As the party lurches from defeat to disaster, Mark Scholl wonders how much longer its leader, Paul Golding, can continue to kid enough people to fund his futile activities

In 2016, Paul Golding and his ex‑girlfriend Jayda Fransen were able to lead several hundred supporters through Rotherham in a protest against so-called grooming gangs. This scandal, which rocked the town and left the police and social services with many serious questions to answer, spoke to 20 years of failure – 20 years of letting vulnerable children down at every turn.

Against this background, Golding, Fransen and his reasonably well‑organised Britain First activist corps were able to encourage a segment of the local population to take to the streets. Golding, of course, had no tangible answers, as the authorities, seeing the error of their ways, were slowly starting to look in the mirror and admit to what had happened.

At this time, Searchlight readers may remember, Britain First was trending on Twitter and Facebook and had hundreds of thousands of theoretical supporters. Most important of all, from Golding’s perspective, these were all potential donors and, given the apparent level of political action, they gave generously. When microphones were listening and recorders recording, Golding, in several unguarded moments, admitted that his group had raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Having been trained by, and at the time friendly with, Belfast bible‑basher and financier Jim Dowson, Golding had learnt how to extract the maximum funding from donors and supporters. Dowson and Golding linked up during the relatively heady heights of the British National Party’s (BNP) growth period in the mid to late 2000s, culminating in the election of Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons to the European Parliament.

It was at this time, in Dowson’s Belfast call centre, well organised and very well-funded, that Golding saw opportunities to raise money. He was making several thousand pounds a month from his BNP work at the time.

He was even an elected BNP councillor between 2009 and 2011, horribly misrepresenting St Mary’s Ward, Swanley. Little did he know that the miserable 2.8% of the vote he received as the BNP parliamentary candidate for Sevenoaks in the 2010 general election would be his highest ever personal vote.

What a rap sheet …

Britain First was always about Golding and his need to fund a certain lifestyle. His style, if that is what it is, is the pushy used car salesman from South East London. Everything must be done now, money is needed now, this is the best product – sorry, cause – that your money can buy.

Ask rightwingers for their main criticism of Golding and they will reply: “He’s always asking for money.” If they are reasonably well clued up, they will also tell you that pictures released of various activities always tend to include the same rump of shabbily presented individuals, with Golding in the middle pretending to be a modern-day Winston Churchill.

Begging letters attached to e-mails are sent out weekly, if not twice weekly: Britain, patriots or, more likely, Golding himself, are “under threat”. In the great leader’s case, it’s almost certainly to raise funds to get him out of the latest legal wrangle. But leading a gang of criminals almost certainly requires leadership by example. Here is a flavour of the Golding rap sheet: criminal damage, breach of the peace, harassment, breach of court order, religious harassment, assault, religiously aggravated harassment, threatening abusive and insulting language, inciting racial hatred, offences under the Terrorism Act. Were that not enough, there are also two jail sentences, one suspended sentence and numerous fines and community orders.

But there are other crimes that Golding has been accused of, not the least of which were hugely serious allegations made against him by none other than former lover and deputy leader Jayda Fransen, who said that during their abusive relationship, he hit her on several occasions. These revelations sent shockwaves throughout Britain First and the fascist movement in general. Great damage was caused to Golding and many activists left there and then.

Now, Fransen associates with Nick Griffin, Jim Dowson, a small group of anti-abortion activists in Northern Ireland where she lives and makes regular weekly videos in which supporters are encouraged to donate during proceedings.

Going down …

Fast forward to today and Britain First is still on the scene. But nothing has changed, except that Golding, and his new Jayda, the hapless Ashlea Simon from Walkden, Manchester, now run the party.

Despite the claims that Britain First is led by “the last man standing on the nationalist scene” and that Golding’s supposed “experience” (the arrests? the prison sentences? the woman beating? the hatred directed at minorities, especially Muslims?) makes him the “natural leader of the nationalist movement”, his party is in decline.

Still able to pull in lots of money, often from former supporters who do not even realise that their small recurring donations of £5 or £10 continue to be taken from their bank accounts, the party has gone from defeat to disaster.

A recent “national conference,” reported by Searchlight, was held in what can only be described as a scout hut complete with an ancient 1980s games console sitting in the corner! The attendance, as all the imagery we examined indicated, was under 40.

This is not a thriving national movement. It has fewer active branches than ever and sources tell us that Golding and Simon know this and are organising regional events only in order to give the impression, to donors, that activities continue apace.

Hence pictures of various, obvious, publicity gimmicks around the UK. Banner drops that last 30 minutes. Photographing a handful of activists with a large anti-immigration banner sneaking onto Parliament Square in London early one morning. Driving the ancient Britain First battle buses into Blackpool only to be given short shrift by police and public alike. And, most recently, another “national march” in Tamworth peopled by a busload of around 40 activists.

The normal procedure is to take plenty of photos and video, stick them on Britain First social media accounts on Telegram and Twitter/X and pretend that this really is (honest, guv) a “growing nationalist movement”.

Irrelevant

The problem is, it is the same few people in most photographs, which means that the demands on hardcore activists, a few dozen nationally, are huge – money, time, travel, effort, danger. That’s because Britain First is not only unpopular, but largely irrelevant on the nationalist scene and Golding knows it. From 300 marchers to under 50 in ten years. Hardly the stuff of legends.

Then there are elections. This is a story of utter and embarrassing failure from a mere 400 votes in the Wellingborough by-election to absolute disaster in the London Mayoral Election, where Nick Scanlon, the Britain First candidate, got around 1% of the vote and was ignominiously defeated by joke candidate Count Binface.

Britain First simply cannot compete with Reform UK Ltd – not a chance. Voters will always opt for the marginally more respectable Faragistas. Worse still, Golding and Simon spent tens of thousands (£50k, we’re told) on the London campaign. Much of this was to guarantee that candidate Scanlon appeared in the official booklet offered to several million voters and delivered to all houses in advance of polling. Golding, boasting about this inclusion, claimed it would bring in huge interest, more supporters, funds, credibility. But, we understand, it almost bankrupted the party, bringing Golding’s decision-making again into serious question.

Better grifters

Last man standing? Maybe within Britain First’s weird little orbit, but do not forget, Golding is up against the British Democrats, with seasoned, veteran fascists like Andrew Brons, Jim Lewthwaite, Laurence Rustem and old BNPers like Derek Beacon. Then there is Patriotic Alternative, clearly better grifters than Golding, Robin Tilbrook’s comedy English Democrats, getting in bed with the political Mary Celeste that is UKIP; the Homeland Party under Kenny Smith that has had a reasonably good year, and Alek Yerbury’s National Rebirth Party that, although small, is engaging in real time local political activity with limited success.

And there are others too, particularly the whole casual street movement under the direction of the grifter par excellence, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), the hooligans’ favourite Irishman living in Spain on his Irish passport.

With Britain First, it is always about the money – and to donate you would have to have a failing or short-term memory. Urgent money for legal bills, newspapers, leaflets, the occasional election, security for the alleged “fantastic new Britain First HQ” that is permanently shrouded in mystery, which looks more like Harry Potter’s broom cupboard under the stairs – complete with thousands of undelivered Britain First leaflets – money for new cameras, money for trips abroad and so it goes on …

What has the several millions Golding has got through since Britain First was founded actually delivered from a nationalist point of view? Virtually nothing apart from arrests, charges, prison sentences and regret. It has failed to deliver anything of note and Golding presents a very shabby appearance these days, despite having tens of thousands of donors’ money on which to draw.

Simply stunts

Where is it all going? ask former members, people on the far right, donors and activists.

How long will Golding and Simon be able to carry on in this current iteration of Britain First? Not long, if their own propaganda pictures are anything to go by. When you release pictures of a banner drop and there are more union flags on display than activists there is a problem. It is gesture politics at its worst.

There are few local branches. Election candidates are appointed way beyond their natural ability. An example of this is wannabe Proud Boy Alex Merola, the Wellingborough failure whose only ability appears to be agreeing enthusiastically with Leader Golding during BF live streams.

Boasting about being friends with Tommy Robinson does not appear to help Golding either. Why would it? Nobody apart from football hooligans, the desperately misled and bigoted, support Yaxley Lennon. And he is better at grifting than Golding. The gig may indeed be up …

Just as we pen this testament to Golding’s failing political entity, the Great Leader has rather proved our point with a Telegram post that says: “Britain First takes over a busy roundabout in Salford, Manchester.”

We rest our case …