National Labour Party (UK 1950s)

National Labour Party
Leader	John Bean
President	Andrew Fountaine
Founder	John Bean
Founded	1957
Dissolved	1960
Preceded by	League of Empire Loyalists
Succeeded by	British National Party
Newspaper	Combat
Ideology	Neo-Nazism, British Nationalism

The National Labour Party was a far right political party founded in 1957 by John Bean. The party campaigned on a platform of white nationalism, anti-Semitism, and opposition to non-white immigration.

Bean had been a leading figure within the League of Empire Loyalists (LEL), although he had become disillusioned with its emphasis on publicity stunts and lack of political action. The problem came to a head in 1957 after A.K. Chesterton sent Bean and Phil Burbidge to the home of Malcolm Muggeridge in order to throw soot on the commentator after he criticised Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom on a TV show. Although the action was not carried out, for Bean it was a prime example of the pointless and childish activism with which the LEL had become synonymous and he soon wrote to Chesterton, bemoaning the weak campaigning of the LEL, its refusal to contest elections, its attachment to a narrow British nationalism and its strong links to the Conservative Party.

Soon after, Bean left the LEL along with John Tyndall to set up the new party, deliberately picking the name to appeal to Labour supporters who were put off by immigration. The nominal party President was to be Andrew Fountaine, although Bean's role as policy director gave him effective control. Producing a journal Combat, the NLP used its pages to campaign for a reduction in the sentences of those convicted over the Notting Hill riots of 1958.

A very small party, the NLP secured some decent results in the London council election, although the Labour Party objected to the NLP's use of its name. At the time, however, ballot papers listed only the names of the candidates, not the names of the parties, so it was probably less likely than it would be today that Labour voters might vote for the NLP by mistake. Buoyed by its minor success, the party organised a Stop the Coloured Invasion rally in Trafalgar Square with banners displayed proclaiming Keep Britain White in May 1959 which drew a crowd of 3,000 to hear speeches by Bean, Fountaine and White Defence League leader Colin Jordan. The monitors at the rally wore white armbands emblazoned with a black sun wheel, the symbol of the Aryan race.

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