Exclusive: Game over for EDL’s political front

BFP Leader Weston: Had a jolly nice time

The tiny British Freedom Party, the supposed political arm of the EDL, has been de-registered by the electoral commission.

The decision, which was made with the knowledge of the party leadership without consulting the party membership, surely spells the end for the short-lived religious and racial extremists.

The party was de-registered when its leader Paul Weston and party official Dr George Whale did not respond to the commission’s repeated requests for confirmation that the party was still active, and comes after the party fared worse than they expected in the recent PCC elections in Bedfordshire, where it claimed its 10% of the poll would translate into millions of votes across the country.

Few of the party’s membership are even aware that this has happened. Weston has apparently lost all interest in the party and is keen to look to others for help in forming a totally new alliance, without the former BNP members who actually started the party.

In part, the main problem the party has faced has been  the result of legal difficulties caused by the actions of Jim Dowson who served legal papers on a number of BFP officials. Weston was furious that he had been dragged into an old argument that began back in 2010 when the BFP split from the BNP.

By not responding to repeated requests from the electoral commission for renumerations to keep the party registered, BFP officials have been hoping to avoid being sued.

This ploy is unlikely to work.