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TheWhite Nationalist Party (WNP) was a Britishneo-Nazipolitical party, founded in May 2002 as "the British political wing of Aryan Unity".[1][2]
The party was formed byEddy Morrison, andKevin Watmough "a key figure inCombat 18" and webmaster ofRedwatch;[3] the new party was effectively theYorkshire branch of theNational Front, and the party conducted most of its activities in Yorkshire. The national youth leader of the White Nationalist Party was Ronnie Cooper, a teen from theSouth Yorkshire area who was exposed for his fascist beliefs by theSunday People newspaper in 2003. Cooper is now understood to be a serving member of the Royal Navy.
Although largely Yorkshire-based it also sought to expand elsewhere. In 2003 the group applied to march inGlasgow but it was rejected by the city council.[4]
The WNP also sought to campaign in amongstloyalists inNorthern Ireland, posting stickers and delivering leaflets inBallymena,Coleraine,Antrim town andBallymoney in the run-up tothe Twelfth in 2003.[5] The group, which emphasised its anti-Irish republican nature by using slogans such as "hang IRA scum" in its literature, claimed to have 80 members in the province in May of that year.[6] In a move condemned by local politicians WNP flags were also placed on lampposts in Ballymena around the same time.[7] Most of the party's stickers and flags were removed by parties of residents organised in opposition by the left wing loyalistProgressive Unionist Party, which publicly condemned racism.[8]
In 2004 the party also revealed plans to host aBlood & Honour music festival in Northern Ireland although a counter-campaign was organised to encourage venues to turn down the booking.[8] The proposed gigs did not take place however.
The WNP was severely weakened in 2004 when theEngland First Party (EFP) broke away underMark Cotterill. The WNP had intended to use that name when theElectoral Commission refused to register WNP as an official name;[9] but after a dispute between Cotterill on the one side andEddy Morrison andJohn G. Wood (the WNP's national organiser) on the other, the EFP group broke away to become a separate, English nationalist, party.
The WNP under Morrison and John G. Wood courtedJohn Tyndall, although he refused[citation needed] to join as he did not feel that divisions were helpful. Eventually Eddy Morrison left the party and with John G. Wood and Kevin Watmough in 2005 formed the similarBritish People's Party.
The White Nationalist Party's inspiration was "unashamedly nationalist socialist" and opposed to "all democracy".[10] The WP had a list of 32 policies,[11] based on principles which included repatriation, opposition topopulism,Zionism andhomosexuality, and adherence toDavid Lane'sfourteen words.[12] The group is now vehemently opposed to theBritish National Party, viewing them asrace traitors.[13]