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Paul Golding

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Paul Golding (born 25 January 1982) is a British political leader who has served as the leader of Britain First, a far-right political party in the United Kingdom.[3] He grew up in Erith.

Paul Golding
Golding at a Britain First rally in 2014
Leader of Britain First
Incumbent
Assumed office
2014
DeputyJayda Fransen
(2014–2019)
Personal details
Born25 January 1982 (1982-01-25) (age 42)[1][2]
Political partyBritain First (2011–present)
Other political
affiliations		BNP (unknown–2011)
National Front (previously)

In December 2016, Golding was sentenced to eight weeks in prison for violating a court order that prohibited him from entering a mosque or encouraging others to do so in England and Wales. During his absence, Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader, temporarily assumed leadership of the party.[4]

On 7 March 2018, Golding and Fransen were both convicted and imprisoned for harassment. Their convictions were related to their actions and statements.[5] These convictions were related to their actions and statements targeting religious minorities, particularly Muslims.[6]

Paul Golding's leadership of Britain First has generated significant public attention, and the group has been associated with far-right ideology and controversial positions.

Political career

British National Party

Golding was a British National Party (BNP) Sevenoaks District councillor for St Mary's Ward in Swanley from 2009[7] to 2011.[8] He was also a communications officer for the party.[8] He stood as BNP candidate for Sevenoaks in the 2010 general election, and received 2.8% of the vote.[9] In 2008, it was reported that Golding had been expelled from the BNP for physically attacking Lawrence Rustem, a BNP Barking Borough Council councillor who is half-Turkish.[10] Golding had previously been a member of the neo-Nazi National Front and once attended a Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday wearing women's underwear on his head.[11]

Britain First

He stood in the 2014 local elections[12] and as a Britain First lead candidate in the 2014 European Parliamentary election for Wales; the party received 0.9% of the vote.[13] As leader of Britain First Golding made it into the leading anti-Muslim, counter-jihad street movement.[14]

In May 2015, Golding threatened to bury a pig at the site of proposed mosque in Dudley, mistakenly believing this would contaminate the site and render it unsuitable.[15] At the Britain First Annual Conference in November 2015, Golding and his then deputy, Jayda Fransen, led the meeting which agreed a number of policies including banning the media from using the word 'racism' and abolishing the BBC.[16]

He stood as a candidate in the London mayoral election in 2016.[17] He came eighth with 31,372 votes (1.2% of those cast) while Labour's Sadiq Khan was elected as mayor.[18] In June 2020, Golding spoke at a far-right protest in central London.[19]

Conservative Party

In December 2019, Golding announced that he was a paid-up member of the Bexleyheath and Crayford Conservative Association. He explained that he intended to "help solidify Boris Johnson's control on the leadership, so we can achieve Brexit and hopefully cut immigration and confront radical Islam".[20] Shortly after the announcement, a Tory spokeswoman said that "Paul Golding's application for membership of the Conservative Party has not been approved."[21] In January 2020, Golding released a letter that he had received from the Conservative Party, informing him that his membership had been rejected.[22]

In May 2014, Golding was arrested for criminal damage and breach of the peace during an Al-Muhajiroun protest outside the Indian High Commission in London.[23] In July 2014, he tried to have himself arrested at Bexleyheath police station over an incident at Crayford Mosque, but failed, an act widely considered to be a fund-raising publicity stunt.[24]

In August 2014, the Advertising Standards Authority accused Britain First of illegally using an image of the royal crown in its logo, ordering all images of the crown to be removed from Britain First's official website, marketing materials and merchandise "with immediate effect". Golding responded by calling the ASA a "toothless quango with no power which no one takes any notice of" and refused to change Britain First's logo.[25]

In March 2015, he was arrested on suspicion of assault during a Britain First march in Derby, as was an opponent who Golding had claimed assaulted him.[26] Also in 2015, Golding was convicted of harassing a woman, after mistakenly arriving at her home instead of that of a man allegedly linked to the 2005 London bombings. He was also found guilty of wearing a political uniform, an offence under the Public Order Act 1936. A restraining order was issued against Golding and he was fined for both offences.[27]

In September 2017, Golding and acting leader Jayda Fransen were arrested and charged with religious harassment. They were both bailed to appear before Medway magistrates in October 2017. Their arrests followed an investigation by Kent Police into the distribution of leaflets in the Thanet and Canterbury areas, and the posting of online videos during a trial at Canterbury Crown Court in May 2017.[28]

December 2016 arrest and resignation

In December 2016, Golding was sentenced to eight weeks in prison for breaching a court order banning him from entering a mosque or encouraging others to do so in England and Wales. Nine days after the imposition of the court injunction, Golding drove others to a mosque in Cardiff; they entered and mosque members found their behaviour provocative and unnerving. They feared the situation could have escalated if prayers had still been going on.[29]

Leadership of Britain First was passed on to the former deputy leader Jayda Fransen in November 2016.[30] Fransen claimed that Golding was taking 6 months leave as leader of the organisation "to address some important, personal family issues".[31]

The satirical news web site, The Rochdale Herald, capitalised on the incident by inviting readers to sponsor his incarceration[32] to raise money for refugees.

On 7 November 2017, Golding was sentenced to a 120-day suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work by Sevenoaks Magistrates' Court after admitting a charge of assault by beating. He was also told to pay £750 compensation to his victim, plus £115 victim surcharge and £85 prosecution costs. Summing up, magistrate Alan Austen described it as "a really nasty and vicious assault in a public place".[33]

2017 arrest

In December 2017, on a reported visit to Belfast to support Jayda Fransen, Golding was arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland for a speech he gave in the city in August,[34] and was later charged.[35]

2018 conviction

On 7 March 2018, Fransen and Golding were found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment at Folkestone Magistrates' Court, as a result of an investigation concerning the distribution of leaflets in 2017 in the Thanet and Canterbury areas. The pair were convicted over an incident at a takeaway in Ramsgate, Kent, during which Fransen screamed “paedophile” and “foreigner”, while Fransen was also convicted for approaching a mistaken address she believed to belong to a Muslim defendant on a rape trial. They were both sentenced to prison, with 9 months for Fransen and 18 weeks for Golding.[36]

2018 arrest

In November 2018, Golding was charged with a number of offences related to anti-immigration leaflets distributed in Ballymena, County Antrim, and was charged with three counts of publishing written material intended to stir up hatred and one count of using threatening, abusive, insulting words or behaviour.[37] In June 2019, he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, suspended for two years.[38]

2020 terrorism conviction

In February 2020, Golding was charged under the Terrorism Act for refusing to provide police at Heathrow Airport with the PIN codes for his phone and computer. Golding was stopped at Heathrow airport in October 2019, while returning from a trip to the Russian parliament, by officers from the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism command. He was subsequently sentenced to a conditional discharge for nine months and ordered to pay a £21 victim surcharge and £750 in costs.[39]

Alleged sex attack

In late 2017, accusations were made against Golding by a young woman, who attended one of the group rallies protesting against the sexual abuse of young girls, that Golding had sexually abused her.[40] Graham Morris, a former Britain First member, had claimed that the deputy leader, Jayda Fransen, had encouraged the victim to stay quiet, saying, "I can give everything you need, a platform. I'll do this for you, that for you."[41] On 11 July 2018, the Greater Manchester Police dropped the case.[40]

Donald Trump retweets

Main article: Donald Trump on social media § Britain First videos

On 29 November 2017, US president Donald Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos shared by Jayda Fransen on her Twitter account supporting her views.[42] Three weeks later, on 18 December, Twitter suspended the accounts of Golding, Fransen and Britain First for inciting racial hatred.[43] They later joined and asked their followers to go to the Gab social networking service created as an alternative to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.[44] In 2023, Golding and Britain First were unblocked on Twitter.[45][46][47]

Elections contested

UK general elections

Date of election Constituency Party Votes % Result
2010 Sevenoaks BNP 1,384 2.8[9] Not elected

European Parliament elections

Year Region Party Votes % Result Notes
2014 Wales Britain First 6,633 0.9 Not elected[13] Multi member constituencies; party list

London mayoral election

Year Party Votes % Result
2016 Britain First 31,372 1.2 Not elected 2024 Britain First 20,519 0.8 Not elected

London Assembly election

Year Party Votes % Result
2024 Britain First 32,085 1.3 Not elected

References

  1. ^ "Paul GOLDING". Companies House. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  2. ^ "Paul Golding". Twitter. 15 October 2023.
  3. ^ "'Multiculturalism was forced on us': After Black Lives Matter protests, the far right march on Westminster". The Independent. 13 June 2020. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  4. ^ Golding, Paul (November 2016). "Jayda Fransen temporarily assumes leadership of Britain First". Britain First. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  5. ^ "Britain First leaders jailed over anti-Muslim hate crimes". The Guardian Online. 7 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  6. ^ "Britain First leaders jailed over anti-Muslim hate crimes". The Guardian Online. 7 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  7. ^ Smith, Chris (21 February 2009). "BNP wins seat on Sevenoaks district council". The Times.
  8. ^ a b "FACTSHEET: Britain First: the fascist heirs of the BNP". Unite Against Fascism. 23 April 2015. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  9. ^ a b Sevenoaks, BBC News Election 2010
  10. ^ "BNP picks psychic and a gay porn director as candidates". Evening Standard. 15 April 2008. Retrieved 7 September 2018. Mr Rustem, a BNP councillor in Barking, is half-Turkish and was born Timucin Rustem. His membership has been a sore point for BNP hardliners such as Paul Golding, the then editor of Identity, who was expelled from the party after physically attacking Mr Rustem.
  11. ^ "Britain First: inside the extremist group targeting mosques", Channel 4 News, 19 June 2014
    - "The shame of Paul Golding", Hope not hate website, 26 April 2014
    - "Far-right leader turned up to Cenotaph with knickers on his head", Political Scrapbook,10 November 2014
  12. ^ Tran, Mark (14 May 2014). "Britain First leader complains of 'inquisition' after police grilling". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  13. ^ a b Vote 2014 – Wales, BBC News
  14. ^ "Britain First: What You Need to Know". Anti-Defamation League. 29 November 2017.
  15. ^ Chris York (10 May 2015). "Britain First Leader Threatens To Bury Pig At Site Of Planned Mosque". The Huffington Post UK. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  16. ^ Steven Hopkins (17 November 2015). "Britain First: Public Can't Stop Laughing Over Far-Right Party's Plans To 'Ban Racism'". The Huffington Post UK. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  17. ^ York, Chris (27 September 2015). "Britain First's Paul Golding To Stand In London Mayoral Election". Huffington Post. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
    - Mogule, Priyanka (27 September 2015). "Britain First leader Paul Golding to run for London mayor: Wants to hang opponents". International Business Times. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  18. ^ "London Elections, Candidates and Results". BBC News. May 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  19. ^ "London protests: Demonstrators clash with police". BBC News. 13 June 2020. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  20. ^ "Britain First leader officially joins Conservative Party: 'Boris Johnson is like us'". The Independent. 19 December 2019. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  21. ^ "Britain First leader's Conservative Party application 'not approved'". Evening Standard. 19 December 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  22. ^ Milne, Oliver (7 January 2020). "Britain First leader Paul Golding rejected for Conservative Party membership". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  23. ^ Matthew Collins (9 May 2014). "The Insider's blog: Outside the Indian Embassy now." www.hopenothate.org.uk. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  24. ^ Tim MacFarlan (17 July 2014). "Far right leader Paul Golding tries to give himself up for arrest – and fails". News Shopper. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  25. ^ Butler, Sarah (26 August 2014). "BNP offshoot Britain First rapped by ASA for using royal symbols". The Guardian.
    - Butler, Sarah (27 August 2014). "Government considers steps against Britain First over use of crown". The Guardian.
  26. ^ Zena Hawley (9 March 2015). "I'll be back, says Britain First party leader Paul Golding after claiming he was attacked in Derby". Derby Telegraph. Archived from the original on 15 December 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  27. ^ Sam Balls, "Britain First leader Paul Golding found guilty of harassment and wearing a political uniform" Archived 6 January 2015 at archive.today, Essex Chronicle, 6 January 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  28. ^ "Britain First leaders charged with religious harassment". BBC News. 20 September 2017. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  29. ^ "Ex-Britain First leader Paul Golding jailed over mosque ban", BBC News, 15 December 2016
  30. ^ Gable, Gerry (1 December 2016). "More questions than answers: a Searchlight investigation". Searchlight. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  31. ^ Fransen, Jayda (21 December 2016). Paul Golding in Muslim-run PRISON! A message from Jayda Fransen. Britain First.
  32. ^ "Paul Golding's Sponsored Jail Term Raises Over £5,000 For Refugee Council". HuffPost UK. 24 December 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  33. ^ Debbie King, "Britain First leader Paul Golding ordered to carry out community service for 'really nasty' night club attack", 7 November 2017
  34. ^ Dearden, Lizzie (14 December 2017). "Britain First leader Paul Golding arrested while attending deputy's court hearing in Belfast". Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  35. ^ "Britain First's Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen charged". BBC News. 14 December 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  36. ^ "Britain First leaders jailed over anti-Muslim hate crimes". The Guardian Online. 7 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  37. ^ Claire McNeilly, "Far-right rally will go ahead in Ballymena despite arrest of party leader", Belfast Telegraph, 26 October 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
    - "Britain First leader Paul Golding charged over anti-immigration leaflets in Co Antrim", The Irish News, 26 October 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
  38. ^ "Probation for Northern Ireland man who handed out hate leaflets with Britain First leader", Belfast Telegraph, 26 July 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  39. ^ "Britain First leader Paul Golding convicted under terrorism law", The Guardian, 20 May 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  40. ^ a b John Simpson, "Britain First leader Paul Golding in 'sex attack' case", The Times, 1 December 2017, p 13
  41. ^ "Britain First's Jayda Fransen 'tried to halt sex assault complaint'", The Observer, 3 December 2017
  42. ^ "Trump Twitter account retweets incendiary videos". BBC News. 29 November 2017.
  43. ^ Timberg, Craig; Tsukayama, Hayley (18 December 2017). "'Twitter purge' suspends account of far-right leader who was retweeted by Trump". Washington Post.
  44. ^ Sarah Marsh, "Britain First signs up to fringe social media site after Twitter ban", The Guardian, 20 December 2017.
  45. ^ "Far-right Britain First party given Twitter gold tick". The Guardian. 24 April 2023. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
  46. ^ Browne, Ryan (24 April 2023). "Twitter grants UK far-right party Britain First 'official organization' label". CNBC. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
  47. ^ Field, Matthew (24 April 2023). "Twitter verifies far-right group Britain First with gold tick". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
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