National Liberal Party (UK, 1999)

For unrelated parties formed in 1922 and 1931, see National Liberal Party (UK, 1922) and National Liberal Party (UK, 1931).

National Liberal Party
Founded	March 1999
Ideology	National Liberalism
Political position	Radical Centre
Colours
Website
http://nationalliberal.org/
Politics of the United Kingdom Political parties Elections

The National Liberal Party is a political party formed in the United Kingdom in 1999. It was registered with the Electoral Commission by Dean Williamson and Graham Williamson on 25 March 1999.[1] The group sporadically contested elections until emerging more prominently in the run up the 2014 European Parliament election. It fielded eight candidates in the London constituency election in May 2014.[2]

History

The party was founded by Graham Williamson and Patrick Harrington. Williamson is a former deputy chairman of the National Front (NF) and a member of the executive of the trade union Solidarity. Harrington was BNP leader Nick Griffin's European Parliament staff manager and a former leading figure in the NF, and general secretary of Solidarity. They ran a nationalist think tank for more than twenty years called the Third Way, named after the third-positionist strategies influenced by the ideology of Roberto Fiore, an Italian fascist. Third-positionist ideas were a great influence on the "Political Soldier" faction of the NF, which included Williamson, Harrington and Griffin.[3] In 1990, a year after the "political soldiers" voted to disband the National Front, Third Way was founded as a political think tank. It was re-registered as "National Liberal Party – The Third Way" in 2006 to run candidates in local elections.[3] The party ran in the 2010 general election, contesting the Eastleigh seat. Their candidate Keith Lowe ran a campaign attacking the sitting MP Chris Huhne for his failure to support a referendum over the Treaty of Lisbon.[4] During the election the presence of several former NF members in prominent position was raised in the local press although General Secretary David Durant, himself a former NF member, claimed that the party belonged to the "patriotic centre".[4]

Despite the far right history of its leaders, the National Liberal Party now has an ethnically diverse membership. The party fielded eight candidates for the European Elections in London in 2014 on a multicultural election list including Tamil, Sikh and Kurdish candidates. The party manifesto gave no reference 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."[3] One of the group's candidates, Yussuf Anwar, appeared on BBC's Daily Politics and declared himself proud of Graham Williamson, arguing that his NF membership was a youthful mistake.[5] Following the revelations about the party's origins from Channel 4, they were also attacked in Heritage and Destiny, a political journal close to the International Third Position. In particular they focused on the party's website on which they named their political progenitors as the Earl of Rosebery, Joseph Chamberlain and Leslie Hore-Belisha. The article criticised the party's choice for the Jewish links of all except Chamberlain (with Heritage & Destiny taking a largely anti-Semitic editorial position) as well as the perceived lack of ideological connection between the three figures and even the poor spelling of their names on the NLP website.[6]

Principles

On its website, the National Liberal Party declares its principles as: • Protect the political and civic freedoms of the individual • Promote Direct Democracy, including greater use of referenda • Support the decentralisation of power to the lowest practical level(s) i.e. ‘subsidiarity’ • Support the widespread ownership of property, both business and personal • Support for the ‘Third’ economic sector i.e. the Independent Small Trader, Self-Employed and Co-operatives • Preservation of the nation state • Support the right of all nations to become one i.e. self-determination. • Recognising the importance of the Family, Community and Nation as building blocks that construct a healthy and stable society whilst accepting those who choose a different lifestyle or outlook • Support measures to keep the land and environment ‘Green and Pleasant’.

Leadership

The ruling body of the party is the National Council. This consists of: Jagdeesh Singh Graham Williamson Upkar Singh Rai Dean Williamson Doris Jones Sockalingam Yogalingam

Officers registered with the Electoral Commission are:

Leader - Upkar Singh Rai

Nominating officer - Mr Graham Williamson

Treasurer - Upkar Singh Rai

Elections contested

Parliamentary elections

General election, 6 May 2010

Constituency	Candidate	Votes	%
Eastleigh	Keith Low	93	0.2

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General election, 7 May 2015

Constituency	Candidate	Votes	%
Ealing, Southall	Jagdeesh Singh	461	1.1
Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner	Sockalingam Yogalingam	166	0.3

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European Parliament elections

2014 European elections

Regional lists	Candidates	Votes	%	MEPs
London	Graham Williamson Jagdeesh Singh Sockalingham Yogalingam Doris Jones Upkar Singh Rai Yussef Anwar Araz Yurdseven Bernard Dube	6,736	0.3	0