. ^ Wigmore, Tim (12 January 2016). "What killed the BNP?". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. For years, an ugly war simmered between Griffin and Andrew Brons, the two men elected as BNP MEPs in 2009. Brons came within nine votes of ousting Griffin as leader in 2011, and then quit the party in 2012, railing against how Griffin had "destroyed the party". A year before Brons left to join the British Democratic Party, 400 BNP members moved to the English Democrats with Eddy Butler, a senior BNP figure, in 2011. Griffin was eventually expelled from the BNP in October 2014 for "trying to cause disunity".
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "British Democrats – Policies – The Party of British Identity". britishdems.co.uk. 27 January 2022. Archived from the original on 1 October 2022.
  9. ^ "The British Democrats will resist Islamisation". britishdems.co.uk. 11 September 2023. Archived from the original on 10 December 2023.
  10. ^ "Bradford East". BBC News. Archived from the original on 8 May 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  11. ^ "Councillor John Robinson joins the British Democrats". British Democratic Party. 14 March 2022. Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  12. ^ "Councillor Julian Leppert joins the British Democrats". British Democratic Party. 16 July 2022. Archived from the original on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  13. ^ "Councillor Roger Robertson joins the British Democrats". British Democratic Party. 2 August 2022. Archived from the original on 2 August 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  14. ^ "Lawrence Rustem elected to Detling Parish Council". British Democratic Party. 19 August 2022. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
    - "The British Democrat Party achieves its first election success in UK in Kent village of Detling near Maidstone". KentOnline. 11 September 2022. Archived from the original on 12 September 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  15. ^ "Election results for Noak Bridge". Basildon Council. 13 October 2022. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  16. ^ "Fascist and far right candidates in local elections". Searchlight. 28 April 2023. Archived from the original on 22 May 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  17. ^ "Election disaster may mean nazi groups unite". Searchlight. 7 May 2023. Archived from the original on 8 May 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  18. ^ "British Democrat councillor Ken Perrin wins by-election for Slade Lode South Ward of Chatteris". Fenland Citizen. 15 March 2024. Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  19. ^ "British Democrats win town council by election in Chatteris". CambsNews. 16 March 2024. Archived from the original on 13 April 2024. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  20. ^ "2024 UK general election candidate summary". Democracy Club. 12 June 2024. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  21. ^ "British Democrats Prospective Parliamentary Candidates Chris Bateman and Lawrence Rustem". Twitter. 25 May 2024. Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  22. ^ "British Democrats to stand in Doncaster North parliamentary constituency". Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  23. ^ "British Democrats to stand in Maidstone and Malling parliamentary constituency". British Democrats. 7 June 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  24. ^ Sommers, Jack (7 April 2018). "Far Right BNP Loses Its Last District Councillor". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
  25. ^ "Local election candidates announced". Thurrock Gazette. 4 April 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
  26. ^ "Derek Beackon Joins the British Democrats!". British Democratic Party. 11 August 2022. Archived from the original on 25 August 2022. Retrieved 25 August 2022.

Further reading

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