England First Party - Defection To England First Party

Defection To England First Party

On 1 May 2009, a former British National Party councillor, John Gamble, confirmed that he has defected to the EFP, after criticising the BNP. In the preceding months, he had become increasingly disillusioned with the BNP’s national and local leadership, this resulted in him being expelled from the BNP. He sat as an Independent for a few days and then he decided to "join a party that offers a serious, radical challenge to the corrupt political establishment".

However, on 12 March 2010, John Gamble defected to the National Front. This was after he told The Star newspaper in Sheffield he had 'jumped ship' to the NF because he wanted to join a 'more active' organisation than England First.

On 1 April 2010, John Gamble changed his political allegiance yet again and defected back to England First because he stated to The Star, "I am not aware of the severity of these opinions" when some of the NF's recorded views were put to him.

On 5 April 2010 England First refused to take him back. England First's chairman, Mark Cotterill, said: "While we have nothing against Cllr. Gamble, the fact is that despite his various and contradictory public statements he has had no involvement with the EFP – and is no longer an EFP member."

Mr Cotterill went on to release a statement to The Sheffield Star saying, "We don't want anything to do with Councillor Gamble. He has done nothing for the party, and when he left we washed our hands of him."