In the elections last week, Britain First performed dreadfully in every seat it contested, marking a hat-trick year of failures at the polls since it was re-registered by the Electoral Commission in 2021.
The party contested the mayoral election in London, and stood just two candidates in council races this year, compared to eight in 2023. Just like last year, and the year before that, it resoundingly failed to pick up new support.
In the London mayoral race, Britain First member Nick Scanlon received 0.8% of the vote — barely 20,000 votes — losing to the joke candidate Count Binface (who picked up 1%). In the end, the only candidate Scanlon beat was Brian Rose (0.3%), a no-hope candidate best known for drinking his own urine.
BF’s two council candidates fared equally poorly. The party ran their lethargic Sussex organiser, David Bamber, in the Cokeham ward of Adur in West Sussex, where he received 12.5% of the vote. He came third to the Tories (34%) and the victorious Labour candidate (39%).
Amanda Peel, an attendee of anti-migrant, anti-LGBT+ and Tommy Robinson-organised demonstrations, ran in Bablake ward, Coventry — she picked up 9% of the vote, coming a distant third behind the Conservative (36%) and winning Labour candidate (38%).
This has been an expensive election for Britain First. The party had to pay £25,000 to contest the London elections — £10,000 to appear in a candidate booklet, another £10,000 for the mayoral deposit, and £5,000 for the Assembly deposit (both of which were lost due to Scanlon’s poor showing). This was in addition to £11,200 on campaign materials and advertising, according to party emails. Typical for Britain First, in the month of April alone, its leader Paul Golding sent approximately 50 aggressive emails asking for donations.
Britain First ran a nasty campaign that failed to break through with the public, referring to the incumbent Sadiq Khan as “that vile Taliban mayor”. In conspiratorial emails to potential voters, Golding said the Metropolitan Police had become the “Sharia Police”, adding that the capital “is being totally colonised by millions of immigrants”. Under Khan, he claimed, London “will be the first Islamist caliphate in the Western world”. Scanlon later heckled the mayor during his victory speech, yelling “Khan killed London” as party members booed from the audience.
This year, BF made its ethnonationalist messaging even more explicit than in previous campaigns. The party repeatedly emailed supporters about “native white British” voters who they hoped to target with electioneering material. In campaign emails, Golding juxtaposed comments about “white Londoners” with photographs of Sadiq Khan — who he called “a treacherous and vile cancer eating away at the heart of London” — praying in mosques.
Britain First attempted to spin their loss as a strategic defeat even before polling day. On a livestream a week before the election, Golding told his followers to moderate their hopes of a win and focus on the exposure the party has received during its campaign — which mostly focused on the southeastern suburbs.
“In Britain First, we’re just biding our time this year. We’re not really putting much stupendous effort into the local elections… We’re just doing what we can to gain attention, to get our message out. London was a perfect opportunity this year to do that. Next year is going to be much more promising, and especially the year after that.”
Paul Golding, 26.04.24
Will this silver-lining approach work with BF’s rank and file? Even if the party was not hoping to win but merely raise awareness, Scanlon’s 0.8% is a very poor showing indeed. It was also a gruelling campaign that left senior figures like Paul Golding and Alex Merola complaining on a pre-election livestream of “fatigue”. “It’s been hectic, it’s been draining,” Golding said defeatedly. The third consecutive year of failure will no doubt raise questions among overworked party activists — who have a notoriously high turnover rate — about the effort and expense of contesting yet another election with no tangible result.
For more information on Britain First, read our report: Britain First: Dysfunctional, Dangerous and in our Communities
Another year, another dismal set of election results for Britain First In the elections last week, Britain First performed dreadfully in every seat it contested,…
