Conservative councillor resigns after ties to fascist group emerge
A Conservative Party councillor has resigned after his ties to a far-right group have emerged.
Andy Weatherhead, who represented Hythe West on Kent County Council, was revealed to be a senior officer for the New British Union (NBU), a self-described fascist organisation.
His resignation came shortly after he was suspended by the Conservatives.
The NBU, whose motto is “restoring faith in fascism”, uses the same symbol as its predecessor, the British Union of Fascists, a 1930s group led by Oswald Mosley that infamously clashed with Jews and anti-fascist campaigners at Cable Street in East London.
The news came following an investigation by anti-racist group Hope Not Hate, who claimed that Mr Weatherhead wrote a blog in which he railed against the government for “appeasing the British and International Jewish lobby, whilst allowing the British people to be feed [sic] lie after lie through the Jewish controlled Press and Media,” and attended a rally by the neo-Nazi organisation Golden Dawn.
According to the investigation, Mr Weatherhead was appointed as the NBU’s business officer in April 2013 until at least February 2014. He also held the position of Policy Officer in May 2013 under the name ‘Andy Blackhouse’.
Additionally, images of Mr Weatherhead, who also went under the name Andrew Beadle within the far-right group, of him wearing the NBU insignia on his jacket surfaced.
Other images included the former councillor pictured alongside three men who would go on to form the proscribed neo-Nazi group National Action, including Mark Jones, the former partner of Alice Cutter, known colloquially as “Miss Hitler” after entering a far-right beauty pageant.
Mr Weatherhead reportedly ran under UKIP four times before eventually deciding to run for the Conservative Party.
Stephen James, Chairman of Folkestone and Hythe Conservative Association, said: “I welcome the news that Mr Andrew Weatherhead, has resigned from Kent County Council and Dymchurch Parish Council and must reiterate that the abhorrent images and associations described in the article have no place in our association or the Conservative Party.
“As a British Army veteran, I know more than most the consequences if we do not defend, champion and promote democracy and the rule of law.”
Mr Weatherhead addressed the reports saying that he believed the “optic [sic] of these pictures is poor and potentially upsetting for some,” adding: “For this I can and do sincerely apologise.”
He added that his involvement with NBU was “brief” and that he looks back on that time with “regret and personal disappointment”.
Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.
Image credit Hope Not Hate
