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Andrew Brons (born 3 June 1947) is a British politician. Long active in "far right" politics in Britain, he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber for the British National Party at the 2009 elections.

Early activity

Brons began his political career at seventeen, when he joined the National Socialist Movement. The NSM was a Neo-Nazi organisation founded on Hitler's birthday by Colin Jordan. In the 1960s, its members were responsible for an arson campaign against synagogues and Jewish property.

Brons later joined John Bean's British National Party (unrelated to the party of the same name formed in 1982) which merged with the League of Empire Loyalists to form the National Front (NF) in 1967. Brons contested Harrogate for the National Front in both 1974 general elections, polling 1186 votes (2.3%) in February and 1030 (2.3%) in October. As NF candidate in the Birmingham Stechford by-election of 31 March 1977 he forced the Liberal candidate into fourth place, helping his stature to grow within the NF.

National Front leadership

Following the poor showing by the National Front in the 1979 General Election, Brons was chosen to lead the NF and in doing so broke with his former mentor John Tyndall. Brons though, only led the NF in name only. Initially Martin Webster, who became National Activities Organiser, exerted the most influence before the Political Soldier wing of the party became more important. Brons tended to support the Flag Group although he lost influence to Ian Anderson and faded from his leading position. Nevertheless, Brons had links to the Political Soldier wing and is credited with having introduced the concept of distributism into the party, which formed a central part of the new ideology of the NF.

In October 1983, Brons was leading a group of NF supporters handing out leaflets in Leeds city centre which were heard shouting slogans including "white power" and "death to Jews". When a police officer asked the group to disperse, Brons called him an "inferior being". Brons was brought before Leeds magistrates and convicted of abuse and breaching the peace. He was fined £50.

Although Brons continued as a leading member and even wrote a number of articles for the Political Soldier-supporting Nationalism Today, he was generally opposed to the views of the Official National Front and resigned from the leadership in 1984. He resigned from the party altogether in 1986, along with Martin Webster and others but, unlike Webster, became involved in the Flag Group. It was Brons who, in 1986, approached Tyndall with a view to a reconciliation between the Flag Group and the modern British National Party but the proposed deal came to nothing after it was repudiated by Martin Wingfield in The Flag newspaper. Brons, who had already faded from any real active influence by this point, though very active in policy development (the massive tome that was produced as the 1983 manifesto contained large contributions from him), articles and policy training sessions, stepped away from politics, concentrating on his position as lecturer in Politics and Law at Harrogate College (later part of Leeds Metropolitan University and in 2008 transferred to Hull College).

BNP

Following his retirement as a college lecturer at Harrogate College (aged 61), Brons returned to active politics around 2008, and articles under his name began to appear in the British National Party's magazine Identity. Now a member of the BNP, Brons was elected as a Member of the European Parliament) for the Yorkshire and the Humber constituency in the European Elections 2009 with 9.8% of the vote.

Elections contested

See also

• British National Party
• British National Party (1960)
• British National Front
• National Socialist Movement

References

1. Lazenby, Peter (June 8, 2009). "BNP wins Yorkshire Euro seat". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
2. S. Taylor, The National Front in English Politics, London: Macmillan, 1982, p. 62.
3. "Profile on NF website". Natfront.com. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
4. N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p.33
5. ^ Smithard, Tom (June 03, 2009). "Controversy over abuse conviction of BNP candidate". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 2009-06-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p. 35
7. N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p37
8. N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, pp36-8
9. ^ "Andrew Brons". British National Party. March 4, 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
10. See, for example, Brons, A "The Elusive Causes of Gun & Knife Crime" Identity Oct 2008 Issue 95

• 1947 births
• Living people
• Leaders of the British National Front
• British National Party politicians
• Far-right politics
• Members of the European Parliament for English constituencies