For the earlier party by the same name, see National Party (UK, 1917).

The National Party of the United Kingdom (or NPUK for short) was formed on January 6,1976 by John Kingsley Read and other leading National Front members. Seeking a less confrontational solution to immigration than the NF, the NPUK adopted a more populist and neo-Imperialist approach and totally rejected the perceived sympathies which the rival NF faction under the leadership of John Tyndall had towards the Nazis. The NPUK became the first British political party to advocate a policy of privatization of public utilities, even prior to the Conservative Party, which it termed de-nationalization.

Essentially the party was a gathering place for all those who had flocked to the NF after the actions of Enoch Powell but who had found the NF too extreme. Initially the party looked poised for success, and in local elections of 1976 it had two councillors elected in Blackburn, Lancashire. A party journal, Britain First, was published for a while, but the NPUK did not last long, largely because the party had been formed out of disillusioned NF members, most of whom were former Tories who returned to the Conservative fold after Margaret Thatcher became leader.

During its early days the NPUK, largely as a result of the high regard in which Kingsley Read was held, attracted a number of leading figures from the far right scene to its ranks. Dave McCalden, a former NF writer who later emigrated to the United States, was a leading member, as was Richard Lawson, editor of Britain First, Alan Harvey, who subsequently emigrated to South Africa where he edited the magazine S.A.Patriot and now organises the Springbok Club, Roy Painter, a leading Conservative Party member from Enfield, Paul Kingsley, now a lecturer at the University of Ulster, and Steve Brady, an influential figure in Loyalist circles in Northern Ireland.

The party should not be confused with the Nationalist Party which, although having similar roots to the Nationals, was an alternative name for the Constitutional Movement of Andrew Fountaine.

References

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• S. Taylor, The National Front in English Politics, London: Macmillan, 1982
• M. Walker, The National Front, Glasgow: Fontana Collins, 1977

Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom | Neo-Nazi political parties