ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the final stages of A.K. Chesterton’s life and political career, focusing on his brief but influential role in the foundation of the National Front, the most prominent party of the far right to emerge in Britain since Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. Drawing from Chesterton’s private correspondence and papers during the last years of his life, this chapter sheds light on the generational and ideological conflicts that would define the National Front from its inception, and would echo throughout the experiences of Britain’s extreme right after 1970: tactical disputes over how to exploit public antipathy towards immigration and European integration, the use of political violence and the ideological conflict between neo-fascists and right-wing populists. By way of conclusion, this chapter discusses Chesterton’s legacy on the extreme right after his death in 1973, and the echoes of his thinking in the contemporary debates surrounding Brexit.
