ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the political career of John Tyndall, an ardent national socialist revolutionary who had been active in Chesterton’s League of Empire Loyalists before he left to found the National Labour Party (NLP) with John Bean, which subsequently merged with Colin Jordan’s White Defence League (WDL) to become the British National Party (BNP) in 1960. Tyndall, who had become increasingly overt in his political stance, subsequently left the BNP with Jordan to found the National Socialist Movement (NSM). He too was imprisoned but following a deeply damaging personal split with Jordan in 1964, he left to establish his own Greater Britain Movement (GBM) through which he sought to develop a ‘British’ form of national socialism. Through his journal, Spearhead, Tyndall became an important voice within the extreme right milieu and he played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in the formation of the National Front (NF) in 1966, though he was initially excluded from the organisation because of his past politics. Tyndall later presided over the NF, twice – in 1972–1974 and again in 1976–1979 – before his acrimonious departure from the organisation. The chapter concludes by exploring his leadership of the BNP, the party he founded in 1982 and led until 1999, before he was ousted by Nick Griffin.
