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| Andrew Brons Right |
Andrew Brons, the BNP’s Yorkshire & Humber MEP, has finally publicly broken ranks with Nick Griffin in a sign that could eventually lead to a split in the party. Brons has tried to appear neutral in the ongoing feuds that have engulfed the BNP over the past year but privately he has long taken the view that either Griffin has to go or a new party should be created.
Speaking on a nationalist website a couple of days ago, Brons announced that unless the current leadership has a complete change of heart and reforms the constitution he will be supporting Richard Edmonds’s leadership challenge.
Of course Brons does not believe a successful leadership challenge is likely, not least because Griffin has a knack of suspending or expelling any opposition to him. Even if it were, many do not believe that the BNP is a viable operation any more given the size of its debts. He does, however, believe that a strong challenge, which is likely to be met by a further crackdown by Griffin, could split the party.
There have been rumours about Brons launching a new far-right party for some time but the Yorkshire & Humber MEP has dithered for so long that some of his previous supporters have already left and joined the English Democrats.
Brons is a hardline racial nationalist and so there is no way he would follow the others into the English Democrats, but he has been desperate not to be the person who brings down the BNP. Rather, he hoped, the election results would be so terrible – which they were – and the debts so crippling that party members would turn to him as a saviour.
I’ve written a long article on all this in the new issue of Searchlight, which also carries our analysis of the 2011 election campaign. You can get the magazine here: https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/subscribe/
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