2019 British National Party leadership election
The British National Party (BNP) leadership election of 2019 took place in July 2019 to elect the leader of the BNP. Four years had passed since the previous election in 2015, and the party constitution required a leadership election to be held quadrennially. Incumbent BNP leader Adam Walker was first elected in 2015 after previously serving as Acting Leader and Deputy Leader, and he stood for re-election. His sole opponent was BNP press officer, national spokesman, and London mayoral candidate David Furness. He announced his leadership campaign on his YouTube channel and received endorsements from several notable party members.[1][2][3][4]
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Walker was re-elected by a margin of 147 votes, and a margin of victory of 30.88%. The runner-up David Furness received 161 votes, or 33.82% of the total vote. There were 7 spoiled ballots (equal to 1.47% of the vote). Turnout was 40% of eligible voters, an increase from 2015, although the total turnout had decreased. The returning officer David O’Loughlin announced the results at an unnamed venue in North West London on Monday 29th July 2019, starting at 2pm and concluding later that day. The results were added onto the BNP website on July 31.[5] Furness' name has since been removed across the BNP website, and he later joined the British Democratic Party.[6]
Candidates
All candidates were required to produce a 500 word write up[7] and a 5-minute video election address, both to be published on the BNP website. They were also required to attend a series of husting events for voting members in order to appear on the ballot. Two candidates were confirmed:
- Adam Walker, BNP leader since 2015, previously served as Acting Leader and Deputy Leader
- David Furness, BNP press officer, national spokesman, and 2016 London mayoral candidate
Results
The share of the vote was split 33.82% to Furness and 64.71% to Walker. There were 7 spoiled ballot papers.
| British National Party leadership election, 2019 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Adam Walker | 308 | 64.71% | |
| David Furness | 161 | 33.82% | |
| Spoiled ballots | 7 | 1.47% | |
Future
During Walker's second term as chairman, the BNP has experienced a collapse in its membership, as a large number of nationalist activists once affiliated with the party have begun coalescing around the British Democrats. The BNP has also been essentially inactive since 2019, and have not put forward a single candidate in any elections since 2019, with the only evidence of any activity whatsoever being the occasional post on its website or Twitter account. The primary source of the party's income has come in the form of money from wills left by ex-supporters.[8] Although the party constitution required for a leadership election to occur in July 2023, no candidates appeared to have stood forward, or at least none reached the eight endorsements required from voting members in order to launch a candidacy, so Walker was presumably re-elected by default.[9][10][11]
References
- David Furness: BNP Leadership Election Video Archived 2020-02-28 at the Wayback Machine
- BNP leadership contest: video Archived 2019-11-05 at the Wayback Machine
- Hope not Hate campaign article Archived 2019-07-10 at the Wayback Machine
- Hope not Hate results article Archived 2019-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
- BNP leadership election – results are in Archived 2019-07-31 at the Wayback Machine
- "Former London Mayoral candidate David Furness joins the British Democrats!". Twitter. 8 July 2022.
- Leadership contest candidate profiles Archived 2019-08-02 at the Wayback Machine
- "British National Party pinning hopes on money from wills". BBC News. 2 August 2018.
- "ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2023". BNP. 1 July 2023.
- "What is going on in the British National Party?". Twitter. 27 June 2023.
- "Adam Walker stays on as BNP Chairman for four more years". Heritage and Destiny. 26 July 2023.