Britain First

Britain First
Co-leadersPaul Golding
Ashlea Simon
FounderJim Dowson
Founded2011; 13 years ago (2011)
Split fromBritish National Party
Ideology
Political positionFar-right[7][8]
Colours  Red   White   Blue
Website
www.britainfirst.org

Britain First is a far-right,[9] British fascist[1] and neo-fascist[2] political party and hate group[2] formed in 2011 by former members of the British National Party (BNP).[10] The group was founded by Jim Dowson, an anti-abortion and far-right campaigner.[11] The organisation's co-leaders are former BNP councillor Paul Golding and Ashlea Simon.[12][7] Jayda Fransen formerly served as its deputy leader.[13]

Britain First campaigns primarily against multiculturalism and what it sees as the Islamisation of the United Kingdom, and advocates the preservation of traditional British culture. It attracted attention by taking direct action such as "Christian patrols" and "invasions" of British mosques.[10][14] It has been noted for its online activism.[15]

Britain First registered with the Electoral Commission on 10 January 2014;[16] in February 2017, it was statutorily deregistered as a political party by the Electoral Commission after it failed to renew its registration in time.[17] It re-registered in September 2021.[18] Britain First has unsuccessfully contested elections to the House of Commons, the European Parliament, local government and mayoralty of London.

  1. ^ a b Abramsky, Sasha (30 November 2017). "Trump Is Now Openly Supporting Fascists". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020 – via www.thenation.com.
  2. ^ a b c "Trump attacks UK PM over criticism of far right support". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 16 April 2022. Brian Klass, an academic at the London School of Economics, wrote: "Here in the UK, Britain First is (correctly) seen as a neo-Fascist hate group".
  3. ^ Cassidy, John (16 June 2016). "Murder of British M.P. heightens uncertainty over Brexit vote". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 28 April 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  4. ^ "Northern Ireland politics rocked by launch of new Unionist/Loyalist political party, press statement". britainfirst.org. Britain First. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  5. ^ Staff writer (5 October 2017). "After failing to take over UKIP, the far right is at bay". The Economist. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  6. ^ "Principles of the Britain First Movement". Britain First. Archived from the original on 29 November 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
    • See also:
      • "European elections: Party-by-party guide". BBC News. 23 May 2014. Archived from the original on 18 May 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2014. On its website, the party promises to promote a 'robust and confrontational' message about the need to leave the European Union, end immigration and put British workers first.
  7. ^ a b Gallagher, Paul (28 May 2013). "Far right extremist group Britain First threatens to arrest Islamist cleric Anjem Choudary". The Independent. Archived from the original on 21 September 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bienkov was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "Britain First: inside the extremist group targeting mosques". Channel 4 News. 19 June 2014. Archived from the original on 2 November 2019. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
    - Palmer, Ewan (20 May 2014). "Who are Britain First? The far-right party 'invading' mosques". International Business Times. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
    - Gadher, Dipesh (25 May 2014). "Far right invades mosques to hand out Bibles". Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
    - Nouri, Lella; Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria; Watkin, Amy-Louise (4 March 2021). "Impacts of Radical Right Groups' Movements across Social Media Platforms – A Case Study of Changes to Britain First's Visual Strategy in Its Removal from Facebook to Gab". Studies in Conflict & Terrorism: 1–27. doi:10.1080/1057610X.2020.1866737. ISSN 1057-610X. S2CID 233822625.
  10. ^ a b Palmer, Ewan (20 May 2014). "Who are Britain First? The far-right party 'invading' mosques". International Business Times. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  11. ^ Mayer, Catherine (6 November 2014). "Far-right U.K. group gets millions of hits and expands into the U.S." Time. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  12. ^ "CO-LEADER: ASHLEA SIMON". Britain First. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  13. ^ "Jayda Fransen: Ex-Britain First deputy leader convicted over hate speech". BBC News. 29 March 2019. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  14. ^ Gadher, Dipesh (25 May 2014). "Far right invades mosques to hand out Bibles". Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  15. ^ "Britain First". electoralcommission.org.uk/. Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  16. ^ "View registration". The Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 8 September 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  17. ^ "Far-right group Britain First registers as a political party". BBC News. 27 September 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2021.