Ex-NF ‘political soldier’ closes down party
Posted by admin978 on May 2, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Phil Andrews (far right) on the NF’s 1986 Remembrance Day march alongside fellow activists from the ‘political soldier’ faction including (left to right) Derek Holland, Graham Williamson and Nick Griffin
Phil Andrews was one of the leading young activists in the National Front during the 1980s, closely associated with the ‘political soldier’ or ‘cadre’ faction alongside Derek Holland, Nick Griffin and the Italian fugitive Roberto Fiore. They were perhaps best known for their support of the Libyan dictator Colonel Gadaffi.
This faction became the ‘International Third Position’ at the end of the 1980s, and after its collapse Phil Andrews renounced nationalism while staying in politics as a community activist in West London.
Mr Andrews himself was elected as a councillor and the residents group he helped create – known as the Independent Community Group – eventually held the balance of power with six seats in the London Borough of Hounslow. Ironically (for someone who was once counted among the most ‘radical’ of NF activists), Cllr Andrews and his colleagues used their positions to form a local coalition with the Conservatives.
In 2010 all of the ICG councillors were defeated and they failed to regain any seats at the next elections in 2014. Now the party has been wound up.
Phil Andrews (left) with two fellow ICG candidates during their 2014 election campaign. Neither of his colleagues had any NF connections.
Phil Andrews told his local newspaper:
“We are clearly entering into a new phase. Where we had hoped to persuade the powers that be that engagement with an active and organised community could be mutually beneficial, what we appear to have done is to have hardened attitudes.
“Their (Hounslow Labour Party) response to losing elections to local residents was to draft in outside help, using the sophisticated national machine at their disposal to smother local efforts.
“And in office their attitude has been to deceive, coerce and bully rather than to listen, as the disgraceful harassment of community activist Paul Slattery in Brentford has demonstrated.
“In response, the community has mobilised, but that mobilisation has risen organically from a variety of sources rather than from one organised body. That mobilisation needs to be supported and its momentum maintained. To be frank the ICG approach had become dated and predictable.”
