Civil Liberty

Civil Liberty is a civil rights organisation set up by the BNP's former North East of England organiser, Kevin Scott . It should not be confused with the pressure group Liberty (previously the National Council for Civil Liberties).

Stated Aims

The Civil Liberty website states:

Civil Liberty is an independent organisation that has been set up to consider and possibly represent and fund the legal cases of any individuals or organisations that apply to it for assistance. It is independent of political parties, and has been set up solely in order to assist the thousands of British citizens who have been denied justice on the grounds of their race, skin colour, ethnicity or political opinion.

Far Right Links

Despite claiming to be independent of all political parties, all examples of the organisations work, shown on the official website, are in support of prominent of BNP members.

In 2007 an investigation by The Guardian newspaper revealed that Civil Liberty had been set up by key BNP activists in order to secure donations from abroad, most notably from the USA. In an audio tape obtained by The Guardian, the BNP chairman Nick Griffin, speaking at a US conference organised by a former member of the Ku Klux Klan is heard to say:

"Please throw money at the BNP, actually don't throw money at the BNP. Quite seriously it's against the law, but you can as my colleague will be telling you tomorrow, throw money at a group called Civil Liberty which helps members of the BNP and that is within the law."

In April 2007 the Electoral Commission launched an investigation into the US fundraising activities of Civil Liberty and the BNP. However, partly due to the fact that Civil Liberty does not operate a membership scheme, and thus is not subject to the Political Parties, Elections and Referendum Act 2000 (PPERA), the enquiry ended without any charges being brought against either the BNP or Civil Liberty.