The British Union of Fascists: Newspapers and Secret Files

Abstract

As is well known, the British Union of Fascists (BUF) was established by Sir Oswald Mosley in 1932 and grew to become the largest and most important fascist party of Britain's twentieth-century history. The BUF initially received support from Lord Rothermere's Daily Mail, boasted a membership that peaked at more than 40,000 in 1934, and became a staple feature of British street-corner politics throughout the period leading up to the Second World War. Though electorally weak, the BUF commanded a presence and demanded attention. Having first borrowed primarily from Mussolini's Italian Fascists, the BUF officially adopted an anti-Semitic policy in 1934. Thereafter, Mosley sought to exploit ethnic tensions in London's East End (and elsewhere), famously organising a thwarted march through its heart on 4 October 1936. Largely as a result of the BUF's paramilitary approach (and the presence of an organised—often Communist-led—opposition), Parliament passed the Public Order Act (1936) in an attempt both to limit the BUF's influence and to curtail its more unruly activities. By 1939–40 the BUF had come to be seen as a focus for potential Nazi collaboration, thereby leading to the internment of Mosley and other members of the BUF under Defence Regulation 18B of the Emergency Powers Act (1939).