Fraudulent Fascism: The Attitude of Early British Fascists towards Mosley and the New Party

Abstract

Despite the now considerable historiography on the life of Sir Oswald Mosley and the policies of the British Union of Fascists, there has been little discussion of how the already established fascist groups responded to Mosley's early career and the evolution of the New Party into a proto-fascist movement. This paper seeks to place the New Party into wider context by exploring how both the early and non-Mosleyite fascists responded to Mosley's political ambitions in the period leading up to, and including, 1932. The author argues that Radical Right reactions to the rise of Mosley and the nature of the New Party exhibited a complex mixture of outright opposition, strong scepticism and cautious ambivalence, but the article also reveals how some on the right eventually shifted their allegiance over to Mosley.

Keywords:

• Radical Right
• British Fascists
• New Party
• Oswald Mosley
• Fascism

Notes

 [1] Useful sources on the ‘Radical Right’ include: Searle, ‘Critics of Edwardian Society’ and ‘The Revolt from the Right’; Thurlow, Fascism in Britain; Webber, The Ideology of the British Right; Sykes, The Radical Right.

 [2] Sykes, The Radical Right, 1–10.

 [3] The North Mail, 22 October 1923, cited in The Patriot, 19 June 1930.

 [4] Dorril, Blackshirt, 81.

 [5] The Morning Post, 20 June 1923.

 [6] The Morning Post, 21 June 1923.

 [7] For example, The Morning Post, 1 June 1923; British Fascism, 20 Spring 1932.

 [8] Daily Herald, 1 and 3 April 1924.

 [9] Daily Herald, 7 and 9 November 1925.

[10] The Times, 13 December 1926.

[11] Benewick, Fascist Movement, 57.

[12] Dorril, Blackshirt, 95.

[13] Investigator, ‘The Fascist Movement’, 27.

[14] Brentford and Chiswick Times, 4 November 1927.

[15] R. B. D. Blakeney, ‘British Labour Organisations and Revolution’, The Fascist Bulletin, 11 July 1925; ‘British Fascists Policy and Practice’, The British Lion, June 1926.

[16] Skidelsky, Oswald Mosley, 156; Dorril, Blackshirt, 102.

[17] W. W. Drinkwater, ‘Our New Nobility’, The Fascist Bulletin, 22 May 1926.

[18] The British Lion, 7 January 1927.

[19] Daily Herald, 14 May 1927.

[20] Cambridge Daily News, 14 and 16 May 1927.

[21] The British Lion, June 1929.

[22] The Lahore Tribune, 30 January 1925, cited in ‘Potted Biographies No.56’, The Patriot, 19 June 1930.

[23] See, for example: ‘British Fascist Manifesto’, The British Lion, May 1929; E. G. Mandeville Roe, ‘Workable Fascism’, British Fascism, November 1930.

[24] Cross, The Fascists, 60; Linehan, British Fascism, 67.

[25] ‘Is Fascism Political?’, The British Lion, August 1927.

[26] ‘The Progress of Fascism’, British Fascism, November 1930.

[27] ‘Britain's Need For Fascism’, British Fascism, February 1931.

[28] Brentford and Chiswick Times, 20 March 1931.

[29] British Fascism, May 1931. See also Mandeville Roe's ‘Fascists and the Liberal Revolt’, British Fascism, Summer Holiday Number, 1931.

[30] British Fascism, 1 February 1932.

[31] Dorril, Blackshirt, 201.

[32] Chesterton, Oswald Mosley, 117.

[33] Cross, The Fascists, 65.

[34] British Fascism, 1 March 1932.

[35] Cross, The Fascists, 65.

[36] The Patriot, 7 July 1932; British Fascism, Summer 1932 and October 1932.

[37] Leese, Out of Step, 48; Morrell, ‘Arnold Leese’, 58.

[38] Leese, Out of Step, 52.

[39] The Fascist, May 1930.

[40] The Fascist, January 1931.

[41] The Fascist, April 1931.

[42] The Fascist, September 1931.

[43] The Fascist, October 1931 and November 1931.

[44] Hampstead and Highgate Express, 2 January 1932.

[45] The Fascist, May 1932; Skidelsky, Oswald Mosley, 291; Griffiths, Fellow Travellers, 37.

[46] The Fascist, June 1932.

[47] The New Times (TNT), June 1932.

[48] The New Times (TNT), June 1932

[49] Skidelsky, Oswald Mosley, 291.

[50] The Fascist, October 1932.

[51] The Fascist, November 1932 and December 1932.

[52] The Fascist, February 1934; Leese, Out of Step, 52.

[53] Worley, ‘What was the New Party?’, 62–3.