The National Liberal Party is a far right political party formed in the United Kingdom in 1999 with several former National Front activists as its most prominent members.Brian Whelan
"Exposed: far-right veteran seeking London multicultural vote"
''Channel 4 News'', 3 May 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2019. Also posted in '' Searchlight'', 3 May 2014 Graham Williamson is listed as Nominating Officer and Upkar Singh Rai is listed as Leader and Treasurer. It has a number of ballot paper descriptions authorised by the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

including: 'National Liberal Party – The Radical Centre' and 'National Liberal Party – Liberty, Independence, Democracy'. The group sporadically contested elections until emerging more prominently in the run-up to the 2014 European Parliament election, where it fielded eight candidates for the London constituency, but failed to meet the threshold of votes for its first list-candidate to be elected.

Background

The National Liberal Party was founded by Graham Williamson and Patrick Harrington. It appeals for ethnic minority votes by focusing on national struggles abroad, with particular emphasis on injustices in Sri Lanka and India. The party ran in the 2010 general election, contesting the Eastleigh seat. Its candidate, Keith Lowe, ran a campaign criticising the sitting MP Chris Huhne for his failure to support a referendum for the public to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon. During the election, the presence of several former National Front (NF) members in prominent positions was raised in the local press, although the general secretary, David Durant – himself a former NF member – said that the party belonged to the "patriotic centre". Despite the far-right and fascist backgrounds of its leaders, the party fielded eight candidates for the 2014 European Parliament election in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, on a multicultural election list including Tamil,

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

and Kurdish candidates. The party manifesto gave no indication of its far-right origins. It said, "The National Liberal Party is putting forward a team of 8 ethnically and racially diverse candidates – Tamil, Sikh, Azerbaijan, Kurdish, English, north Borneo (Sabah-Sarawak), to represent the real grassroots London." One of the group's candidates, Yussuf Anwar, appeared on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's '' Daily Politics'' and declared himself proud of Graham Williamson, arguing that his NF membership was a youthful mistake.

Criticism from the extreme right

Following revelations about the party's origins by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, the NLP was pilloried in ''Heritage and Destiny'', a longstanding periodical closely linked to several groups including the nationalist, frequently neo-fascist and anti-Semitic International Third Position. The article focused on the party's website which named its political progenitors as the

Earl of Rosebery Earl of Rosebery is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created in 1703 for Archibald Primrose, 1st Viscount of Rosebery, with remainder to his issue male and female successively. Its name comes from Roseberry Topping, a hill near Archibald's w ...

Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...

and Leslie Hore-Belisha and criticised the establishment

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

links of all except Chamberlain as well as the perceived lack of ideological connection between the three and even the poor spelling of their names.

Elections contested

Parliamentary elections

General election, 6 May 2010 ---- General election, 7 May 2015 ----

European Parliament elections

2014 European elections

London Assembly elections

2021 London Assembly election

References

{{British political parties Political parties established in 1999 Nationalist parties in the United Kingdom National liberal parties Anti-austerity political parties in the United Kingdom 1999 establishments in the United Kingdom Far-right political parties in the United Kingdom Third Position