HOW THE EXTREME RIGHT-WING TERRORISM THREAT HAS EVOLVED
History of the threat
23. The British Far Right can trace its roots back to the 1930s and the emergence of Sir Oswald Mosley and his party, the British Union of Fascists. Mosley went on to form the Union Movement, a collection of Far-Right organisations in 1948. The movement contested London elections in 1949, and had a single councillor elected in Cumbria in 1953. Mosley stood for election as a Member of Parliament in both the 1959 and 1966 General Elections but failed to be elected. While the Union Movement faded into obscurity in the 1970s, the National Front was created in 1967, and became a household name by the 1970s. It reached the peak of its popularity in 1979, when it stood candidates in 303 seats in the General Election, but underwent a swift decline in the 1980s.
24. The British National Party (BNP) was formed by John Tyndall, co-founder of the National Front, in 1982. During the 1980s and 1990s, the BNP placed little emphasis on contesting elections, in which it did poorly, focusing instead on street marches and rallies. A growing 'moderniser' faction was frustrated by Tyndall's leadership, and ousted him in 1999. The new leader, Nick Griffin, sought to broaden the BNP's electoral base by presenting a more 'moderate' image, targeting concerns about rising immigration rates and emphasising localised community campaigns. This resulted in increased electoral presence throughout the 2000s (at one stage it had two Members of the European Parliament). Concerns regarding financial mismanagement resulted in Griffin being removed from office in 2014.
25. In 1992, Combat 18 (C18), a White Supremacist and openly neo-Nazi group, was formed by Paul Sargent as a stewarding group to protect events being organised by the BNP from anti-fascists. Opposed to electoral politics, C18 split from the BNP in 1993 on ideological grounds. C18 took control of the Blood and Honour music scene, a neo-Nazi music promotion network and political group founded in the UK in 1987. The group had a close relationship with the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) based in West Belfast and with former members of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), the cover name of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland. In 1998, C18 was associated with a letter-bomb campaign in Denmark, with targets including a left-wing group and an opposing Extreme Right-Wing (XRW) member from the British C18 wing. This was believed to have been orchestrated by a prominent C18 member—Will Browning—in the UK through Thomas Nakaba, a Danish Right-Wing Extremist. Nabaka, who was jailed for the offence, implicated Will Browning at trial for orchestrating the letter-bomb campaign.
26. In 1999, Sargent (who had split from C18 in 1993 over allegations that he was an informant for MI5) and fellow C18 member Martin Cross were sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Christopher Castle (an associate of Paul Sargent, with whom he had been feuding). Will Browning took over leadership of C18, a role he still holds today. C18 remains notorious throughout Europe, and the brand has been adopted by a number of international White Supremacist organisations. C18 retains links to the Blood and Honour music scene, which is now banned in a number of countries: Germany outlawed it in 2000; Spain in 2011; Russia in 2012; and in 2019 the Canadian government placed it on its list of designated terror groups. Blood and Honour is not proscribed in the UK. When we asked the Head of Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) about this apparent anomaly, ***:
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