Imperial Fascist League - Arrival of The BUF

Arrival of The BUF

In 1932 Robert Forgan approached the IFL and suggested that they should merge into Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists but the offer was declined. Leese rejected any overtures from Mosely due to the latter's initial reulctance to make anti-Semitism a central theme, leading to Leese dismissing Mosley as a "kosher fascist". He even dubbed the BUF the 'British Jewnion of Fascists' over the issue. One of their biggest differences was that the IFL held a biological view of anti-Semitism that the Jews were inherently inferior as a race in contrast to the BUF, whose eventual adoption of anti-Semitism was framed in ideas about the Jews supposed undue influence at the top echelons of society.

By 1933 the BUF decided to act against the renegade IFL, with Blackshirts attacking a number of meetings culminating in an incident in Great Portland Street where fifty Blackshirts disguised as communists invaded the stage to attack Leese before causing considerable damage to the hall in an attempt to force a large bill onto the IFL. The BUF even passed fabricated evidence of an IFL plot to attack its headquarters to the Home Office. By 1939, with the IFL's influence diminished, their rivalry had cooled to the point where the BUF bookshop in Canterbury even stocked IFL pamphlets.

Although rejecting a merger with the BUF the IFL was linked to the Nordic League through Commander E. H. Cole, a staunch advocate of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, who served as chancellor of the League as well as being a leading IFL member. Before long both Leese and P. J. Ridout also took out membership of this group, membership of which encompassed most shades of far right activity.