Richard Barnbrook

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Richard Barnbrook

Deputy Secretary Of The Executive National Committee Of The British National Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 
1 May 2008
Barking and Dagenham Council
Goresbrook Ward
Incumbent
Assumed office 
5 May 2006
Serving with 
Tracy Lansdown
Warren Northover
Majority 272 (4.25%)
Born 24 February 1961 (1961-02-24) (age 48)
Catford, London
Nationality British
Political party British National Party
Spouse(s) Daisy Barnbrook
Children Sam Barnbrook
Residence Barking
Alma mater Royal Academy of Arts
Profession Teacher, Sculptor
Religion Agnostic, Previously Roman Catholic

Richard Johnathon Barnbrook (born 24 February 1961, Catford, London[1]) is the representative of the British National Party (BNP) on the London Assembly. Barnbrook is a councillor, and deputy-head of the BNP grouping, on Barking and Dagenham Council, representing the Goresbrook ward.

Contents

[edit] Background

Barnbrook attended the Royal Academy of Arts and finished his studies in 1985. He worked as an artist and art teacher.[1][2] His art projects included directing and appearing in the film HMS Discovery: A Love Story,[2] which received substantial media coverage as a result of its scenes of male nudity and homoerotic themes, and which was described as "gay pornography",[2][3][4][5][6] but which Barnbrook insists was nothing more than an art film and certainly not homoerotic.[7][8]

[edit] Politics

Previously an activist for the Labour Party[9] Barnbrook was a British National Party candidate in the United Kingdom general election, 2005. He received 16.9% votes in Barking coming third and only 27 votes behind the Conservative candidate, Keith Prince. The constituency was won by Margaret Hodge.

Barnbrook was the BNP's candidate for the London mayoral election, 2008, receiving 69 710 first preference votes (2.84% of the total valid first preference votes cast) and 128 609 second preference votes (5.23% of the total valid second preference votes cast).

In the separate London-wide Assembly election he was the top candidate in the BNP's London-wide Assembly Member List. The BNP List received 130 714 votes or 5.33% of the total valid votes cast. The BNP therefore passed the 5% threshold and won one seat in the London Assembly which was filled by Barnbrook.[10][11]

In a BBC interview during his campaign, he said "You may have your religion behind your closed doors but you don't bring it onto the streets. You can be homosexual behind closed doors, you can be heterosexual behind closed doors, but you don't bring it onto the streets, demanding more rights for it"[2].

In September 2008, Barnbrook appeared in an interview in which he was asked about knife crime. The interview appeared on his website, YouTube and his blog on the Daily Telegraph website. Barnbrook states during the recording that “In Barking and Dagenham alone three weeks ago, there was a murder of a young girl. We don’t know who’s done it, her girlfriend was attacked inside an educational institute. Again, two weeks ago there was another attack by knives on the streets of Barking and Dagenham where two people were murdered."[12][13] Councillor Valerie Rush subsequently complained to the Greater London Authority that she knew the statements to be false, and accused Barnbrook of bringing his office into disrepute.[13] In May 2009 a joint investigation by the Greater London Authority and Barking and Dagenham council concluded that Barnbrook had brought "his office and the respective authorities into disrepute" as a result of the interview.[13] A hearing held by the standards committees of both the assembly and council was adjourned on 21 July 2009 when Barnbrook failed to appear, after being given given sick leave on grounds of stress. He had also failed to provide written evidence.[14] On 24 September 2009 Barnbrook was suspended for one month from Barking and Dagenham Council for bringing it into disrepute. Barnbrook said he had made "unitentional inaccuracies" in the interview on knife crime due to his dyslexia and background noise.[15]

[edit] Personal life

Barnbrook married an American in 1998; they separated in 2004 due to personal differences and in 2008 were reported to be going through divorce proceedings[16].

Barnbrook was engaged to ballerina Simone Clarke[17]. However, in August 2008 it was reported that he had been seeing a Finnish nurse, Annika Tavilampi, who he had met over the Internet. The relationship has since ended.[18] In statements made before he met Clarke, however, Barnbrook was quoted as saying, apropos her relationship with Yat-Sen Chang and their daughter, Olivia, "I'm not opposed to mixed marriages but their children are washing out the identity of this country's indigenous people." He later said that, should he and Clarke get married, "her child will be my child."[19] In November 2008, he claimed that they are no longer engaged[20].

[edit] General elections

Date of election Constituency Party Votes  %
2005 Barking BNP 4,916 16.9

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Richard Barnbrook - BNP Mayoral Candidate (2008)
  2. ^ a b c d BBC Profile: Richard Barnbrook
  3. ^ Daily Telegraph: 'BNP Councillor Denies Working on Gay Porn Film' 11 May 2006
  4. ^ The Guardian: 'Gay porn' movie raises ripples on the far right
  5. ^ BBC: BNP man rejects porn film claim
  6. ^ The Independent: BNP's council leader made film labelled as 'Marxist gay cinema'
  7. ^ As he battles to become London's mayor, the bizarre truth about the BNP boss, his ballerina fiance and bitter wife | Mail Online
  8. ^ BBC NEWS | Politics | BNP man rejects porn film claim
  9. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7219747.stm
  10. ^ 'The anti-immigration British National Party has won a seat on the London Assembly after getting 5.3% of votes'
  11. ^ 'Johnson snatches Tories biggest prize'
  12. ^ 'Richard Barnbrook talking about knife crime outside Southwark cathedral (Youtube).'
  13. ^ a b c 'Report of an investigation under Section 59 of the Local Government Act 2000 into an allegation concerning Councillor and Assembly Member Richard Barnbrook.'
  14. ^ Hélène Mulholland "BNP's Richard Barnbrook fails to appear at misconduct hearing", The Guardian, 21 July 2009
  15. ^ http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/domestic_politics/bnp+councillor+suspended+for+one+month/3357102
  16. ^ "As he battles to become London's mayor, the bizarre truth about the BNP boss, his ballerina fiance and bitter wife", The Daily Mail, Apr 29, 08
  17. ^ Matthew Taylor "BNP ballerina to marry party councillor", The Guardian, Dec 20, 2007
  18. ^ Amanda Evans:"BNP boss Richard Barnbrook cheats on Brit with IMMIGRANT" News of the World, 6 August 2008.
  19. ^ "'BNP ballerina' to wed fellow far-right activist". The Guardian. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,,2229824,00.html. 
  20. ^ Martin Fletcher, "BNP: By all means name us, but you won’t shame us, says the ‘ordinary’ face of the far Right", The Times, 22 Nov 2008

[edit] External links

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