National Fellowship
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The National Fellowship was a minor far right political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded in the late 1950s by Edward Martell and was closely linked with his People's League for the Defence of Freedom and newspaper, The New Daily. The party stood occasional candidates in Parliamentary elections, but professed support for the Conservative Party and was linked with two of its MPs, Donald Johnson and Henry Kerby.
The party's focus was on opposing socialism. It aimed to disband the welfare state and was involved in strikebreaking. Ultimately renamed the National Party, it was moribund by the late 1960s. The group's best electoral result came in Bristol South East by-election, 1963 when Martell captured 19% of the vote, although the Tories did not run a candidate against him. Sitting Tory MP Malcolm St. Clair had agreed to stand down and allow deposed MP Tony Benn to run unopposed if the law was changed to permit Benn to renounce his peerage. As such Martell represented Benn's main challenger from the right.
[edit] References
- Minor political parties in Britain, Political Quarterly
- British Political Facts 7th Edition, David Butler and Gareth Butler
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