UK: BNP split threatens litigation
01 September 2000
The blood-letting predicted after Nick Griffin became leader of the UK's largest fascist organisation, the British National Party (BNP), last September has begun with the expulsion of three key executive members for "disloyal behaviour". Deputy leader Sharron Edwards, her husband and West Midlands regional organiser Stephen, and London-based national treasurer Michael Newland were expelled from the party after Newland questioned Griffin over undocumented expenses. The Edwards backed Newland's inquiries, but were opposed by Griffin and Tony Lecomber who accused them of attempting to overthrow the leadership. The expulsions, which are alleged to have been imposed outside of constitutional procedures, seem likely to follow a long standing fascist tradition of expulsion followed by reinstatement through the intervention of the courts.
Griffin's actions have exacerbated the deep divisions that have riven the party following the defeat and even more humiliating marginalisation of former leader, John Tyndall. Tyndall is now attempting to exploit these divisions, publishing an open letter to Griffin in his magazine Spearhead, calling on him to drop the expulsions which have "created a crisis of confidence and morale in the BNP..." He draws attention to the forthcoming West Bromwich by-election, where Sharron Edwards was expected to get a respectable vote for the BNP, and - without a trace of irony - demands that the former members have "the right of a fair hearing." However, the thought of a court case, at which the BNP's financial dirty washing is aired in public, will appeal to neither Tyndall nor Griffin. The Edwards', who only joined the BNP in 1998 after defecting from the National Democrats, remain relatively unscathed by the BNP's murky financial transactions, and may have different ideas.