UKIP and the BNP

Much has been made recently of UKIP's membership of the EFD Group in Brussels. The EFD is a group of far-right homophobes and holocaust deniers that no self-respecting political party should associate with. But is UKIP a self-respecting political party? Not judging by the photograph (right) of Nigel Farage with Tony 'The Bomber' Lecomber and Mark Deavin.

Every time UKIP takes a step forward it declares war on itself, and takes two steps back. Nigel Farage has always been there, like the love child of Arthur Daley and Peter Mandelson after a threesome with Niccolo Machiavelli. An interesting article followed UKIP's first three MEPs being elected in 1999.

Since that triumph, however, UKIP has been falling to pieces with startling speed. The national executive recently passed a motion of no confidence in its leader, Michael Holmes. He then staged a counter-coup at the party's annual conference in Solihull two weeks ago, which led to the sacking of the entire executive and the closure of the London HQ.

These shenanigans have been observed with great interest by Nick Griffin and the BNP. Until 1997, under the leadership of Dr Alan Sked, UKIP's membership form included a clause stressing that racists were not allowed to join. Soon after Sked's departure, however, the clause mysteriously disappeared. The new leaders, Michael Holmes and Nigel Farage - who are now both MEPs - also set out to "combine our protest" with other anti-Euro campaigners. In his UKIP election leaflet this year, Holmes paid tribute to "citizens' patriotic protest groups" such as Save Our Sterling - presumably unaware that Save Our Sterling was run by the BNP.

How very bizarre. Then, in 2010, Nikki Sinclaire finds herself in hot water, and attacked on national televeision by Nigel Farage MEP, for leaving UKIP's alliance in the EU parliament with the far-right EFD Group. But there's more.

Then came the most disturbing titbit of all: a blurred photo, taken in the summer of 1997, showing Nigel Farage of UKIP chatting to two men. One was Tony "the bomber" Lecomber, the other was Mark Deavin, head of research for the BNP, who had briefly infiltrated UKIP but was expelled in May 1997 after his true affiliations were discovered.

Deavin, who edited Mindbenders, an "expose" of Jews in the media, is also the author of The Grand Plan: The Origins of Non-White Immigration, in which he argues that "the mass immigration of non-Europeans into every White country on earth" had been engineered by "a homogeneous transatlantic political and financial elite to destroy the national identities and create a raceless new world order." Homogeneous, eh? Allow Deavin to explain: "These concerns were Jewish in origin... the promotion of World Government can also be seen to be in line with traditional Jewish messianic thinking."

When the photo was sent anonymously to the UKIP a few months ago, Farage expressed bafflement. While admitting that "I briefly met Mr Deavin at his request on June 17 1997, and had lunch with him in a restaurant," he insisted that "I have no recollection of ever meeting or speaking to Mr Lecomber in my life... I can only surmise that Mr Lecomber was planted outside the restaurant or that the photograph has been doctored."

Mr Farage, for a seemingly astute politician, does seem to be in the habit of bumping into far-right politicians, and wining and dining them. But under every smooth operator, especially in British politics it seems, is a particularly nasty and unpleasant character. So the article continues.

Whatever the explanation, the fact that Farage met Deavin after the BNP man's expulsion was enough to alarm some UKIP members - especially as Farage, who earns his living as a City commodity-broker, is a man who often used words such as "nigger" and "nig-nog" in the pub after committee meetings. A month after the lunch, by an odd coincidence, Deavin wrote an article in the far-right journal Spearhead which discussed the possibility of closer relations between the BNP and UKIP.

But here's an even stranger coincidence. Shortly before the 1997 general election, Mark Deavin spoke freely of his plans to undercover researchers from Searchlight magazine and The Cook Report, who had posed as emissaries from Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National. One necessary step, he said, was to get rid of the BNP leader John Tyndall ("who is actually an obstacle") and replace him with Deavin's chum Nick Griffin. This would leave one other obstacle. "If Blair becomes prime minister," Deavin predicted, "the BNP will be the official opposition in the inner cities, in working-class areas. The UKIP will be the opposition in the shires, the county areas, the middle-class opposition. That party is a serious opposition to us in middle England, but, if we had the resources, we could tear it to pieces."

A further question that needs answering is why UKIP/EFD's rather strange press officer, Mark Croucher, still works for these people. After all it is Mark Croucher who claims to run UKIP's members past Searchlight, the anti-fascist organisation, to ensure no BNP infiltration. But does he?

Why not read the whole article, including the bits about Nick Griffin of the BNP? Please follow this link.