Editing British Union of Fascists (section)

==History==
===Background===
[[File:History of British fascist political groups.svg|thumb|295x295px|Flowchart showing the history of the early British fascist movement]]
[[Oswald Mosley]] was the youngest elected [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] MP before [[crossing the floor]] in 1922, joining first [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] and, shortly afterward, the [[Independent Labour Party]]. He became [[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]] in [[Ramsay MacDonald]]'s [[Second MacDonald Ministry|Labour government]], advising on rising unemployment.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1930-11-04/debates/03005d1c-b6cc-41d5-8f84-2af22811babd/ChancellorOfTheDuchyOfLancaster|title=Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - Hansard - UK Parliament|access-date=30 June 2020|archive-date=3 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200703084808/https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1930-11-04/debates/03005d1c-b6cc-41d5-8f84-2af22811babd/ChancellorOfTheDuchyOfLancaster|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1930, Mosley issued his Mosley Memorandum, which fused [[protectionism]] with a proto-[[Keynesian]] programme of policies designed to tackle the problem of unemployment, and he resigned from the Labour Party soon after, in early 1931, when the plans were rejected. He immediately formed the [[New Party (UK)|New Party]], with policies based on his memorandum. The party won 16% of the vote at a by-election in [[Ashton-under-Lyne (UK Parliament constituency)|Ashton-under-Lyne]] in early 1931; however, it failed to achieve any other electoral success.<ref>{{cite book |last=Powell |first=David |date=2004 |title=British Politics,1910-35 - The Crisis of the Party System |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ch22p6goYYkC&q=BUF+50,000+members&pg=PA181 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415351065}}</ref>

During 1931, the New Party became increasingly influenced by [[fascism]].<ref name="Britaininthe1930s"/> The following year, after a January 1932 visit to [[Benito Mussolini]] in [[Italy]], Mosley's own conversion to fascism was confirmed. He wound up the New Party in April, but preserved its youth movement, which would form the core of the BUF, intact. He spent the summer that year writing a fascist programme, ''The Greater Britain'', and this formed the basis of policy of the BUF, which was launched on 1 October 1932<ref name="Britaininthe1930s">Thorpe, Andrew. (1995) ''Britain In The 1930s'', Blackwell Publishers, {{ISBN|0-631-17411-7}}</ref> at 12 [[Great George Street]] in London.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dorril |first=Stephen |url=http://archive.org/details/blackshirtsirosw0000dorr |title=Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism |publisher=Viking |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-670-86999-2 |pages=216}}</ref>

===Early success and growth===
[[File:Olympia Exhibition Centre - geograph.org.uk - 908621.jpg|thumb|The [[Olympia Exhibition Centre]] in [[London]], site of the party's 1934 rally sometimes cited as the beginning of the movement's decline]]
[[File:Oswald Mosley and Benito Mussolini 1936.jpg|thumb|Italy's ''[[Duce]]'' [[Benito Mussolini]] (left) with BUF leader [[Oswald Mosley]] (right) during Mosley's visit to Italy in April 1933]]
The BUF claimed 50,000 members at one point,<ref>{{cite journal |author=Andrzej Olechnowicz |title=Liberal Anti-Fascism in the 1930s: The Case of Sir Ernest Barker |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies |volume=36 |number=4 |date=Winter 2004 |page=643}}</ref> and the ''[[Daily Mail]]'', running the headline "Hurrah for the Blackshirts!", was an early supporter.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://voiceoftheturtle.org/dictionary/dict_h1.php |title=The Voice of the Turtle |date=20 December 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021220165318/http://voiceoftheturtle.org/dictionary/dict_h1.php |archive-date=20 December 2002}}</ref> The first Director of Propaganda, appointed in February 1933, was [[Wilfred Risdon]], who was responsible for organising all of Mosley's public meetings. Despite strong resistance from anti-fascists, including the local [[British Jews|Jewish community]], the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], the [[Independent Labour Party]] and the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]], the BUF found a following in the [[East End of London]], where in the [[London County Council]] elections of March 1937, it obtained reasonably successful results in [[Bethnal Green]], [[Shoreditch]] and [[Limehouse]], polling almost 8,000 votes, although none of its candidates was elected.<ref>R. Benewick, ''Political Violence and Public Order'', London: Allen Lane, 1969, pp. 279-282</ref> The BUF did elect a few councillors at local government level during the 1930s (including Charles Bentinck Budd ([[Worthing]], [[Sussex]]), 1934; Ronald Creasy ([[Eye, Suffolk]]), 1938) but did not win any parliamentary seats.<ref>Bartlett, Roger ''Comrade'' Newsletter of the [[Friends of Oswald Mosley]], ''When Mosley Men Won Elections'' (November 2014)</ref><ref>''Blackshirts on-Sea: A Pictorial History of the Mosley Summer Camps 1933-1939'' J. A. Booker (Brockingday Publications 1999)</ref><ref>''Storm Tide - Worthing: Prelude to War 1933-1939'' Michael Payne (Verite CM Ltd 2008)</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.shorehamherald.co.uk/lifestyle/the-notorious-charles-bentinck-budd-and-the-british-union-of-fascists-1-6274383|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170131131603/http://www.shorehamherald.co.uk/lifestyle/the-notorious-charles-bentinck-budd-and-the-british-union-of-fascists-1-6274383|archive-date = 31 January 2017|title = The notorious Charles Bentinck Budd and the British Union of Fascists |work=Shoreham Herald}}</ref> Two former members of the BUF, Major Sir [[Jocelyn Lucas]] and [[Harold Soref]], were later elected as [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Members of Parliament]] (MPs).<ref>"When Mosley Men Won Elections", ''Comrade'' (newsletter of the Friends of Oswald Mosley), November 2014</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/reviews/item/the-man-who-might-have-been|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926142058/http://www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/reviews/item/the-man-who-might-have-been|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 September 2015|title = BOOK REVIEW the Man Who Might Have Been |publisher=Jewish Socialists' Group}}</ref>

Having lost the funding of newspaper magnate [[Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere|Lord Rothermere]], that it had previously enjoyed, at the 1935 general election the party urged voters to abstain, calling for "Fascism Next Time".<ref>[http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/features/century/cbf.php?include=page3 1932-1938 Fascism rises—March of the Blackshirts] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081003002905/http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/features/century/cbf.php?include=page3 |date=3 October 2008}}</ref> There never was a "next time" as the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|next general election]] was not held until July 1945, five years after the dissolution of the BUF.{{Citation needed|date=October 2016}}

Towards the middle of the 1930s, the BUF's violent clashes with opponents began to alienate some [[middle-class]] supporters, and membership decreased. At the Olympia rally in London, in 1934, [[Fascist Defence Force|BUF stewards]] violently ejected anti-fascist disrupters, and this led the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' to withdraw its support for the movement. The level of violence shown at the rally shocked many, with the effect of turning neutral parties against the BUF and contributing to anti-fascist support. One observer claimed: "I came to the conclusion that Mosley was a political maniac, and that all decent English people must combine to kill his movement."<ref>Lloyd, G., ''Yorkshire Post'', 9 June 1934.</ref>

In Belfast in April 1934 an autonomous wing of the party in [[Northern Ireland]] called the "Ulster Fascists" was founded. The branch was a failure and became virtually extinct after less than a year in existence.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=4051595 |title=The Swastika and the Shamrock: British Fascism and the Irish Question, 1918-1940 |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=57–75 |last=Douglas |first=R.M. |year=1997 |doi=10.2307/4051595}}</ref> It had ties with the [[Blueshirts]] in the [[Irish Free State]] and voiced support for a [[United Ireland]], describing the [[partition of Ireland]] as "an insurmountable barrier to peace, and prosperity in Ireland".<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/july-17th-1934-1.537920 |title=July 17th, 1934 |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |author=Joe Joyce |date=17 July 2012}}</ref> Its logo combined the [[fasces]] with the [[Red Hand of Ulster]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Loughlin |first=James |title=Northern Ireland and British fascism in the inter-war years |journal=Irish Historical Studies |date=November 1995 |volume=29 |issue=116 |pages=537–552 |doi=10.1017/S002112140001227X}}</ref>

===Decline and legacy===
The BUF became more [[antisemitic]] over 1934–35 owing to the growing influence of Nazi sympathisers within the party, such as [[William Joyce]] and [[John Beckett (politician)|John Beckett]], which provoked the resignation of members such as [[Robert Forgan]]. This antisemitic emphasis and these high-profile resignations resulted in a significant decline in membership, dropping to below 8,000 by the end of 1935, and, ultimately, Mosley shifted the party's focus back to mainstream politics. There were frequent and continuous violent clashes between BUF party members and [[anti-fascist]] protesters, most famously at the [[Battle of Cable Street]] in October 1936, when organised anti-fascists prevented the BUF from marching through Cable Street. However, the party later staged other marches through the East End without incident, albeit not on Cable Street itself.

BUF support for [[Edward VIII]] and the peace campaign to prevent a second [[World War II|World War]] saw membership and public support rise once more.<ref name="thurlow94">Richard C. Thurlow. ''Fascism in Britain: from Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts to the National Front''. 2nd edition. New York, New York, USA: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2006. p. 94.</ref> The government was sufficiently concerned by the party's growing prominence to pass the [[Public Order Act 1936]], which banned [[political uniform]]s and required police consent for political marches.

In 1937, William Joyce and other Nazi sympathisers split from the party to form the [[National Socialist League]], which quickly folded, with most of its members [[interned]]. Mosley later denounced Joyce as a traitor and condemned him for his extreme antisemitism. The historian [[Stephen Dorril]] revealed in his book ''Blackshirts'' that secret envoys from the Nazis had donated about £50,000 to the BUF.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Fenton|first1=Ben|title=Oswald Mosley 'was a financial crook bankrolled by Nazis'|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1513465/Oswald-Mosley-was-a-financial-crook-bankrolled-by-Nazis.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1513465/Oswald-Mosley-was-a-financial-crook-bankrolled-by-Nazis.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|work=Daily Telegraph|date=20 March 2006 |access-date=16 July 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

By 1939, total BUF membership had declined to just 20,000.<ref name="thurlow94"/> On 23 May 1940, Mosley and some 740&nbsp;other party members were interned under [[Defence Regulation 18B]]. The BUF then called on its followers to resist invasion, but it was declared unlawful on 10 July 1940 and ceased its activities.<ref name=SDI/><ref name=AS>{{cite book |author=Andrew Sangster |title=An Analytical Diary of 1939-1940: The Twelve Months that Changed the World |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |date=2017 |url=  https://books.google.com/books?id=MVvXDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA276 |page=276|isbn=9781443891608 }}</ref>

After the war, Mosley made several unsuccessful attempts to return to political life, one such being through the [[Union Movement]], but he had no successes.