The history of the National Front, a far-right political party in the United Kingdom, began in 1967, when it was founded by A. K. Chesterton.
Late 1960s: formation
The National Front was established as a coalition of small extreme-right groups which were active on the fringes of British politics during the 1960s. These were the British National Party (BNP), the League of Empire Loyalists (LEL), the Racial Preservation Society (RPS), the Greater Britain Movement (GBM), and some branches of the Anglo-Rhodesian Society. Many in these parties were experiencing growing frustration at their powerlessness.
The LEL's leader A. K. Chesterton was concerned that the Monday Club, a newly established group on the hard right of the Conservative Party, would take some of the support away from his LEL. After returning from his holiday in South Africa in early 1966 Chesterton resolved to unite various right-wing groups. Over the following months many members of Britain's extreme-right visited him at his Croydon apartment to discuss the proposal. Among these visitors were John Tyndall and Martin Webster of the Greater Britain Movement, Colin Jordan of the National Socialist Movement, and David Brown of the Racial Preservation Society. Chesterton believed that it would be political suicide to unite with Jordan and his group because of their overt Neo-Nazi agenda. He was also cautious about Brown, believing that he deemed his RLP to be too important, and that Brown wanted "everything handed over lock, stock and barrel" to him. In principle, everyone agreed with the idea of unification, but there were many personal rivalries that made the process difficult. Chesterton instead saw the BNP, and in particular its more moderate figures Andrew Fountaine and Philip Maxwell, as a viable option to unite with. A faction of the RLP, led by Robin Beauclair, also agreed to join the venture. The BLP was eager to accelerate the process of integration, in part because it was running out of funds and hoped that the LEL could help to financially sustain it.
Independent of Chesterton, Tyndall also supported the concept of unification, proposing the idea of a merger between his GBM and the LEL. In the spring of 1966 he and seven other GBM members were arrested for the possession of weapons. This resulted in many other right-wingers seeking to distance themselves from him and his organisation. In September 1966, the BNP and RPS agreed to a merger between their two groups, to establish the National Democratic Party. As part of this agreement they stipulated that they would avoid involvement with Tyndall and his GBM. Brown's insistence that he be the new group's sole leader caused dissent and the proposed merger foundered within a week.
Chesterton and the BNP agreed that Tyndall and the GBM would not be invited to join their new party. According to Chesterton, the GBM's "past utterances on anti-semitism and pro-Nazism would most certainly not be part" of the new party's policies. Various names for the new party were mooted, with the options including the "National Independence Party" and the "British Front". In December 1966 they agreed on the name "National Front". At the LEL's annual conference in October 1966, at which BNP were in attendance, it was agreed that a working committee to investigate which policies the two parties could agree upon. The LEL's secretary, Austen Brooks, became the committee's chairman. The working committee met twice a month between November 1966 and February 1967. The BNP did not push for the adoption of its preferred policies, aware that with its numerical superiority it would dominate the new party and thus could change any policies it disagreed with at a later date. Its initial policies revolved around opposition to the political establishment, anti-communism, support for Rhodesia and the white dominions, and both an end to immigration into Britain and the repatriation of all settled immigrants to their ancestral nations.
Early 1970s: growth
The National Front was officially established on 7 February 1967, with Chesterton as its first chairman. On its foundation it had approximately 2500 members, 1000 of which had come from the BNP, 300 from the LEL, and over 100 from the RPS. In his study of the NF, the journalist Martin Walker noted that "for the great union of the Right, the National Front was a feeble beginning". According to Thurlow, the formation of the NF was "the most significant event on the radical right and fascist fringe of British politics" since the internment of the country's fascists during the Second World War. The first year of the party's existence was marked by a power struggle between the LEL and BNP factions. The former LEL were frustrated by the behaviour of many in the former BNP, such as their propensity for chanting. Chesterton emphasised the idea that the NF should be an elite movement, something perceived as a rebuke to many ex-BNP members, who began calling him "the Schoolmaster". With Chesterton escaping the British winter by holidaying in South Africa each year, the LEL gradually became less influential within the NF.
The majority of the BNP had hoped and expected that Tyndall and his GBM would join them in the NF, and on taking power of the party they called for this to happen. In June 1967, Tyndall then told the 138 GBM members that his organisation was being "discontinued" and that as individuals they should join the NF. Tyndall had written a book titled Six Principles of British Nationalism in which he had espoused more moderate positions than those he previously promoted; he believed that this was the most important factor in Chesterton changing his mind on GBM membership. Chesterton then publicly welcomed Tyndall and the GBM as members, contravening his earlier commitment to keeping those associated with Neo-Nazism away from the NF.
The party held its first annual conference in October 1967, when it was picketed by anti-fascist demonstrators. In January 1968 the Liverpool-based British Aid for the Repatriation of Immigrants joined the NF, to be followed later that year by another Liverpudlian group, the People's Progressive Party. In 1969, the NF gained further recruits from the Anglo-Rhodesian League and the Anti-Communist League. In March 1971 the Manchester branch of the National Democratic Party (NDP) defected to the NF, and In December 1971 they were joined by the Newcastle Democratic Movement. Although there were discussions of a potential merger with the NDP in September 1970, the NF Directorate ultimately refused to endorse this.
Challenges to Chesterton
In 1968, Chesterton's leadership was challenged by ex-BNP member Andrew Fountaine, who was backed by Gerald Kemp and Rodney Legg. A leadership election produced a strong mandate for Chesterton and his challengers left the party. Throughout this, Tyndall had remained loyal to Chesterton. There was further arguments in the party after the lease ended on their Westminster HQ. LEL members wanted another base in Central London, while the GBM and BNP factions favoured moving to the former GBM's HQ, the "Nationalist Centre" in Tulse Hill. Chesterton backed the LEL position and rented a small office in Fleet Street. In March 1968, the NF stood in the Acton by-election, securing 5.5% of the vote, likely drawing upon concerns regarding the recent arrival of Kenyan Asians into Britain.
In April 1968, the Conservative Party politician Enoch Powell made his Rivers of Blood speech, a populist appeal against non-white immigration into Britain, which helped make immigration the foremost political topic in the country's media. Powell used language similar to that of the NF, although proposed policies that were more moderate than those espoused by the latter; in contrast to the Front's calls for the compulsory removal of non-white migrants from the UK, Powell instead advocated a voluntary system of repatriation. Tyndall believed that Powell's speech would benefit the NF more than the Conservatives, and a growing number of individuals on the right wing of the Conservative Party defected to the NF. The NF sought to capitalise on this by organising a training scheme in autumn 1968 in which branch officers and group organisers met at Tyndall's Nationalist Centre to learn skills in public speaking, propaganda, and branch organisation. Conversely, the NF also feared losing some of its members to hard right elements of the Conservatives, such as the Monday Club. The NF also supported the infiltration of Conservative branches, in the belief that this could help to undermine the party as a whole.
In the 1969 local elections, the NF fielded 45 candidates, averaging 8%, with a few of their candidates securing over 10%. They focused on these latter seats in the 1970 local elections, fielding 10 candidates, although almost all secured under 5%. In the 1970 general election, it contested nine seats and attracted an average of 3.7%, with its best result being in Islington North, where it gained 5.6%. It is likely that much of the support that the NF desired had instead gone to the Conservatives, who (influenced by Powell) had promoted a tougher stance on immigration in their campaign. The party had faced militant left opposition, including a lorry that was driven into their Tulse Hill building in 1969, and to counter this the NF installed a spy in the London anti-fascist movement. Against Chesterton's wishes, NF activists began carrying out stunts to raise publicity for them; in December 1968 they marched on a London Weekend television show uninvited and in spring 1969 assaulted two Labour Party ministers at a public meeting, thus accruing a reputation for rowdiness. While Chesterton was in South Africa, a faction led by Gordon Brown launched a leadership challenge against him. On realising that his support was weak, Chesterton resigned.
In the 1970 local elections, the NF fielded 84 candidates, averaging 5.2% of the vote.
O'Brien's leadership: 1971–72
Brown offered the party's leadership to Tyndall, but the latter declined the offer. Tyndall instead endorsed John O'Brien, a Powellite who had contacts across Britain's far-right. The NF directorate was unconvinced but with no alternative selected O'Brien in February 1971. With Chesterton gone, the party's directorate restructured the party's constitutional procedures away from a more autocratic leadership. It also divided the party directorate into sub-committees, each responsible for overseeing one of its different aspects.
O'Brien and his supporters soon grew frustrated with Tyndall and Walker's continuing friendship with German Neo-Nazi groups and their links with the Northern League. He called on the directorate to expel Walker from the party, claiming that he brought it into disrepute, although was out-voted. In protest at O'Brien's actions, Tyndall offered his resignation from the position of Vice Chairman before then revoking that. In June 1972, O'Brien and his allies left the party and joined John Davis' National Independence Party, taking the NF's membership with them.
Tyndall's leadership (1972-1974)
With O'Brien gone, Tyndall assumed the position of party chairman in July 1972. He immediately centralised the party's activities at its new headquarters in Croydon. According to the historian of fascism Richard Thurlow, under Tyndall the NF represented "an attempt to portray the essentials of Nazi ideology in more rational language and seemingly reasonable arguments", functioning as an attempt to "convert racial populists" angry about immigration "into fascists".