ABSTRACT
The history of the fascist movement in Britain has had manyinterpretations. Some have seen its rise as one of the major threats to the stability of British politics in the 1930s. Thus two prominent
historians of the decade have written:
When Sir Oswald Mosley formed his British Union of Fascists in the autumn of
1932 it seemed that many of the ingredients which were shortly to bring Hitler to
power existed also in Britain. Here also there was mass unemployment and a
paralysing economic depression; here also the middle class was insecure and
Others have seen the importance of the B.U.F. less in terms of its strength
and appeal than in terms of its failure, that ‘its presence was marginal to the
mainstream of British politics’.2 However, Robert Skidelsky has argued in
his major biography of Mosley that fascism retained a significant following
right up to the outbreak of the Second World War, surviving the impact
of the Public Order Act of 1936 and the loss of many of its wealthy and
influential backers in the mid-1930s. The B.U.F., it has been argued, was
reviving in the years before the war and it was only the outbreak of war
The British Union of Fascists was formed by Sir Oswald Mosley in
October 1932. It was not the first group to adopt the ‘fascist’ title and the
paramilitary character later identified with the B.U.F. The British Fascisti
had been founded in May 1923 by Miss R.L. Lintorn-Orman. Later changing
their name to the British Fascists, they pursued a programme of patriotism
and anti-communism. The organisation’s aim was to defend the constitu-
tion against attacks from communists and to preserve a disciplined organis-
ation in case of an emergency. In the late 1920s and early 1930s it adopted a
more clearly defined programme, with emphasis upon a corporate state,
large-scale reforms of the economic and financial structure, and the exclusion
of Jews and aliens from public office, the electoral roll and other positions of
influence. A considerable amount of attention was given to reforming the
trade unions. Strikes were to be declared illegal and compulsory arbitration
introduced. Secret ballots were to be introduced instead of card votes, and
alliances between trade unions were to be outlawed. In external affairs,
Britain was to repudiate treaties which bound her to armed intervention,
but use the expanded armed forces to preserve the Empire. It was largely a
middle-class movement, deriving its basic appeal from its militant patriotic
stance, but with an increasingly fascist emphasis after 1927, when dark uni-
forms were adopted. By the early 1930s, however, its membership was tiny,
probably no more than a few hundred, and was often beset by internal rifts
and disagreements about policy.4 Another right-wing group was the
National Fascisti, who seceded from the British Fascists during the 1920s. It
had a small membership, mainly concentrated in the London area, and was
more self-consciously modelled on Italian lines. In addition, there was the
Imperial Fascist League, dominated by Arnold Leese, a veterinary surgeon
and ex-member of the British Fascists. The I.F.L. was largely financed by
Leese and published a newspaper, The Fascist, from 1929. Its membership
never reached more than a thousand, but it brought a more strident anti-
None of these groups had a significant impact upon British politics. They
were regarded as crankish movements who caused even the police little
anxiety or concern. It was only with the foundation of the B.U.F. by Sir
Oswald Mosley that fascism in Britain attained significance. Mosley was
born in 1896, the son of wealthy parents and heir to a baronetcy. He was
educated at Winchester and Sandhurst, where he showed more aptitude for
sport than learning. At the outbreak of the First World War he joined a
cavalry regiment, but later moved to the Royal Flying Corps in which he was
wounded twice. He entered politics in 1918 as the Conservative member for
Harrow, but soon found himself uncomfortable in the party’s ranks. In the
General Elections of 1922 and 1923, he stood successfully as an Independent
Conservative candidate. His break with the Conservatives, however, was
only made final when he joined the Labour Party in April 1924. At a by-
election in 1926 he was elected Labour member for Smethwick.
