Britain First is one of the UK’s most active far-right political parties.
In 2024, Britain First will stand in local and national elections hoping to spread their hateful message to voters. Here, we reveal some of the ugly truths behind one of the most well-known UK far-right groups:
RACIST Britain First is a deeply racist party. Their candidates have repeatedly made racist statements and their supporters regularly harass migrants and refugees. For example, Britain First’s Deputy Leader Ashlea Simon said: “English people can’t be black, English blood is white”.
ISLAMOPHOBIC Britain First is an Islamophobic party. They view Muslims as the enemy within and have a history of invading mosques.
PRO-PUTIN PROPAGANDISTS Britain First leader, Paul Golding, has described himself as “great admirer of President Vladimir Putin”, supported Russia’s expansionist goals in Ukraine and has even hidden money there to avoid paying tax in Britain.
VIOLENT THUGS Britain First has violent thugs within its ranks, including Andy Frain, one of the leaders of the infamous Chelsea Headhunter hooligans.
ABUSER In 2019, the BBC obtained a recording where Britain First leader Paul Golding admitted assaulting two women.
Nick Scanlon is standing in the 2024 London Mayoral Elections as a Britain First Candidate.
• Scanlon has stood for Britain First in numerous elections. During his Greenwich campaign he received help from Andy Frain, one of the UK’s most notorious football hooligans. Nicknamed “Nightmare”, Frain is a former member of the Nazi terror gang Combat 18, as well as the British branch of the Ku Klux Klan. Frain has had numerous stints behind bars for violent offences, including for slashing the throat of an off-duty police officer.
• South London-based Nick Scanlon has cycled through a number of fascist groups over the past decade. In 2014, Scanlon stood as a candidate for the BNP in Greenwich (Middle Park and Sutcliffe ward), placing 11th of 12 candidates. Scanlon appears to have maintained his affection for the fascist group, writing in 2018 that the party had been the “real deal” and in February 2020 meeting the disgraced former leader and notorious Holocaust denier, Nick Griffin, for a beer.
• Scanlon was also a core member of Generation Identity UK (GI UK), a now defunct far-right youth group active 2017-2019 which advocated for a form of racial segregation. Scanlon was more extreme than many of his GI contemporaries, for example repeatedly promoting propaganda from the neo-Nazi Mark Collett and openly expressing his desire for a “white ethnostate” during this time.
• In May 2019, Scanlon attended the white nationalist American Renaissance conference in the hope of forging links between US racists and his own organisation, going on to rave about the event on social media. Scanlon has also attended events by the Traditional Britain Group, a racist pseudo-intellectual conference and key networking event for the UK far right.
• After GI UK (by then rebranded as the “Identitarian Movement) folded in January 2020, Scanlon claimed on Telegram that that he had joined Patriotic Alternative (PA), a highly antisemitic fascist group headed by the neo-Nazi Mark Collett, joining the internal chat of the group’s South East branch.
• Scanlon has since been involved with Identity England (IE), a microscopic GI splinter group that launched in October 2020. He remained active in the racial separatist organisation, despite being a BF candidate.
Amanda Peel is standing for Britain First in the 2024 elections in Bablake Ward, Coventry.
• She has been a big supporter of the far-right extremist Tommy Robinson, attended demonstrations organised by him and bragged about donating money to his media outlet Urban Scoop.
• Peel has campaigned in Coventry alongside James White who was convicted of assaulting a security guard at a hotel housing asylum seekers.
• Peel attended an anti-Trans demonstration at the Honour Oak Pub in South London which was addressed by Lawrence Fox.
• She has attended an anti-vaccine protest held outside a school.
David Bamber is standing for Britain First in the 2024 elections in Cokeham Ward, Adur.
• David Bamber is Britain First’s Regional Organiser for the South Coast branch.
• He is a Christian Evangelical fundamentalist and runs a website called ‘Not The End of the World’ which explores biblical prophecies related to the End Times.
• He has attended BF demonstrations outside accommodation housing asylum seekers.
