Adam Walker (British politician)

Adam Walker
Chairman of the British National Party
Assumed office
27 July 2015
Acting: 21 July 2014 – 27 July 2015
Deputy Vacant
Preceded by Nick Griffin
Deputy Chairman of the British National Party
In office
21 July 2014 – 27 July 2015
Preceded by Office created
(Created by BNP National Executive in order to move Walker into the acting chairman position)
Succeeded by Office abolished
Personal details
Born Bishop Auckland, County Durham
Nationality British
Political party British National Party
Children 2
Residence Spennymoor, County Durham
Profession Politician

Adam Walker (born April 1969) is the chairman of the British National Party. He was elected in a leadership election on 27 July 2015. He was previously acting chairman being appointed by the National Executive when the former leader, Nick Griffin, resigned.

Biography

According to an interview on the BNP website, Walker was born in Bishop Auckland in 1969 into a working-class background. The eldest of three children, his father was a joiner and his mother a seamstress.[1]

Military and teaching career

According to Walker, on 14 June 1985, two months after his sixteenth birthday, he joined the 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars and served for five years as a battle tank crewman.[1] Following discharge from the army, Walker claims that he worked for some time in the construction industry before studying for a National Diploma in land use and recreation and later became a technology teacher at Houghton Kepier College near Sunderland, a post from which he was dismissed following allegations of "using school computers to look at extremist literature and engage in racially and religiously intolerant chatter online during school-time."[2]

Walker was given a six-month suspended jail sentence and 12-month-long driving ban for a 2011 incident, in which he verbally abused three schoolboys, who were between the ages of 10 and 12, chasing them in his car and slashing the tyres on their bikes with a knife. After investigation by the General Teaching Council, Walker was banned for life from the profession in 2013.[3][4] He challenged the ban in court, but his legal challenge was dismissed in February 2014.[3]

Political career

In 2010, Walker represented the BNP as part of a delegation led by French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen to Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The Shinto shrine commemorates Japanese war dead and is revered by the far right in Japan. Visits to this shrine have traditionally been a sensitive point in international politics between Japan, Korea, and China.[5]

Before becoming party chairman, Walker had been the BNP's deputy chairman. He described Britain in a November 2013 speech as a "multicultural shithole".[4] He further claimed that Britons were facing "ethnic cleansing."[4] He worked for the party with its two MEPs, Griffin and Andrew Brons,[6] as well as serving as President of Solidarity – The Union for British Workers, a trade union established by the BNP.[7]

During the 2010 general election Walker campaigned alongside Griffin wearing army uniform, which attracted widespread criticism.[2] In a subsequent interview with Jeremy Paxman on BBC's Newsnight programme, when asked if the male in army uniform had been a "real soldier", Griffin replied: "The chap who's been there in army fatigues, they're his army fatigues from the first Gulf because he served there. He's there in that uniform to attract attention to the fact that we're the only major party saying we shouldn't be in Afghanistan - it's a war that's got nothing to do with Britain."[8] When subsequently questioned Walker himself admitted that he was not a member of the British Army.[9]

After Nick Griffin stepped down as BNP leader on 19 July 2014 to become the organisation's president (he was later expelled from the party and thus the presidency in October 2014), Walker became interim leader until the leadership election in 2015. This was contested by Walker and Paul Hilliard, the BNP Derbyshire Sub Regional Organiser. The results were announced on 27 July 2015, with Walker winning with 523 votes (76.58%) against Hilliard's 145 (21.23%), with 15 spoiled ballot papers (2.19%).

Walker is from Spennymoor, County Durham, and has two children.[4]

Elections contested

UK Parliament elections

Date of election Constituency Party Votes % votes Source
2010 Bishop Auckland BNP 2,036 4.9 [10]
2015 Rotherham BNP 225 0.6

See also

References

  1. 1 2
  2. 1 2
  3. 1 2 "Teacher banned for life appointed to replace Nick Griffin as BNP leader". The Guardian. 22 July 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Nick Griffin quits as BNP leader: Banned schoolteacher Adam Walker appointed as chairman as party founders". The Independent. 22 July 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "Le Pen among Euro rightists in Japan WWII shrine visit". BBC News. 14 August 2010. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
    David McNeil (14 August 2010). "Far right pays tribute to Japan's 'war heroes'". The Independent. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "BNP activist Adam Walker loses Michael Gove teaching ban challenge", BBC News, 14 February 2014
  7. ↑ "Adam Walker Appointed as BNP Staff Manager". British National Party. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ Daniel Trilling (12 April 2010). "Who is the BNP’s "soldier"?". New Statesman. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  10. ↑ "Election 2010 results, Bishop Auckland". BBC News. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
    "Adam Walker: Electoral history and profile". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
Party political offices
Preceded by
Nick Griffin		 Chairman of the British National Party
2014–present 		Succeeded by
incumbent
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