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The far right in the UK: The BNP in comparative perspective. Examining the development of the British Nation Party within the context of UK and continental far right politics Item Type Thesis Authors Anderson, Richard P. Rights <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by- nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. Download date 27/09/2021 00:07:53 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10454/5449 University of Bradford eThesis This thesis is hosted in Bradford Scholars – The University of Bradford Open Access repository. Visit the repository for full metadata or to contact the repository team © University of Bradford. This work is licenced for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence. THE FAR RIGHT IN THE UK: THE BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY R.P.ANDERSON PhD UNIVERSITY OF BRADFORD 2011 THE FAR RIGHT IN THE UK: THE BNP IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Examining the development of the British Nation Party within the context of UK and continental far right politics Richard Paul ANDERSON Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Development and Economic Studies University of Bradford 2011 2 Richard Paul ANDERSON THE FAR RIGHT IN THE UK: THE BNP IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE British National Party, BNP, UK Politics, European politics, comparative politics, far right, racism, Griffin This thesis examines through the means of a comparative perspective, factors which have allowed the British National Party to enjoy recent electoral success at the local level under the leadership of party chairman Nick Griffin. Such electoral successes have arisen despite the seemingly relative obscurity of the party at the turn of the century. A number of different aspects are examined in order to achieve this aim. The history of the far right in the UK is examined to establish whether the BNP have changed their stance in comparison to previous far right movements. The BNP are also investigated comparatively with other West European parties who have enjoyed national success, as a means of discovering whether the party are similar to their far right neighbours and why they have not enjoyed similar national success. The press coverage of the BNP is examined at a local and national level, using content analysis and the LexisNexis database. The thesis looks at the role played by the BNP in local elections and the decline of participation in political activity, to establish if there is a link between these two factors. Finally a case study is taken of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, to establish directly if any of the above factors can be directly applied to BNP electoral success in this district. The research discovers that there are opportunities for the BNP to establish a connection with the electorate in local politics which are not necessarily available at times of general election. 3 Contents Acknowledgements 8 Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Introduction 9 1.2 The history of the far right in Britain 13 1.3 The BNP in comparative perspective 14 1.4 National and local press coverage of the BNP 16 1.5 BNP campaigning at the local level 17 1.6 The BNP in Calderdale 18 1.7 Methodology 20 Chapter Two: Literature review 2.1 Introduction 27 2.2 Defining the far right 28 2.3 Explanations of far right success 31 2.4 The British far right in comparative perspective 34 2.5 The far right potential in Britain 38 2.6 The FN influence on the BNP 41 2.7 Conclusion 43 Chapter Three: The history of the far right in Britain 3.1 Introduction 50 3.2 The far right 1930-1939 53 3.3 Post-war far right in Britain 55 4 3.4 The BNP in the 1980s 59 3.5 The BNP in the 1990s 62 3.6 Nick Griffin 64 3.7 The 2001 riots and local election successes 70 3.8 The BNP membership and voters 75 3.9 Media Outlets for the BNP 76 3.10 The anti-fascist campaign 78 3.11 Mainstream parties 80 3.12 Conclusion 83 Chapter Four: The BNP in comparative perspective 4.1 Introduction 85 4.2 Methodology 86 4.3 The general elections under Nick Griffin 88 4.4 European far right parties under examination 90 4.5 The party structure 95 4.6 Policy 97 4.7 Examining the lack of success for the BNP at the national level105 4.8 Conclusion 120 Chapter Five: Press coverage of the BNP at the 2006 local elections 5.1 Introduction 121 5.2 The influence of the press at election times 123 5.3 The ability of the press to affect the electorate 126 5 5.4 The style of political coverage in the written press 127 5.5 Press coverage of the BNP 130 5.6 The national press coverage of the BNP at the 2006 local elections 133 5.7 Local press coverage of the BNP 146 5.8 Conclusion 157 Chapter Six: BNP campaigning at the local level 6.1 Introduction 160 6.2 The BNP at the local level 161 6.3 The BNP campaigning’s methods 163 6.4 Activism in local politics 166 6.5 The BNP and the local by-elections 175 6.6 Immigration, ‘Islamification’ and fear 180 6.7 Conclusion 183 Chapter Seven: The BNP in Calderdale 7.1 Introduction 185 7.2 Methodology 185 7.3 Introduction to the region of Calderdale 187 7.4 The BNP in Calderdale 190 7.5 Socio-economic statistics and BNP support 196 7.6 The BNP performance in Calderdale 208 7.7 Political participation in Calderdale 211 7.8 Local campaign expenditure 216 6 7.9 By-elections in Calderdale 222 7.10 The fall in BNP support 225 7.11 National issues at the local elections 225 7.12 The performance of BNP councillors 228 7.13 Conclusion 230 Chapter Eight: Conclusion 8.1 Introduction 233 8.2 Leadership and image 234 8.3 The state of local politics 237 8.4 Press coverage of the BNP 240 8.5 The role of the mainstream parties 242 8.6 Future research 243 Appendix 247 Bibliography 261 7 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Roberto Espindola and Dr Mark Baimbridge at the University of Bradford, for their constant patience, advice and guidance throughout my study. I also thank my parents for their love and support, during my postgraduate study. Their support has been indispensable to me. 8 Chapter One: Introduction 1:1 Introduction The emergence of the British National Party (BNP) onto the political scene has seemingly been one of the most intriguing and emotive events in British politics of the past decade. From a position of relative obscurity compared to established mainstream parties at the turn of the twenty-first century, the party are now being seen as a growing political force, particularly following success at the local elections. Indeed the phenomenon of far right success has occurred throughout Western Europe, notably in landmark successes for the Front National (FN) in France and the Freiheits Partei Osterreich (FPO) in Austria, whilst far right success has also been prevalent in countries such as Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. Subsequently, in the recent years, far right parties were arguably enjoying their most successful period in politics. In contrast, Britain has always been regarded as somewhat the exception to the rule with regard to national electoral success for far right parties, in comparison with Western Europe. Indeed, previously, the far right have only enjoyed what can be classed as sporadic local successes in Britain, with no strong movement being established to mount a challenge at the polls in a general election (Hainsworth, 2000; Ignazi 2003; Carter, 2005). 9 However, since the appointment of Griffin as party chairman, the profile of the BNP has begun to rise, whereby following initial success in the Lancashire area in 2002, the party have moved on to become a strong force across England at local elections. Consequently, the party are seemingly provoking great debate amongst the mainstream parties, media and academics alike over their potential impact and subsequently the best methods in which to deal with their growing presence (Renton, 2000; Copsey, 2004; Fieschi, 2004; Sykes, 2005). Indeed, there is no doubting that the subject of the far right is an emotive issue amongst the British electorate, however, given the relatively recent emergence of the BNP, relatively little academic literature investigates their effect with regard to the local level of British politics. Thus, whilst conclusions have been made with regard to the failure of the British far right in comparison with Western European countries, this thesis examines why the BNP have risen from their relative obscurity on the British political map. Therefore, the primary aim of this thesis is to examine the effect that the BNP have made under the leadership of Nick Griffin in a comparative perspective. By doing this, the research intends to understand which factors are influencing the ability of the BNP to enjoy electoral success in the UK local elections. The research aims to determine whether the BNP’s effect is the result of a change in the party itself, or as a consequence of the leadership of Griffin. The 10 thesis aims to analyse the change in ideology of the BNP, from previous far right movements in Britain. Moreover, the thesis aims to establish that if there has been a change in ideology of the BNP, whether this change has brought it into line with the other far right European parties who have been successful at both national and local levels.