John Kingsley Read (18 April 1936 – 18 September 1985) was a British

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

politician and

Holocaust denier Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: *Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" wa ...

. He was chairman of the National Front (NF) from 1974 until 1976, when he founded the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

. A former member of the Conservative Party and chairman of the

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

Young Conservatives, Read left to join the NF in 1973 having addressed a rally against the arrival of

Ugandan Asians In early August 1972, the President of Uganda Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of his country's Indian minority, giving them 90 days to leave the country. At the time, South Asians in East Africa were simply known as "Asians". They had come to dom ...

in Britain earlier that same year in

. A strong orator, Read rose quickly through the NF ranks, his style drawing comparisons to American politician

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...

, to whom he also bore a passing physical resemblance. Read was later denounced as a drunkard by Andrew Fountaine. After securing the support of potential rival

Roy Painter Roy Painter (born 1933) is a former leading figure on the British far right. A cab driver, he was a leading member of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservatives in Tottenham and had stood as a candidate for them in the Greater London Council. A su ...

, Read was elected chairman of the National Front in 1974, with the neo-imperialist

John Tyndall John Tyndall (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was an Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the physical properties of air ...

his deputy chairman, in what was regarded as a vote by the "

populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...

" or

Strasserite Strasserism () refers to a dissident current associated with the early Nazi movement. Named after brothers Gregor and Otto Strasser, Strasserism emphasized revolutionary nationalism, economic antisemitism, and opposition to both Marxist socia ...

wing of the party against the authoritarian Tyndall. Later, Read himself "drifted" into the populist camp but was only narrowly re-elected as chairman in 1975. He tried to expel Tyndall from the party but Read's decision was overturned at the High Court. In 1976, Read left the NF along with many of his followers to establish the

(NP), which won two seats on Blackburn Council, one of them held by Read, but their other councillor was disqualified for election irregularities. Read designed the front cover motif for the British edition of

Arthur Butz Arthur R. Butz is an associate professor of electrical engineering at Northwestern University and a Holocaust denier, best known as the author of the pseudohistorical book ''The Hoax of the Twentieth Century''. He achieved tenure in 1974 and cur ...

Holocaust denial Historical negationism, Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazi Party, Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: ...

book, ''

The Hoax of the Twentieth Century ''The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry'' is a book by Northwestern University electrical engineering professor and Holocaust denier Arthur Butz. The book was originally published in 19 ...

'', which was circulated by the NP. After the murder of a young Sikh man, Gurdip Singh Chaggar, in a suspected racist attack, Read allegedly remarked during a speech at an NP meeting, "One down, a million to go," which effectively ended his presentation of a more "moderate" stance. Read was later acquitted of making the statement in a decision which aroused "furious controversy". Following Read's death in 1985,

Nick Griffin Nicholas John Griffin (born 1 March 1959) is a British far-right politician who was chairman of the British National Party (BNP) from 1999 to 2014, and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North West England from 2009 to 2014. Follow ...

said that Kingsley Read had been working with the knowledge of other leading members of the NF to feed false information to ''

Searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely luminosity, bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a part ...

'' magazine, although John Tyndall was convinced that Read had been a double agent. ''Searchlight'' stated that Read had supplied them with the entire membership list of the National Party. In 1984, Read appeared in ''The Other Face of Terror'', a British documentary about far-right groups. Read openly admitted designing and helping to distribute Holocaust denial material.

Elections contested

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, John Kingsley 1936 births 1985 deaths British Holocaust deniers Councillors in Lancashire English far-right politicians Leaders of the National Front (UK)