Greater Britain Movement - Towards Merger

Towards Merger

During the summer of 1966 Tyndall and his movement grew close to A.K. Chesterton and the two soon agreed that the hefty defeat inflcited on the Conservative Party in the 1966 general election had opened up space for a new far right party with Tyndall arguing in Spearhead that there was "no longer any great political force representative of patriotic right-wing principles". Chesterton was impressed by the organisational skills demonstrated by Tyndall in the GBM, although he was also suspicious of his Nazi past whilst Andrew Fountaine was opposed to any GBM membership, and so they did not invite GBM to join the National Front in 1967. Indeed the first issue of Combat, the organ of the British National Party, to be published following the formation of the National Front (which had absorbed the British National Party) specifically stated that the GBM "would not be coming into the new movement and ... their past utterances on anti-Semitism and pro-Nazism would certainly not be a part of National Front policy". However before the year was out Chesterton relented and allowed the GBM to join the NF 'on probation', leading to the GBM ceasing to exist. In June of that year Tyndall told the GBM membership, which at that point stood at 138, that the movement was disbanded and that they should join the National Front as individuals.