Author: Nick Lowles | Date: June 2007

Griffin faces leadership bid

Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, is set to face a leadership challenge this summer from the party’s former North West regional organiser Chris Jackson.

After months of rumours, Jackson has now formally announced his decision to stand. While he has little or no chance of success, Jackson’s candidature has the potential to focus the spotlight on the effectiveness of Griffin’s leadership and the dictatorial way in which he runs the party.

Jackson has been active in the BNP since the late 1980s. During the second half of the 1990s he was the BNP’s North West regional organiser but resigned, citing disagreements with Griffin.

Long considered a hardline nazi, Jackson was close to the BNP’s founder John Tyndall but in the early years of Griffin’s rule opted for the easy life and often failed to back Tyndall publicly.

Now, however, he appears ready for a battle.

Jackson is standing on behalf of the Reform Group, a small network of BNP members who strongly oppose the style of Griffin’s leadership. They include Griffin’s traditional critics such as Richard Edmonds, one-time national activities organiser of the party, but other more mainstream party members are involved.

In a letter circulated to BNP branch organisers, Jackson and the Reform Group outline his reasons for standing.

“The current leader has, and the founder leader had, enormous talent in some directions and, it seems, none in others. This has meant the Party has not been developed in a balanced manner.

“Currently, the Party is effectively run as a dictatorship,” the letter continues. “There are no checks and balances. NG appoints all Party officials and consequently, many are yes men.

“Opinions, other than those of NG, lead to dismissal from Party positions and even dismissal from the Party. Over the years NG has held widely varying political views. This means, in our opinion, that his political judgement is very poor. He has made some serious errors in his appointment of personnel, most particularly the appointment of the unstable character, Tony Lecomber, as his chief regulating officer. Further it should be noted that NG has had a poor history concerning money. No prudent organisation would allow someone with his history to be responsible for Party funds.”

The letter goes on to call for a proper party structure and democratic accountability.

Jackson is trying to appeal to members as a unity candidate, arguing that Griffin has forced out many good nationalists from the BNP simply because they have a different view. A recent meeting in northwest London to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the formation of the National Front was a pointer to the type of extremists he and Richard Edmonds, who spoke at the meeting, would like to welcome back.

While this unity approach might prove popular with those former members now active in numerous minuscule organisations on the far-right fringes, it is unlikely to win much support in the BNP membership at large.

Griffin loyalists initially dismissed the claims as nonsense and the work of their political enemies or agent provocateurs. Some thought they should attack Jackson while others wanted to call in a psychiatrist.

On the face of it Jackson does not stand a chance. However he has far less to lose than Griffin.The incumbent BNP leader will be expected to win by a massive majority, and even then no one will be surprised. Anything lower than a vote of 80% would be very troubling for the BNP leader, especially given the fact that Jackson is virtually unknown to anyone outside the North West and West Yorkshire.

If Griffin’s vote dips below 75% he will be damaged.

There is talk that the BNP will open the pages of British Nationalist, the party’s members’ bulletin, to both candidates. But given Griffin’s usual underhand and undemocratic tactics, he is unlikely to do anything that could give a national airing to Jackson’s criticisms.

There is very little left of the old Tyndall clique, certainly within the party.

But if Jackson plays his cards right he has the potential to tap into a wider disgruntlement with the way Griffin runs the party. This extends to many people who were once Griffin loyalists, though how many are still eligible to vote is another question.

We cannot really expect Griffin to follow the example of the Labour Party and give anyone who joins the party in the run-up to a leadership contest the opportunity to vote. The reverse is much more likely.

Jackson already seems to be attracting support from some unlikely quarters. Michael Easter, a retired well heeled businessman from Kent who has been a fixture on the far right for three decades, has signed up publicly to the Jackson camp.

It is even rumoured that the BNP’s cultural officer, Jonathan Bowden, will throw his weight behind Jackson’s campaign. Bowden was furious when Griffin issued proscription notices prohibiting BNP members from associating and discussing politics with a range of people. This followed a New Right Group meeting that Bowden co-hosted with the group’s leader Troy Southgate, which was addressed by Lady Michele Renouf, a close confidante and backer of David Irving, the Holocaust denying writer. In a furious exchange with Griffin, Bowden threatened to walk out of the party.

Whether Bowden would really want Jackson to win is quite a different matter. He has privately been critical of Griffin for some time and thinks Jackson would be a much better leader.

Another potential supporter of Jackson is Eddy Butler, the party’s elections officer. Butler is not close to Griffin and is reportedly furious that the BNP leader intervened to water down the organisers’ bulletin that proscribed Lecomber after he physically attacked Butler.

Jackson is also likely to receive support in the North West and West Yorkshire, especially Calderdale.

Discussions about launching a leadership bid emerged last year but while rumours circulated on the internet the final decision was only made after the local elections. Good elections results for the BNP would have made the move completely foolhardy. While Jackson is unlikely to succeed, he can hope to tap into growing discontent in the aftermath of the party’s failure to make any election breakthrough.

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