Chairman Paul Weston Headquarters Regent Street
London Political position Far-right | Founded March 2013 Membership 400 | |
Ideology Euroscepticism
Culturism
Right-wing populism
Counter-jihad
Alt-Right | ||
Liberty Great Britain or Liberty GB is a far-right British nationalist political party and self-described as Counter-jihad. It was registered with the Electoral Commission on 5 March 2013 by Paul Weston and George Whale. Its three candidates in the 2014 European Parliament election in the South East England constituency received 2,414 votes (0.11%).
Contents
- 2014 European election
- Paul Weston arrest
- Liberty GB radio host trial
- 2016 Batley and Spen by election
- General election 7 May 2015
- References
Weston is a former UK Independence Party (UKIP) member and was one of the party's candidates in Cities of London and Westminster at the 2010 general election. He left UKIP over what he described as its failure to address issues related to Islam in Britain and took over the British Freedom Party (BFP) from Peter Mullins. That party formed an alliance with the far-right English Defence League. Weston left the BFP in 2013. He has predicted that within 20 years there will be a war in Britain between the white working class and immigrants. He is married to a Romanian and claims to have been a deep sea diver, a pilot in Africa and a property developer in the Czech Republic.
Liberty GB is anti-immigration, anti-fundamentalist Islam and traditionalist. The group's Facebook page describes it as "patriotic counter-jihad party for Christian civilisation, Western rights and freedoms, British culture, animal welfare and capitalism".
2014 European election
Liberty GB stood three candidates in the 2014 European Parliament election in the South East England constituency, Weston, Enza Ferreri (Liberty GB's media officer) and Jack Buckby (Liberty GB's outreach officer). Buckby founded the "National Culturists" while at university in Liverpool in 2012. They received 2,414 votes (0.11%) placing it 14th of the 15 parties contesting the election.
Paul Weston arrest
On 26 April 2014, Weston was arrested while addressing passers-by outside Winchester Guildhall. A member of the public complained to police and he was detained after failing to move on under a dispersal order. He was further arrested on suspicion of religious or racial harassment. Weston's speech quoted from Winston Churchill's 1899 book The River War about Churchill's experiences as a British army officer in Sudan; the passage quoted was critical of Islam. Weston is a former UKIP candidate who parted with it over what he described as its failure to address issues related to Islam in Britain and then joined the British Freedom Party.
Liberty GB radio host trial
Tim Burton, a radio presenter who is a member of Liberty GB, was acquitted of charges of racially aggravated harassment on 4 May 2014 at Birmingham magistrates' court. He had tweeted comments about Fiyaz Mughal OBE, a Muslim campaigner of Tell MAMA UK.
2016 Batley and Spen by-election
Following the killing of the incumbent Labour MP Jo Cox, Liberty GB contested the Batley and Spen by-election (the Conservative Party, Liberal Democrats and the UK Independence Party declined to contest it). The party's candidate was Jack Buckby, who was a member of the youth division of the British National Party under Nick Griffin before leaving the party. He claims he left because he believed that the BNP was too racist. Buckby polled just over 1% of the vote and lost his deposit, along with all the candidates except the winner, the Labour candidate Tracy Brabin.
General election, 7 May 2015
The party contested three constituencies, obtaining a total of 418 votes.