Nick Griffin

For the American comedian, see Nick Griffin (comedian).

Nick Griffin
Griffin at a BNP conference, 2009
President of the British National Party
In office 21 July 2014 – 1 October 2014
Chairman of the British National Party
In office 27 September 1999 – 21 July 2014
Preceded by	John Tyndall
Succeeded by	Adam Walker
Member of the European Parliament for North West England
In office 4 June 2009 – 2 July 2014
Preceded by	Den Dover
Succeeded by	Louise Bours
Personal details
Born	Nicholas John Griffin (1959-03-01) 1 March 1959 Barnet, England
Nationality	British
Political party	British National Party (1995–2014) National Front (1974–1989)
Spouse(s)	Jackie Griffin (1985–present)
Relations	Edgar Griffin (father) Jean Griffin (mother)
Children	4
Residence	Llanerfyl, Powys, Wales
Alma mater	Downing College, Cambridge
Profession	Politician

Nicholas John Griffin (born 1 March 1959) is a British nationalist politician who represented North West England as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2014. He served as chairman and then president of the British National Party (BNP) from 1999 to 2014, when he was expelled from the party.

Born in Barnet, Griffin was educated at Woodbridge School in Suffolk. He joined the National Front at the age of fourteen and, following his graduation from the University of Cambridge, became a political worker for the party. In 1980 he became a member of its governing body, and later wrote articles for several right-wing magazines. He was the National Front's candidate for the seat of Croydon North West in 1981 and 1983, but left the party in 1989. In 1995 he joined the BNP and in 1999 became its leader. He stood as the party's candidate in several elections and became a member of the European Parliament for North West England in the 2009 European elections. Under Griffin's leadership, the party drifted away from its original hardline white nationalist ideology and ultimately became the civic nationalist and counterjihad organization that it is today.

In 1998, Griffin was convicted of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred, for which he received a suspended prison sentence. In 2006 he was acquitted of separate charges of inciting racial hatred. Griffin has been criticised for many of his comments on political, social, ethical and religious matters, but after becoming leader of the BNP he sought to distance himself from some of his previously held positions, which include Holocaust revisionist views. In recent years, events where Griffin has been invited to participate in public debates or political discussions have proven controversial and often resulted in protests and cancellations.

Early life and education

The son of former Conservative councillor Edgar Griffin and his wife Jean, Nicholas John Griffin was born on 1 March 1959 in Barnet and moved to Southwold in Suffolk aged eight. He was educated at Woodbridge School before winning a sixth–form scholarship to the independent Saint Felix School in Southwold, one of only two boys in the all-girls school.

Griffin read Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf when he was fourteen, and "found all but one chapter extremely boring". He joined the National Front in 1974, while he was still fourteen, though he had to pretend he was fifteen, and at the age of sixteen is reported to have stayed at the home of National Front organiser Martin Webster. In a four-page leaflet written in 1999, Webster, an open homosexual, claimed to have had a same-sex relationship with Griffin, then the BNP's publicity director. Griffin has denied any such relationship.

From 1977, Griffin studied history, then law, at Downing College, Cambridge. His affiliation with the National Front was revealed during a Cambridge Union debate, and his photograph was published in a student newspaper. He later founded the Young National Front Student organisation. He graduated with a second-class honours degree in law (2:2), and a boxing blue, having taken up the sport following a brawl in Lewisham with a member of an anti-fascist party. He boxed three times against Oxford in the annual Varsity match, winning twice and losing once. In an interview with The Independent, he said he gave it up because of a hand injury. He is a fan of Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe, and an admirer of Amir Khan.

Political career

1970s–1990

Following his graduation, Griffin became a political worker at the National Front headquarters. As a teenager he had accompanied his father to a National Front meeting, and by 1978, he was a national organiser for the party. He helped set up the White Noise Music Club in 1979, and several years later worked with white power skinhead band, Skrewdriver. In 1980, he became a member of the party's governing body, the National Directorate, and in the same year launched Nationalism Today with the aid of Joe Pearce, then editor of the NF youth paper Bulldog. As a National Front member, Griffin contested the seat of Croydon North West twice, in the 1981 by-election and 1983 general election, securing 1.2% and 0.9% of the vote.

Membership of the National Front declined significantly following the election of the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher. As a result, the party became more radicalised, and a dissatisfied Griffin, along with fellow NF activists Derek Holland and Patrick Harrington, began to embrace the ideals of Italian fascist Roberto Fiore (Fiore had arrived in the UK in 1980). By 1983, the group had broken away to form the NF Political Soldier faction, which advocated a revival of country "values" and a return to feudalism with the establishment of nationalist communes. Writing for Bulldog in 1985, Griffin praised the black separatist Louis Farrakhan, but his comments were unpopular with some members of the party. He also attempted to form alliances with Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi and Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, and praised the efforts of Welsh nationalist movement Meibion Glyndŵr.

Following a disagreement with Harrington (who subsequently formed the Third Way), and objections over the direction the party was headed, in 1989, Griffin left the National Front. Along with Holland and Fiore, he helped form the International Third Position (ITP), a development of the Political Soldier movement, but left the organisation in 1990. In the same year, he lost his left eye when a discarded shotgun cartridge exploded in a pile of burning wood, since when he has worn a glass eye. The accident left him unable to work, and owing to other financial problems he subsequently petitioned for bankruptcy (the accident occurred in France, where he later lost money in a failed business project). For several years thereafter, he abstained from politics and was supported financially by his parents. He later stewarded a public Holocaust denial meeting hosted by David Irving.

1993–1999

Griffin re-entered politics in 1993 and, in 1995, at the behest of John Tyndall, joined the British National Party (BNP). He also became editor of two right-wing magazines owned by Tyndall, Spearhead and The Rune. Referring to the election of the BNP's first councillor, Derek Beackon, at a 1993 council by-election in Millwall, he wrote:

The electors of Millwall did not back a post modernist rightist party, but what they perceived to be a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan "Defend Rights for Whites" with well-directed boots and fists.

Tyndall, also previously in the National Front, had founded the BNP in 1982, but his "brutal, streetfighting background" and admiration for Hitler and the NSDAP had made any kind of respectability impossible amongst the increasingly secular British society of that era. In his 1999 leadership campaign, Griffin embarked on a strategy to make the party electable, by taking it away from Tyndall's ultranationalist image. He was helped by Tyndall's lack of familiarity with the mainstream media, and in the party's September election he defeated Tyndall to become head of the BNP. One of Griffin's changes included moderating the party's emphasis on the removal of multiculturalism, a policy it claims has a destructive influence on both immigrant and British cultures. This realignment was designed to position the BNP alongside successful European ultranationalist groups, such as the French Front National. Street protests were replaced by electoral campaigning, and some policies were moderated (the compulsory repatriation of ethnic minorities was instead made voluntary). Other policies included the introduction of capital punishment for paedophiles, rapists, drug dealers and some murderers, and corporal punishment for less serious crimes such as juvenile delinquency. Griffin's image as a Cambridge-educated family man was in contrast to the hardline image presented by the BNP under Tyndall's leadership. In October 1999, Nick Griffin, supported by Tony Lecomber, stood against Tyndall for leadership of the BNP. John Tyndall received just 411 (30%) of the votes, while Griffin the majority 70%.

2000–present

Griffin has stood as his party's candidate in several English elections since joining the BNP. In 2000, he stood in West Bromwich West, in a by-election triggered by the resignation of Betty Boothroyd. He came fourth, with 794 votes (4.21 per cent of those cast). Following the Oldham race riots he ran in Oldham West and Royton in the 2001 general election. He received 6,552 votes (16 per cent of those cast), coming third ahead of the Liberal Democrats, but closely behind the second place Conservatives, who received 7,076 votes. He again stood for election in the 2003 Oldham Council election, for a seat representing the Chadderton North ward. He came second to the Labour candidate, receiving 993 votes (28 per cent of those cast). In the 2004 European Parliament election, when he was the BNP candidate for the North West England constituency, the party received 134,959 votes (6.4% of those cast), but won no seats. In the 2005 general election he contested Keighley in West Yorkshire, and polled 4,240 votes (9.2 per cent of those cast), finishing in fourth place.

File:Bnp press conference from flickr user britishnationalism.jpg

Richard Barnbrook (left) and Griffin at a press conference outside the Palace of Westminster in May 2009

Griffin was the BNP candidate in the 2007 Welsh National Assembly Elections, in the South Wales West region. The BNP received 8,993 votes (5.5 per cent of those cast), behind the Labour party's 58,347 votes (35.8 per cent). In October 2007, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Thurrock Council election. In November 2008, the entire membership list of the BNP was posted on the Internet (though the list may have included lapsed members of the party and people who had expressed an interest in joining the party, but had not signed up). Griffin claimed that he knew the identity of the individual responsible, describing him as a hard-line senior employee who had left the party in the previous year. He welcomed the publicity that the story generated, using it to describe the common perception of the average BNP member as a "skinhead oik" as untrue.

He was elected as a member of the European Parliament for North West England in the 2009 European Elections. The BNP polled 943,598 votes (6.2% of those cast), gaining 2 MEPs. Griffin and fellow MEP Andrew Brons were subsequently pelted with eggs as they attempted to stage a celebratory press conference outside the Houses of Parliament. A second venue – a public house near Manchester – was chosen the following day. A line of police blocked a large group of protesters, who chanted "No platform for Nazi Nick" and "Nazi scum off our streets". Griffin viewed the election as an important victory, claiming that his party had been demonised and blocked from holding public meetings. "In Oldham alone there have been hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on employing bogus community workers to keep us out. To triumph against that level of pressure as a political party has never been done before."

In May 2009, he was invited by the BNP representative on the London Assembly, Richard Barnbrook, to accompany him to a Buckingham Palace garden party hosted by Queen Elizabeth II. The invitation prompted objections from several organisations and public figures, including the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, and the communist anti-fascist organisation Searchlight. Griffin declined this first invitation, but when invited personally in 2010 he accepted:

This event shows just how far this party has come in the last few years but I won't be at the Palace for myself or my family. No! I will be there to represent the patriots who made this possible; I'll be there for you. I'll be there for all the stout-hearted men and women who down through the turbulent years tramped the streets with me in all weathers knocking doors, and those who ran the gauntlets of hate wherever we went.

The Palace later decided to deny Griffin entry to the event, claiming that he had used his invitation "for party political purpose through the media", and citing security concerns. Griffin claimed the decision was an "absolute scandal", and appeared to be "a rule invented for me."

In September 2009, he appealed to party activists for £150,000 of extra funding for the BNP. In the letter, he said that the party's ailing fortunes were a direct result of "attacks on the party". He also defended questions by the Electoral Commission about the transparency of BNP funding. In November 2009, Griffin was a witness at the trial of an Asian far-left extremist, Tauriq Khalid, at Preston Crown Court. The prosecution claimed that in November 2008 Khalid repeatedly drove past a demonstration that Griffin was attending, and on the second occasion shouted "white bastards". Khalid admitted shouting derisory comments at Griffin and other demonstrators, telling the jury he shouted "Nick Griffin, you fucking wanker" and "Get the fuck out of Burnley, you're not welcome here", but denied shouting "white bastard". Griffin gave evidence against Khalid, and affirmed that Khalid had shouted "white bastard" at him. Griffin said the man "leaned out of the car and pointed at me and made a gun and gang gesture", and that he threatened him by shouting "I'm going to ...". Griffin said he had left the demonstration early, fearing for his safety. The 23-year-old defendant denied his comments had any racial intent, and was found not guilty. Griffin later commented "I think it's unfortunate and I think it's wrong, but that's the jury's right. They saw all the evidence, I accept their decision. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it."

In the 2010 general election he contested the Barking constituency polling 6,620 votes and finishing in third place. In 2011, following the loss of many of the council seats the BNP held in England, Griffin narrowly survived a leadership challenge.

In 2010 Griffin announced that, by 2013, he would stand down as leader, to focus on his European Parliament election campaign. He lost his seat in Europe in the May 2014 European election and stepped down as BNP leader on 19 July 2014, becoming the organisation's president. But on 1 October, the party announced that it had expelled Griffin, who, it claimed, was "deliberately fabricating a crisis" and leaking "damaging and defamatory allegations". Following his departure from the BNP, he founded the British Unity Party, which has been described as a "non-membership organisation with around two thousand followers on Facebook".

Prosecution

1998

In 1998, Griffin was convicted of violating section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to the offence of 'publishing or distributing racially inflammatory written material' in issue 12 of The Rune, published in 1996. Griffin's comments in the magazine were reported to the police by Alex Carlile, then the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire. Following a police raid at Griffin's home, he was charged with distributing material likely to incite racial hatred. Fellow BNP member Paul Ballard was also charged, but entered a guilty plea and did not stand trial. Griffin pleaded not guilty, and was tried at Harrow Crown Court. He called the French Holocaust revisionist Robert Faurisson and the nationalist Osiris Akkebala as witnesses, was found guilty and given a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years, and a £2,300 fine. Ballard was given a six-month sentence, also suspended for two years. He said:

I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that six million Jews were gassed and cremated and turned into lampshades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the world is flat.

Griffin claimed that the law under which he was convicted was an unjust law and he therefore had no obligation to follow it. He was secretly recorded by the ITV programme The Cook Report in 1997 describing Carlile as "this bloody Jew ... whose only claim is that his grandparents died in the Holocaust".

2004–2006

Nick Griffin and Mark Collett leave Leeds Crown Court on 10 November 2006 after being found not guilty of charges of incitement to racial hatred at their retrial.

On 14 December 2004, Griffin was arrested at his home in Wales, on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred, over remarks he made about Islam in an undercover BBC documentary titled The Secret Agent. He was questioned at a police station in Halifax, West Yorkshire, before being freed on police bail. He said that the arrest was "an electoral scam to get the Muslim block vote back to the Labour party" and that the Labour government was attempting to influence the results of the following year's general election.

Griffin's arrest was made two days after those of John Tyndall and several other people, over remarks they had made in the same programme. Following its broadcast on 15 July 2004, the police began an investigation into the programme's contents. The following April he was charged with four offences of using words or behaviour intended or likely to stir up racial hatred. The trial began in January 2006. Griffin stood alongside fellow party activist Mark Collett, now the leader of the Patriotic Alternative organization, who faced similar charges. Prosecuting, Rodney Jameson QC told the jury of six speeches that the accused had made in the Reservoir Tavern in Keighley on 19 January 2004. Reading excerpts from them, he claimed that they included threatening, abusive and insulting words directed at "people of Asian ethnicity", with the intention of "stirring up racial hatred".

Griffin was also condemned by the political left for calling murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence a drug dealer and bully who stole younger pupils' dinner money. In the witness box he defended himself by quoting passages from the Qur'an, saying that his comments describing Islam as a "vicious, wicked faith" were attacking not a race, but a religion. During the two-week trial he used a laptop to post daily updates on a blog on the BNP's website. In his closing address, defence barrister Timothy King QC said:

Mainstream opinion in this country will be offended by some of the statements that they have heard made. At the same time, of course, the courts make their judgements on these things. But if there is something that needs to be done to look at the law then I think we will have to do that.

Gordon Brown

The British National Party is a legal, political entity. It has a right in a democratic society to put forward ideas and policies which some might find uncomfortable and some might find even offensive. There has been a tendency in this case to over-analyse speeches, to take one line here and one line there. You have got to look at the overall impact of these speeches—remember the context of each speech.

Griffin and Collett were cleared of half the charges against them—the jury remained divided on the other charges, and a retrial was ordered. On 10 November 2006, after five hours of deliberations, the jury cleared them of all charges. They were met outside the court by about 200 supporters, who Griffin addressed with a megaphone. He attacked Tony Blair and the BBC, and defended the BNP's right to freedom of speech. BNP Deputy Chairman Simon Darby later claimed that had Griffin been convicted, the BNP leader planned to go on hunger strike.

Public debates

Following his election as BNP leader, Griffin was invited to participate in debates at several universities. In November 2002, the Cambridge Union Society invited him to take part in a debate the following January. Titled "This house believes that Islam is a threat to the west", the resolution was controversial; alongside more moderate speakers, one of those invited was Abu Hamza al-Masri, a Islamic fundamentalist cleric. Some participants threatened to withdraw, and several official bodies criticised the invitations. The two had met earlier in the year, in a debate chaired by Rod Liddle, then editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. | archivedate = 19 June 2009}}</ref>

In a BBC interview on 8 June 2009, Griffin claimed that "global warming is essentially a hoax" and that it "is being exploited by the liberal elite as a means of taxing and controlling us and the real crisis is peak oil". He was a representative of the European Parliament at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, where he repeated his claim that global warming is a hoax, and called advocates of action on climate change, such as former American Vice President Al Gore, "mass murderers" by supporting biofuels, claiming that their use would lead to the "third and the greatest famine of the modern era". A Greenpeace spokesman said, "In reality the environmental and development groups he has been disparaging have been in the forefront of concerns about biofuels. Griffin's claims that climate change is a hoax is one of many curious things going on between his ears."

Family and personal life

Parents

Griffin's father, Edgar Griffin (born 1921, Brighton, East Sussex) was previously a long-standing Conservative Party member and from 1959 to 1965 a councillor for the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone. He also served as a councillor on Waveney District Council during the 1980s. Griffin's mother, Jean (née Thomas), whom Edgar married in 1950, was an unsuccessful BNP candidate for Enfield North in the 1997 general election, in Chingford & Woodford Green for the 2001 general election and for London in the 1999 European elections.

Personal life

Griffin lives with his family in a farmhouse in Llanerfyl, near Welshpool, in Wales. He is married to Jackie Griffin, a former nurse who also acts as his assistant and a BNP administrator. He has four children, some of whom are actively involved with the party, and a sister. He was declared bankrupt in January 2014.

Elections contested

UK Parliament elections

Date of election	Constituency	Party	Votes	%	Source(s)
22 October 1981 by-election	Croydon North West	NF	429	1.2
1983 general election	Croydon North West	NF	336	0.9
23 November 2000 by-election	West Bromwich West	BNP	794	4.2
2001 general election	Oldham West and Royton	BNP	6,552	16.4
2005 general election	Keighley	BNP	4,240	9.2
2010 general election	Barking	BNP	6,620	14.6

Welsh Assembly elections (Additional members region; party list)

Date of election	Region	Party	Votes	%	Result	Source(s)
2007 Welsh Assembly election	South Wales West	BNP	8,993	5.5	Not elected

European Parliament elections (Multi-member constituency; party list)

Date of election	Region	Party	Votes	%	Result	Source(s)
2004 European election	North West England	BNP	134,959	6.4	Not elected
2009 European election	North West England	BNP	132,094	8.0	Elected
2014 European election	North West England	BNP	32,826	1.9	Not elected

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

• Constituency website
• BNP website
• Nick Griffin's official Twitter
• European Parliament profile of Nick Griffin

Party political offices
Preceded by John Tyndall	Chairman of the British National Party 1999–2014	Succeeded by Adam Walker