The British Democratic Party, better known as the British Democrats, is a fascist political party that split from the British National Party (BNP) in 2013. The split was led by Jim Lewthwaite, a former BNP councillor in Bradford, and Andrew Brons, formerly one of the BNP’s two MEPs and before that a leader of the National Front. 

As the BNP collapsed, the British Democrats offered a home for defectors and exiles. However, the group failed to capitalise on any early momentum and support quickly drained away. Other than fielding small numbers of candidates at elections, the group has spent much of the last decade gathering dust. 

The British Democrats received an injection of new members in 2022, many of whom were former members of the anti-Muslim party For Britain which had folded that year, including Cllr Julian Leppert in Epping Forest and other former BNP figures in London, Essex and Kent. 

Despite this influx, the group stood just five candidates in the 2023 local elections, receiving poor results and Leppert, its sole sitting councillor, lost his seat. The group mustered four candidates at the 2024 general election, all of whom were humiliated at the polls.

The British Democrats has a handful of councillors at the parish level, the lowest tier of local government. This includes former BNP activists Chris Bateman in Basildon, Essex; Laurence Rustem in Detling, Kent; John Robinson in Barnham and Eastergate, West Sussex; and former UKIP councillor Ken Perrin in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire. In April 2025, Peter Lawrence was elected parish councillor in Mylor, Cornwall; the following month, Lawrence was filmed at a protest in Truro blaming “World Jewry” for WWII and denying elements of the Holocaust.

Lewthwaite and other party figures remain active in the UK’s traditional fascist milieu, including Heritage & Destiny and the Traditional Britain Group, and nurtures links to the neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative (PA), with PA activists campaigning for its candidates in election periods.

The party has also attracted figures with violent pasts. This includes David Clarke, an ex-BNP candidate convicted of assaulting four anti-fascists in 2010, who is now one of the group’s most dedicated activists. Last November, a leafleting session in Sussex was attended by Chris Livingstone, a neo-Nazi linked to the now-banned terrorist group National Action. Livingstone was previously the British head of the Misanthropic Division, an international neo-Nazi network closely linked to the paramilitary Azov Battalion. 

Like the wider far right, the party has attempted to capitalise on public anti-migrant sentiment. In particular, Leppert and other party members were at the forefront of protests in Epping, Essex in the summer of 2025 which sparked the most recent wave of protests outside asylum accommodation sites. Members have also been involved in anti-migrant protests in Kent, Wakefield, Aberdeen and elsewhere.

The group has traditionally failed to appeal to younger fascists. However, in recent months a number of former Homeland Party members joined following the implosion of that organisation, swelling membership to roughly 700 at the beginning of this year. New signups include Kai Stephens, a notorious young fascist and new branch organiser in Norfolk. Whether these youthful activists can meaningfully improve the group’s outmoded branding and media operation, or will prove disruptive once again, remains to be seen.