Harry's Place

Lee John Barnes LLB (Hons), well known for being not only the BNP’s ‘Legal Director/Officer/Adviser’ but also one of its most consistently fanatical supporters, has left the party. You can read his rambling ‘Formal Resignation Letter’ in full here. Highlights include:

Over the last few years since the arrival of Jim Dowson into the party, Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson have repeatedly chosen to break the most obvious of laws including such debacles as ;

1) The Marmite Case

2) The unlawful use of stock images from a photoshop company during the European Elections

3) The EHRC court cases

4) The unlawful sacking of Michaele Mackenzie

5) The illegal suspension of Peter Mullins and many others

All of these were done under the orders of both Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson.

Regardless of how much income the party has had over the last few years, hundreds of thousands of pounds have been squandered on avoidable court cases.

[...]

What was particularly galling for me was the Michaela Mackenzie case.

I informed Nick Griffin on the day he sacked her that what he was doing was unlawful.

Not only did he ignore my advice, he later went to an Employment Tribunal and called me a ‘crank’ as a way to ‘explain’ why my advice to him was ignored.

The actions of Nick Griffin in this case alone has cost the party over twenty five thousand pounds, and as of Friday last week the money owed to Michaele Mackenzie has still not been paid.

This means the party will now be dragged back into court and probably bankrupted as a result.

As far as I am aware the party is now technically insolvent.

[...]

As far as I am aware donations to the party have flowed to a trickle as well as party renewals and new inquiries.

[...]

In relation to the illegal suspension of Peter Mullins and others, I spent months trying to get Nick to see sense on this issue.

It was only after months of arguments that Nick Griffin was forced to relent, drop their suspensions and re-admit them.

During this time I was threatened by Jim Dowson with violence for putting the parties legal interests first as he was the person pushing Nick Griffin to expel Peter Mullins and others.

I am not the only BNP member or BNP officer to have been threatened with violence by Jim Dowson.

It appears that when Jim Dowson doesn’t get what he wants he likes to threaten people with his connections to loyalist killers and terrorists in Northern Ireland in order to intimidate people into doing his bidding.

My complaints to Nick Griffin about Jim Dowsons threats of violence directed at me and other party members have been ignored.

All I can say is that Peter Mullins is a decent, honourable man whilst Jim Dowson is a convicted criminal, with links to Loyalist terrorism and terrorists with a string of failed companies to his name who bought his ’reverend’ title off of the internet.

[...]

The decision yesterday to unlawfully suspend dozens of activists simply for them standing against Nick Griffin in the leadership contest is the action of utterly irresponsible incompetents.

Nick Griffin knew before the leadership challenge even began that he could not be removed as leader of the party.

The BNP constitution was re-written specifically to ensure that no-one can ever remove Nick Griffin from his role as chairman.

[...]

I cannot remain as the Legal Officer of a party that acts unlawfully towards its own members, that rewards years of party loyalty with unlawful suspensions and expulsions, that covers up serious allegations of sexual abuse by senior officers, that expels long standing members who ask for financial transparency within the party and that refuses to act to protect its own officers when they are threatened with violence by other senior officers.

Such a political party cannot be trusted with political power in our society.

[...]

I hereby quit my role as BNP Legal Adviser with immediate effect.

L. J. Barnes LLB (Hons)

Barnes may be an oddball but he is presumably well aware of the basics of UK libel law. This makes the statements and accusations made by Barnes in this letter all the more damning. When a previously slavishly loyal BNP officer goes public with claims about law breaking, bankruptcy, threats of violence, incompetence, and authoritarianism, and states that ’such a political party cannot be trusted with political power in our society’, it’s pretty clear that that party is in dire straits. Which is of course very pleasing to hear.

[For those interested in finding out more about Jim Dowson, Searchlight has a three part exposé here.]