TheBritish Union of Fascists (BUF) was aBritish fascistpolitical party formed in 1932 byOswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to theBritish Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to theBritish Union. In 1939, following the start of theSecond World War, the party wasproscribed by the British government and in 1940 it was disbanded.
The BUF emerged in 1932 from the electoral defeat of its antecedent, theNew Party, in the1931 general election. The BUF's foundation was initially met with popular support, and it attracted a sizeable following, with the party claiming 50,000 members at one point. The press baronLord Rothermere was a notable early supporter. As the party became increasingly radical, however, support declined. TheOlympia Rally of 1934, in which a number ofanti-fascist protestors were attacked by the paramilitary wing of the BUF, theFascist Defence Force, isolated the party from much of its following. The party's embrace ofNazi-styleantisemitism in 1936 led to increasingly violent confrontations with anti-fascists, notably the 1936Battle of Cable Street in London'sEast End. ThePublic Order Act 1936, which bannedpolitical uniforms and responded to increasing political violence, had a particularly strong effect on the BUF whose supporters were known as "Blackshirts" after the uniforms they wore.
Growing British hostility towardsNazi Germany, with which the British press persistently associated the BUF, further contributed to the decline of the movement's membership. The party was finally banned by the British government on 23 May 1940 after the start of the Second World War, amid suspicion that its remaining supporters might form a pro-Nazi "fifth column". A number of prominent BUF members were arrested and interned underDefence Regulation 18B.
In 1930, Mosley issued his Mosley Memorandum, which fusedprotectionism with a proto-Keynesian programme of policies designed to tackle the problem of unemployment, and he resigned from the Labour Party soon after, in early 1931, when the plans were rejected. He immediately formed theNew Party, with policies based on his memorandum. The party won 16% of the vote at a by-election inAshton-under-Lyne in early 1931; however, it failed to achieve any other electoral success.[29]
During 1931, the New Party became increasingly influenced byfascism.[30] The following year, after a January 1932 visit toBenito Mussolini inItaly, Mosley's own conversion to fascism was confirmed. He wound up the New Party in April, but preserved its youth movement, which would form the core of the BUF, intact. He spent the summer that year writing a fascist programme,The Greater Britain, and this formed the basis of policy of the BUF, which was launched on 1 October 1932[30] at 12Great George Street in London.[31]
Having lost the funding of newspaper magnateLord Rothermere, that it had previously enjoyed, at the 1935 general election the party urged voters to abstain, calling for "Fascism Next Time".[41] There never was a "next time" as thenext general election was not held until July 1945, five years after the dissolution of the BUF.[citation needed]
Towards the middle of the 1930s, the BUF's violent clashes with opponents began to alienate somemiddle-class supporters, and membership decreased. At the Olympia rally in London, in 1934,BUF stewards violently ejected anti-fascist disrupters, and this led theDaily Mail to withdraw its support for the movement. The level of violence shown at the rally shocked many, with the effect of turning neutral parties against the BUF and contributing to anti-fascist support. One observer claimed: "I came to the conclusion that Mosley was a political maniac, and that all decent English people must combine to kill his movement."[42]
In Belfast in April 1934 an autonomous wing of the party inNorthern Ireland called the "Ulster Fascists" was founded. The branch was a failure and became virtually extinct after less than a year in existence.[43] It had ties with theBlueshirts in theIrish Free State and voiced support for aUnited Ireland, describing thepartition of Ireland as "an insurmountable barrier to peace, and prosperity in Ireland".[44] Its logo combined thefasces with theRed Hand of Ulster.[45]
The BUF became moreantisemitic over 1934–35 owing to the growing influence of Nazi sympathisers within the party, such asWilliam Joyce andJohn Beckett, which provoked the resignation of members such asRobert Forgan. This antisemitic emphasis and these high-profile resignations resulted in a significant decline in membership, dropping to below 8,000 by the end of 1935, and, ultimately, Mosley shifted the party's focus back to mainstream politics. There were frequent and continuous violent clashes between BUF party members andanti-fascist protesters, most famously at theBattle of Cable Street in October 1936, when organised anti-fascists prevented the BUF from marching through Cable Street. However, the party later staged other marches through the East End without incident, albeit not on Cable Street itself.
BUF support forEdward VIII and the peace campaign to prevent a secondWorld War saw membership and public support rise once more.[46] The government was sufficiently concerned by the party's growing prominence to pass thePublic Order Act 1936, which bannedpolitical uniforms and required police consent for political marches.
In 1937, William Joyce and other Nazi sympathisers split from the party to form theNational Socialist League, which quickly folded, with most of its membersinterned. Mosley later denounced Joyce as a traitor and condemned him for his extreme antisemitism. The historianStephen Dorril revealed in his bookBlackshirts that secret envoys from the Nazis had donated about £50,000 to the BUF.[47]
By 1939, total BUF membership had declined to just 20,000, and an active membership of only 5,800, more than half of which was in Greater London.[46][48] After March 1938, when theCzechoslovak Crisis brought Britain and Nazi Germany close to war, the BUF profited by re-orientating to a primarily anti-war campaign, something bolstered in 1939 by theGerman annexation of Bohemia andBritain's guarantee of Poland. The campaign was steeped in antisemitism, with Mosley blaming rising tensions as well as the British-Polish pact on 'Jewish finance'. At the peak of this campaign, Mosley was able to address an audience 11,000 strong at Exhibition Hall, Earls Court, on the 16th of July.[48]
The BUF's anti-war campaign did not cease after the outbreak of war between Britain and Germany, so, on 23 May 1940, Mosley and some 740 other party members were interned underDefence Regulation 18B. The BUF then called on its followers to resist invasion, but it was declared unlawful on 10 July 1940 and ceased its activities.[49][50]
After the war, Mosley made several unsuccessful attempts to return to political life, one such being through theUnion Movement, but he had no successes.
Attracted by "modern" fascist policies, such as ending the widespread practice of sacking women from their jobs on marriage, many women joined the Blackshirts – particularly in economically depressed Lancashire. Eventually women constituted one-quarter of the BUF's membership.[51]
In a January 2010 BBC documentary,Mother Was A Blackshirt, James Maw reported that in 1914Norah Elam was placed in aHolloway Prison cell withEmmeline Pankhurst for her involvement with thesuffragette movement, and, in 1940, she was returned to the same prison withDiana Mosley, this time for her involvement with the fascist movement. Another leading suffragette,Mary Richardson, became head of the women's section of the BUF.
Mary Sophia Allen OBE was a former branch leader of the West of England Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). At the outbreak of the First World War, she joined theWomen Police Volunteers, becoming the WPV Commandant in 1920. She met Mosley at the January Club in April 1932, going on to speak at the club following her visit to Germany, "to learn the truth about the position of German womanhood".[52]
The BBC report described how Elam's fascist philosophy grew from her suffragette experiences, how the British fascist movement became largely driven by women, how they targeted young women from an early age, how the first British fascist movement was founded by a woman, and how the leading lights of the suffragettes had, withOswald Mosley, founded the BUF.[53]
Mosley's electoral strategy had been to prepare for the election after 1935, and in 1936, he announced a list of BUF candidates for that election, with Elam nominated to stand for Northampton. Mosley accompanied Elam to Northampton to introduce her to her electorate at a meeting in the Town Hall. At that meeting Mosley announced that "he was glad indeed to have the opportunity of introducing the first candidate, and ... [thereby] killed for all time the suggestion that National Socialism proposed putting British women back into the home; this is simply not true. Mrs Elam [he went on] had fought in the past for women's suffrage ... and was a great example of the emancipation of women in Britain."[54]
Former suffragettes were drawn to the BUF for a variety of reasons. Many felt that the movement's energy reminded them of the suffragettes, while others felt that the BUF's economic policies would offer them true equality – unlike its continental counterparts, the movement insisted that it would not require women to return to domesticity and it also insisted that thecorporatist state would ensure adequate representation for housewives, while it would also guarantee equal wages for women and remove the marriage bar that restricted the employment of married women. The BUF also offered support for new mothers (due to concerns about falling birth rates), and it also offered effective birth control, because Mosley believed that it was not in the national interest to have a populace which lacked modern scientific knowledge. While these policies were motivated more out of making the best use of women's skills in state interest than they were motivated by any kind offeminism, it was still a draw for many suffragettes.[55]
TheChannel 4 television serialMosley (1998) portrayed the career of Oswald Mosley during his years with the BUF. The four-part series was based on the booksRules of the Game andBeyond the Pale, written by his sonNicholas Mosley.[73]
In the filmIt Happened Here (1964), the BUF appears to be the ruling party of German-occupied Britain. A Mosley speech is heard on the radio in the scene before everyone goes to the cinema.
The first depiction of Mosley and the BUF in fiction occurred inAldous Huxley's novelPoint Counter Point (1932), in which Mosley is depicted as Everard Webley, the murderous leader of the "BFF", the Brotherhood of Free Fascists; he comes to a nasty end.
In hisalternative history novelIn the Presence of Mine Enemies, set in 2010 in a world in which the Nazis were triumphant, the BUF led by Prime Minister Charlie Lynton governs Britain. It is here that the first stirrings of the reform movement appear.
The BUF and Mosley also appear as background influences in Turtledove'sColonization trilogy which follows theWorldwar tetralogy and is set in the 1960s.
James Herbert's novel'48 (1996) has a protagonist who is hunted by BUF Blackshirts in a devastated London after abiological weapon is released during the Second World War. The history of the BUF and Mosley is recapitulated.
InKen Follett's novelNight Over Water, several of the main characters are BUF members. In his bookWinter of the World, the Battle of Cable Street plays a role and some of the characters are involved in either the BUF or the anti-BUF organisations.
The BUF also appears inGuy Walters' bookThe Leader (2003), in which Mosley is the dictator of Britain in the 1930s.
The British humorous writerP. G. Wodehouse satirized the BUF in books and short stories. The BUF was satirized as "The Black Shorts",[74] rather than "shirts", because all of the best shirt colours were already taken. Its leader wasRoderick Spode, the owner of a ladies' underwear shop.
The British novelistNancy Mitford satirized the BUF and Mosley inWigs on the Green (1935).Diana Mitford, the author's sister, had been romantically involved with Mosley since 1932.
The BUF and Mosley are shown in the BBC version ofUpstairs, Downstairs (2010) in which two of the characters are BUF supporters.
ThePogues' song "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn", from their albumRum Sodomy & the Lash (1985), refers to the BUF in its second verse with the line "And you decked some fucking blackshirt who was cursing all the Yids".
C. J. Samson's novelDominion (2012) has Sir Oswald Mosley asHome Secretary in a "post-Dunkirk peace with Germany alternate history thriller" set in 1952.Lord Beaverbrook is Prime Minister of an authoritarian coalition government. Blackshirts tend to be auxiliary policemen.
In the filmThe King's Speech (2010), a brief shot shows a brick wall in London plastered with posters, some of them reading "Fascism is Practical Patriotism" and others reading "Stand by the King". Both sets of posters were put up by British Blackshirts, who supportedKing Edward VIII. Edward was suspected of fascist leanings.[75]
^Pugh, Martin.Hurrah For The Blackshirts!: Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the Wars. Random House. pp. 133–135.
^Lewis, David Stephen (1987).Illusions of Grandeur: Mosley, Fascism, and British Society, 1931–81. Manchester / Wolfeboro, New Hampshire:Manchester University Press. p. 68.
^"fascism". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved20 April 2025.
^Grundy, Trevor (1998).Memoir of a Fascist Childhood: A Boy in Mosley's Britain. William Heinemann. pp. 31–33.ISBN0434004677.
^Salvador, Alessandro; Kjøstvedt, Anders G. (2017).New Political Ideas in the Aftermath of the Great War. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 165–166.ISBN978-3-319-38914-1.
^Andrzej Olechnowicz (Winter 2004). "Liberal Anti-Fascism in the 1930s: The Case of Sir Ernest Barker".Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies.36 (4): 643.
^Douglas, R.M. (1997). "The Swastika and the Shamrock: British Fascism and the Irish Question, 1918-1940".Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies.29 (1):57–75.doi:10.2307/4051595.JSTOR4051595.
^Loughlin, James (November 1995). "Northern Ireland and British fascism in the inter-war years".Irish Historical Studies.29 (116):537–552.doi:10.1017/S002112140001227X.
^abRichard C. Thurlow.Fascism in Britain: from Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts to the National Front. 2nd edition. New York, New York, USA: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2006. p. 94.
^abLinehan, Thomas P. (2021).British fascism, 1918-1939: parties, ideology and culture. Manchester studies in modern history. Manchester: Manchester University Press.ISBN978-0-7190-5024-4.
^Ceadel, Martin (2000).Semi-detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854–1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 404.
^Nigel Jones,Mosley, Haus Publishing (2004)ISBN9781904341093, p. 86: "Eventually women, under the titular leadership of ‘Ma Mosley’ – Lady Maud, ably seconded by an ex-suffragette, Mary Richardson – constituted one-quarter of the BUF's membership, and Mosley himself later acknowledged the part they played: "My movement has been largely built up by the fanaticism of women: they hold ideas with tremendous passion. Without the women I could not have got one-quarter of the way."
^Caldicott, Rosemary (2017).Lady Blackshirts. The Perils of Perception - suffragettes who became fascists. Bristol Radical Pamphleteer #39.ISBN978-1911522393.
^The National Archive (1942), KV 3/35 14. British Union evidence of support from Italy.
^Linehan, Thomas.British Fascism, 1918–39: Parties, Ideology and Culture. p. 139.while Beckett was a one-time Labour MP for Gateshead (1924–29) and Peckham (1929–31)
^Brian Holden Reid,"Fuller, John Frederick Charles (1878–1966)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 (Accessed 5 February 2014)
^John Tooley,"Goodall, Sir Reginald (1901–1990)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online ed., January 2008 (Accessed 5 February 2014)
Caldicott, Rosemary (2017)Lady Blackshirts. The perils of Perception - Suffragettes who became Fascists, Bristol Radical Pamphletteer #39.ISBN978-1911522393
Cross, Colin (1963).The Fascists in Britain. St. Martin's Press.
Dorril, Stephen (2006).Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British fascism. London: Viking.ISBN978-0670869992.
Drabik, Jakub. (2016a) "British Union of Fascists",Contemporary British History30.1 (2016): 1–19.
Drábik, Jakub. (2016b) "Spreading the faith: the propaganda of the British Union of Fascists",Journal of Contemporary European Studies (2016):1-15.
Garau, Salvatore. "The Internationalisation of Italian Fascism in the face of German National Socialism, and its Impact on the British Union of Fascists",Politics, Religion & Ideology15.1 (2014): 45–63.
United Kingdom
British left
.svg)
.svg)
