James Dowson

James Dowson (born September 1964) is a British far-right political activist. From Airdrie, North Lanarkshire in Scotland Dowson has been active across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. He has been described by The Times as "the invisible man of Britain's far right".

After joining and falling out with the Orange Order, Dowson was active as an anti-abortion militant. He joined the far-right British National Party and was in charge of the party's financial affairs. He later helped found and worked as the main source of funding for Britain First from which he resigned in 2014. He was arrested for his participation in the Belfast City Hall flag protests in late 2012 and was also involved in the Protestant Coalition, a party formed by some involved in the protests. Subsequently, he has also been active in the anti-immigrant Knights Templar International and supporting US president Donald Trump in his 2016 election campaign.

Dowson was a Calvinist minister before entering politics. He was for a time a member of the Orange Order and was associated with a controversial flute band accused of glorifying Michael Stone during parades. Dowson subsequently fell out with the Orange Order after he was forced to leave the movement, even taking part in protests against it where he denounced the group as being filled with "atheists and boozers".

He came to wider attention for his campaigning against abortion, establishing his own group, the UK Life League, in 1999 after meeting with the leaders of Youth Defence, a militant anti-abortion group active in the Republic of Ireland. He courted controversy by setting up a website that published the personal details of sexual health workers, as well as encouraging supporters to bombard Paul Goggins with messages after the Northern Irish Health Secretary had mooted the possibility of relaxing Northern Ireland's tough anti-abortion laws. When the Marie Stopes Clinic (a family planning clinic denounced by its critics as pro-abortion) opened in Belfast in 2012, Dowson took a leading role in the protests that followed. Dowson has also stated that he worked as part of the anti-abortion movement in the United States and used much of what he learned there as part of his career in public relations.

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