British National Party
- For other uses see, British National Party (disambiguation).
British National Party | |||
---|---|---|---|
Country | United Kingdom | ||
Existence | 1982–present | ||
Headquarters | PO Box 213 Wigton, Cumbria CA7 7AL | ||
Affiliation | Alliance of European National Movements | ||
Colours | Red, white, blue |
The British National Party (BNP) is a British nationalist party. It was founded in 1982 by John Tyndall after a split within the National Front in 1980.
History
At first, before 1982, the party was called the New National Front. The party absorbed the British Democratic Party (1979-1982), the Constitutional Movement and a faction of the British Movement.
Nick Griffin replaced Tyndall in 1999. He "modernised" the party by softening its positions and views on various issues. This contributed to the creation of new parties by dissatisfied former members such as the British Democratic Party and Britain First. Adam Walker is the party leader since 2014.
The British National Party peaked in 2009 when it received 6.3% of the votes (943,598 votes) in the European Parliament election. In the 2010 general election it received 1.9% of the votes (563,743 votes). In the 2015 general election it received only 1,667 votes. Various internal and external factors have been proposed as explaining the decline.