After careful consideration I have decide to recommend and ask that everyone who wishes to nominate me so that I am able to contest this years’ leadership election completes these forms and writes my name where it says:

I would like to nominate……EDDY BUTLER

And ticks the box to the left.

After completing the remainder of the form please send it to Andrew Brons MEP at P.O. Box 164, Harrogate,HG1 4XD.

I am certain that the rules invented by the current Chairman to cover the nomination process, including his yellow form, are contrary to our constitution and contrary to the established practice in how leadership election nominations are collected in the British National Party. It shows that the current Chairman knows he is about to lose this contest, as does his latest ploy of fielding two (so far!) spoiler candidates neither of whom actually oppose the current Chairman and his policy.

Nevertheless it would be helpful and advisable to complete their flawed forms (even if they are likely to be overturned and ruled invalid by the courts), while at the same time pulling out all the stops to complete and return our constitutional form. I attach a copy of our form and ask all potential nominators to complete and return it as a matter of urgency.

TO REPEAT: PLEASE SEND BACK BOTH THE YELLOW FORM TO ANDREW BRONS AND MY CONSTITUTIONAL FORM TO US. WE ARE DOING BOTH.

As each day passes the reasons why we need new leadership get more and more urgent. There is growing evidence that we are in imminent danger of being made insolvent and literally closed down – not due to the Equalities Commission but due to financial mismanagement. The Party leadership has responded by an unprecedented wave of expulsions and suspensions. My campaign manager Peter Phillips and two other key supporters (Richard Trower and Andrew Emerson) in the South East were suspended today for no reason. Recently three of my supporters were suspended in Liverpool (Peter Squire, Peter Stafford and Tony Ward) again for no valid reason.

We need to show fortitude in wining our country back. To be able to do this we need to show fortitude and gumption to win our Party back. Our loyalty can only be to our Party – not to any man.

We are holding meetings virtually every day from now on in support of the leadership challenge:

Tuesday 20th July – 7.30 pm – The Cherry Tree, Wood Lane, Dagenham

Sunday 25th July – 3.00 pm – Cheshunt, Hertfordshire

Please come along and hear the true voice of this year’s real leadership challenge.

This is a bit depressing as the torrent of deliberate lies only succeeds in further damaging the Party. It demonstrates that the Party is unable to conduct an internal election campaign in anything like a civilized manner.

Yet another lie about me is being matured on these forums. I gave Nick Griffin MEP the benefit of the doubt about the last one (the fake prostitute story) believing that he would not stoop so low as to use deliberate lies about me – even though I strongly suspected he would do so. I was going to run with that story first, but decided not to, on the grounds that it would perhaps make him look bad unnecessarily.

This time I must run the story first as they have been spreading lies that I stole, was trying to steal or would have stolen 10,000 Euros.

First they dropped hints – just as they did with the fake ‘prostitute’ tale.

In fact we can see a reference to it on the same screen shot they launched the prostitute story on – and this is from the lowest and vilest so-called Nazi blog on the entire internet.

The story was also propagated by posts on the seediest Nazi chat forum around, called VNN.

One of the most degrading aspects of this is that it proves that Nick Griffin MEP and his inner team are in direct communication with people on the most disreputable Nazi fringe. These Nazis are an integral part of Nick Griffin MEP’s leadership campaign.

The only people who knew anything about the 10,000 Euros were Nick Griffin, Jim Dowson, David Hannam (the Treasurer) and Paul Golding (Jim Dowson’s agent).

What 10,000 Euros?

As a European Parliamentary assistant to Nick Griffin MEP, I arranged a trip to the European Parliament on 17th and 18th March for a coach full of residents from Cumbria. It was for a special exhibition which I had organised relating to the floods that hit Cumbria last November.

The European Parliament grants a subsidy towards such trips, which is paid to the trip organiser. It is not allowed to be paid to the MEP. For this trip it came to 10,790.56 Euros, which, after I paid for lunch for the attendees, left 10,315 Euros.

The Party had advanced me money to pay for the coach, the hotel and evening meal, and I gave the full remaining amount to the Party as a donation.

I spoke to David Hannam about arranging to meet him to give him the money on a number of occasions after 18th March, but in the run up to the General Election we were both busy and eventually it was agreed that I would give it to Paul Golding. On 29th March I met him at the petrol station at Thurrock Services on the M25, wound down my car window, and passed him an envelope containing 10,315 Euros. Luckily I took the precaution of having him sign for it. There was also another person in the car with me (Susan Clapp), but I am sure he didn’t see her as she is rather small and the meeting was very brief.

I thought it was a bit odd that I should be required to hand over the money in this manner. That weekend I had suddenly received a series of frantic requests to meet Paul Golding and give him the money. Paul Golding isn’t a fundholder but he is Jim Dowson’s closest aide in the Party. The cash was to be given by Paul Golding to Jim Dowson. Jim Dowson spends most of his time in Spain now for some reason, and giving him the cash would avoid currency conversion charges.

I have previously been told that the Party owes Jim Dowson £100,000 and this money was to be used as a part payment of that. I have no idea what the £100,000 we owe Jim Dowson is for.

It is clear to me, from the stories spread on the internet and from hints and rumours which they spread to other people that I was going to be accused of stealing the 10,000 Euros.

I was not to know, but during the period when I was trying to arrange to meet David Hannam, Nick Griffin MEP had been busy plotting to remove me from my positions, which he did just two days after I met Paul Golding – hence the desperation to get the money from me, and the unorthodox manner of the handover which was arranged so as to compromise me in the future.

The whole business raises a number of questions which illustrate the desperate recklessness of Nick Griffin’s leadership campaign strategy. By bringing this issue up and by spreading deliberate lies in this manner, this transaction is now in the spotlight with the following consequences:

1. The money I paid in has not been declared as a donation to the Electoral Commission.

2. The cash payment of over 10,000 Euros to Jim Dowson will draw the attention of the Inland Revenue.

3. The payment of a European Parliamentary subsidy relating to Nick Griffin MEP to the Party will attract the interest of the European Parliament. As the payment wasn’t declared as a donation it has been treated directly as Party money.

These consequences will not have occurred to Nick Griffin MEP’s campaign team. As with so many other things, they do not think through the consequences of their reckless and precipitous actions. They do not act with any finesse.

As I was put under threat of being accused of theft, and as Nick Griffin MEP has shown that he will use the most disgusting lies in an attempt to fight to defend his Chairmanship, I have been left with no option but to set out exactly what happened with the 10,000 Euros.

There is still time for Nick Griffin MEP to put a stop to the deliberate lies and smears that have so far characterised his leadership campaign. There is time for him to stop employing the Nazi smear merchants, to distance himself from the squalid underbelly of the pseudo nationalist fringe, and to fight a clean fight. He can still put forward positive ideas in support if himself and use this election to re-launch his career, if that is his intention. Or is his intention to hold on frantically at all costs?

From Eddy Butlers’ Blog

Eddy Butlers corrections are in blue:

Regrettably a number of internal propaganda stories have appeared on the main Party website clogging up the front screen. I am sure that the current Party Chairman Nick Griffin MEP knows nothing about this as he is well aware that these stories contain gross inaccuracies.

Examine the following, quoted verbatim from an article entitled “Building Our “New Model Army” Was Never Going To Be Popular among Our Enemies”:

“Last year’s accounts — on course to be submitted to the usual intense scrutiny of the Electoral Commission in July — show a fantastic rise in central income to £1.9 million, of which £1,600,000 was raised in donations thanks to our main expert external contractor having developed for us the most sophisticated fundraising operation in British political history. With our regional accounts also showing a massive increase, to a very healthy £254,000 this gives us a total turnover of approximately £2,353,201.20.”

Firstly, central income is given as £1.9 million, regional accounts as £0.254 million and the total makes… £2.353 million. Or should that be £2.154 million.

A minor slip up perhaps, but if the central figure is £1.9 million and Jim Dowson raised £1.6 million from donations – this means that we only raised £0.3 million through memberships, subscriptions (e.g. VoF), sales (e.g. leaflets), the Trafalgar Club (not then run by Jim Dowson) and so on. The memberships alone would be greatly in excess of £0.3 million. The Life Membership scheme last year also raised around £0.35 million.
From the briefest of examinations the figures do not add up. This does not suggest corruption – it suggests incompetence and puts all the other claims in this article into their true perspective.

I read on and find this:

“I tried appointing a party (staff) manager and a national organiser to oversee the key aspects of the day-to-day running of the party. Several people have now had one or other role over recent years, most lately Emma Colgate and Eddy Butler. None of them have been able to cope.”

Mr Griffin MEP knows that I was employed for four days a week as a European researcher and one day a week as National Elections Officer and National Organiser, so I cannot believe he wrote any of this, as clearly I would not have been able to oversee the day-to-day running of the Party when given so many roles at once. The above sentence suggests that I was sacked because I was unable to cope! This is a new one as hints have previously been given for other totally unconnected reasons, and that is something that will no doubt be returned to in the future.

When Emma Colgate was bullied into resigning (at the same time I was ‘sacked’ – although a meeting held on Easter Monday was deliberately misinformed that I had also resigned) I happen to know that she was made to sign a non-disclosure deal. This deal seems to have been broken in this article. In fact such is the efficiency of the new operation that when Mr Griffin MEP showed me Miss Colgate’s resignation document I helpfully pointed out that the operable date was 31st August 2010! So perhaps Miss Colgate’s non disclosure deal has yet to come into effect.

It will do me no personal favours to disclose that the super efficient central operation still has not remembered to officially, properly or legally sack me and I remain legally on their payroll (I guess this is one reason I don’t know the ‘real’ reason for my supposed sacking). Mark Collett is also still legally on the payroll (believe it or not given the allegations made about him) and as they totally messed up Emma Colgate’s enforced resignation, legally so is she.

And further down there is this…

“Even more bitter, even more understandably, are the several people — staff, independent contractors and senior officials alike — who have been caught with their fingers in the till by Mr Dowson. Not surprisingly, they want to get rid of him, and will tell any lie in their bid to do so.”

Have I missed something? Has there ever been a substantiated claim against any staff member or employee for having their hands in the till? I would like to think that if there was such a person then they should be named and shamed and deservedly exposed to the wrath of the membership.

Then there is the characterisation of anyone who raises a voice of opposition as ‘egotists’ who will likely become ‘a traitor to his cause’, and there are also ‘natural born schemers’. Then we find “cranks. Every Hollywood Nazi crackpot from California to Vladivostok jumps at every opportunity to attack the BNP”. It is not explained why Nazi crackpots in California or Vladivostock should take any interest in the BNP. That soon to be well worn term (I am good at predicting such things) ‘knave’ also makes an appearance.

Then I find that I am part of a Searchlight plot – I knew it wouldn’t be long before that one came out.

“Searchlight and Mr Butler and his friends who formed the now defunct Freedom Party first started spreading unfounded rumours of financial impropriety against me ten years ago”.

In fact I spread no rumours. Serious allegations of financial malpractice were made against Mr Griffin by his Party Treasurer and his Deputy Chairman, not by me. Then Mr Griffin MEP goes on to say he has a two year plan and that he needs Jim Dowson to help him – when Jim Dowson has been telling everyone that he will be off when his supposed three year contract expires early next year (not that anyone actually ever believed that).

In business what really counts is the bottom line – and as a business consultant Jim Dowson will know this. The bottom line is that for this year’s General Election the Party was able to spend around £350,000. Where did this spending come from? Did it come from Jim Dowson’s fundraising efforts (less the expense of running the Party to accommodate his fundraising efforts)? No it did not because there was nothing left to spend on the General Election.

Sorry that is not entirely true as the Party centre had about £50,000 left which was spent on Nick Griffin MEP’s campaign to try and win the Barking Parliamentary constituency.
The branches and regions raised the money locally to pay for the campaign.

The main Party website should be there to attract members of the public. It should not be used as the plaything of the current Party Chairman as a tool to attack legitimate internal opponents during a leadership challenge. If Mr Griffin wants to do this he should set up his own private blog or website. If the previous Labour Government used the civil service or a quango to do its political dirty work then the BNP would rightly have been in the forefront of those exposing this disgraceful state of affairs. Indeed when the Equalities Commission took the BNP to court over its Constitution this is exactly what BNP said. It is a utter disgrace that the current Party leadership are now effectively adopting the same tactics. I am afraid that this fact alone demonstrates beyond all doubt that a new leadership is required.

The Party does not belong to the current Chairman – it belongs to the members.