Britain First is a far-right,Far right:
British fascist political party and hate group formed in 2011 by former members of the British National Party (BNP). The group was founded by Jim Dowson, an anti-abortion and far-right campaigner. See also: The organisation's co-leaders are former BNP councillor Paul Golding and Ashlea Simon. Jayda Fransen formerly served as its deputy leader.
Britain First is Islamophobic and campaigns primarily against British Muslims and multiculturalism, and advocates the preservation of what it sees to be traditional British culture. It attracted attention by taking direct action such as "Christian patrols" and "invasions" of British mosques. It has been noted for its online activism. It maintains its own security or militia wing, the Britain First Defence Force.
Britain First registered with the Electoral Commission on 10 January 2014; in November 2017, it was statutorily deregistered as a political party by the Electoral Commission after it failed to renew its registration in time. It re-registered in September 2021. Britain First has unsuccessfully contested elections to the House of Commons, the European Parliament, local government, and mayoralty of London.
History Britain First was founded by Jim Dowson, who ran a call centre in Dundonald, East Belfast, for the BNP. Dowson's links with the BNP as a fundraiser ended acrimoniously in October 2010 when he was accused of groping a female activist.- Dowson is a Scottish Christian fundamentalist. Based in Ballygowan, Northern Ireland, he also led an anti-abortion campaign, the UK Life League. He is linked to Ulster loyalist groups in Northern Ireland.
Other former officials from the BNP joined Dowson in the formation of Britain First. Its current leader, Paul Golding, had been a district councillor in Sevenoaks, Kent, in 2009–2011 representing the BNP, as well as the BNP's Communications Officer. Britain First was launched through the "British Resistance" website in May 2011. Others involved in Britain First's launch included the former South East regional organiser of the BNP, Andy McBride, and Kevin Edwards, a former BNP councillor and organiser in Wales.
The party's structure is similar to that of Ulster loyalist groups in Northern Ireland, insofar as the group has a political wing backed up by a paramilitary action force (named "Britain First Defence Force"). The action force's members assume titles such as "provost marshal", and a document written by Jim Dowson said that "I have lived in the worst trouble spots of Belfast; I have had high powered machine gun fire rip bricks from my house and have been injured by grenade attack. Sometimes we had to defend our homes from the traditional enemy, other times from the forces of the state, the police and army."
Britain First announced in 2014 its intention to launch in America as "America First" (not to be confused with America First Party or President Donald Trump's 2018 United States federal budget, America First), but it failed to materialise.
Britain First owes much of its influence to the rise of social media. When Facebook was initially pressed on the matter of allowing Britain First on its platform, it simply stated, "Facebook is used by parties and supporters of many political persuasions to campaign for issues they feel passionately about."
In November 2015, Britain First said that its Facebook page had over a million "likes", more than any other British political party or the British Prime Minister, David Cameron. At the end of November, Facebook briefly closed the Britain First page for breaching its community guidelines. The group also had to remove two photos published without permission.- It later called Facebook "fascist". By October 2017, it had 2 million Facebook followers.
Despite the initial unwillingness to regulate Britain First and similar movements, public pressure continued to mount. In December 2017, Twitter suspended the accounts of Britain First and its leaders Golding and Fransen, after revising its rules on hate speech. When asked, Twitter declined to comment, citing privacy and security reasons. In March 2018, Britain First was banned from Facebook, which said it broke community guidelines and was designed to incite racial hatred. In its official statement on the matter, Facebook stated that this was due to "repeatedly posted content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups". This was received very positively among many across the political spectrum. In a statement, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said, "Britain First is a vile and hate-fuelled group whose sole purpose is to sow division. Their sick intentions to incite hatred within our society via social media are reprehensible, and Facebook’s decision to remove their content is welcome."
In January 2019, after a period in prison for religiously aggravated harassment, Jayda Fransen stepped down from her position as deputy leader and left the party completely.
National People's Party In November 2011, Britain First announced the registration of a political party, the "National People's Party", with Golding named as leader, Edwards as nominating officer and McBride as treasurer.- However, the Electoral Commission register shows Britain First listed itself from November 2011 as a political party, with the same roles for the three officers, and no current or past listing for a National People's Party, so it is not clear whether the National People's Party has a separate existence. The Britain First website carries a constitution for the Party stating, among other things, that "The campaign group Britain First will ... be entitled to put forward a representative to sit on the Standing Committee", a six-person group "tasked with the direction of the Party and running all its affairs".
Northern Ireland offshoot The principal figures in Britain First, Dowson and Golding, launched a new political party in Northern Ireland in April 2013. Dowson was registered with the Electoral Commission as the Protestant Coalition's leader, and Golding as its treasurer. However, Dowson stated at the launch that the Coalition had no single leader.
Golding had flown into Belfast in December 2012 to help co-ordinate protests over the decision by Belfast City Council to limit the flying of the Union Flag over Belfast City Hall. Dowson had been prominent in the protests, and at the time of the launch, was awaiting trial for public order offences, as was another of the Coalition's founders, Willie Frazer.
The website and logo of the Protestant Coalition closely resembled those of Britain First, although neither site explicitly mentioned an organisational link. A comparison of the sites.
Departure of Jim Dowson In July 2014, founder Jim Dowson left Britain First. The Daily Mirror and The Independent wrote that Dowson left because of the party's "mosque invasions", which he considered to be "provocative and counterproductive", as well as "unacceptable and unchristian" and "just as bad" as Anjem Choudary. Paul Golding reacted to this by saying that Britain First was, "as far as right-wing organisations go, relatively scandal-free".-
Britain First itself denied the Mirror story, calling it "chief communist newspaper and lover of all things anti-British". The party claimed to have published a farewell letter from Dowson, in which he cited fatigue and the safety of his family as his reasons to leave.
Appeal to Polish immigrants to join In July 2017, it was reported by BBC News that a string of Britain First videos designed to attract a Polish audience had appeared online, including a video from Jacek Miedlar, a Polish far-right former priest, an interview with a Polish media outlet that has over half a million views, and videos by Polish Britain First supporters encouraging others to support the party.
On 23 June 2017, Marek Zakrocki, a 48-year-old Polish-born Britain First supporter, shouted, "White power" and gave a Nazi salute as he used a white van in an attempt to run over Kamal Ahmed, a curry house owner. The van mounted the pavement twice before making contact with Ahmed and the windows of the curry house were also smashed. Hours earlier, Zakrocki had told the police, "I'm going to kill a Muslim. I'm doing it for Britain." Copies of Britain First newspapers and flyers were found in Zakrocki's home and he also said he had donated money to the organisation.-
Support for Boris Johnson In September 2019, Britain First's former deputy leader Jayda Fransen declared that she was "actually delighted at Boris's work so far" and called for an alliance between the Conservative Party and the Brexit Party in the next general election.
Following Johnson's victory in the 2019 United Kingdom general election, Britain First sent an email to supporters calling on them to join the Conservative Party in order "to make Boris Johnson's leadership more secure", stating that its chief of staff had campaigned for the Conservatives at the last election, and expressing a desire to play an equivalent role to that of Momentum within the Labour Party. Subsequently, Britain First's leader, Paul Golding, announced that he had joined the Conservative Party, hailing Johnson's remarks on the burqa as evidence that Johnson is a "populist nationalist under the surface". However, the party said that his application had not been approved.
On 28 December 2019, Britain First claimed that 5,000 of its members had joined the Conservatives in order to "support Boris Johnson’s stance on radical Islam". Britain First's spokeswoman, Ashlea Simon, stated that the organisation's followers "appreciate Priti Patel's and Boris Johnson's hardline approach" to terrorism.
Electoral history 2014–2016 Britain First registered with the Electoral Commission on 10 January 2014. In 2014, the party registered the phrase "Remember Lee Rigby" for use in the 2014 European elections. The chair of the Electoral Commission later issued an apology "for the offence that has been caused" by accepting the registration.- When questioned by Andrew Neil on the BBC's Daily Politics about the offence caused to Rigby's mother, Paul Golding said, "We apologise to the mother of Lee Rigby, but it was a major act of terrorism, it was a big public event. He was a serving soldier." Britain First stood candidates for the 2014 European elections in Wales and Scotland. It encouraged English supporters, in the absence of a Britain First candidate, to instead vote for the English Democrats or the UK Independence Party (UKIP), while warning against voting for the BNP. The party came 8th of 11 in Wales, with 6,633 votes (0.9%), and 7th of 9 in Scotland with 13,639 votes (1.02%, more than the BNP).
+ European Parliament Election year # of total votes % of overall vote # of seats won Change 2014 20,272 #24 0.1%
Britain First stood its first parliamentary candidate for the Rochester and Strood by-election on 20 November 2014, nominating its Deputy Leader, Jayda Fransen. The party had been active in nearby Gillingham in opposition to a planned mosque. Royal Mail refused to deliver a leaflet for the party because it believed it to be illegal. The company said it could refuse to carry election mail if it considered the contents threatening or abusive. UKIP won the by-election. Britain First finished 9th of 13 candidates, with 56 votes (0.14%), finishing below the Monster Raving Loony Party (with 151 votes, 0.38%) and above the Patriotic Socialist Party (with 33 votes, 0.08%). At the count, the BBC News reporter Nick Robinson was criticised on Twitter for taking a selfie with Fransen, stating that he did not know who she was and that he would check before appearing in any future photographs.