Norris McWhirter - Political Activity

Political Activity

He was an active member of the Conservative Party in the early 1960s and fought, unsuccessfully, to recapture Orpington in the 1964 and 1966 UK general elections after its loss to the Liberals in the 1962 by-election.

Together with his brother Ross, he founded the ultra right wing political organisation, the National Association for Freedom (now The Freedom Association) in the 1970s. This organisation initiated legal challenges against the trade union movement in the UK, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the European Economic Community (EEC) in Brussels, and he was an active supporter of UKIP.

Ross McWhirter was a constant critic of British government policy in Northern Ireland, and called for a "tougher" response by the British Army against Irish republicans. Ross McWhirter was shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1975 at his home after offering a reward for information leading to the apprehension of those carrying out a bombing campaign in London at the time.

Norris McWhirter was a member of the Secretariat of the anti-communist European Freedom Campaign, established in London at an Inaugural Rally at Westminster Central Hall on 10 December 1988. This group's co-ordinating committee consisted almost exclusively of representatives from countries behind the Iron Curtain.