View source for John Kingsley Read

'''John Kingsley Read''' (1937{{spaced ndash}}1985) was chairman of the [[British National Front]] (NF) from 1974 to 1976 and a founder of the [[National Party (UK, 1976)|National Party]].

A former member of the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] and chairman of the [[Blackburn]] [[Young Conservatives (UK)|Young Conservatives]], Read left to join the NF in 1973 having addressed a rally against the invasion of [[Ugandan Asians]] in Britain earlier that same year in [[Blackburn]].<ref>Martin Walker, ''The National Front'', Glasgow: Fontana Collins, 1977, p. 136</ref>

A strong orator, Read rose quickly through the NF ranks, his style drawing comparisons to American politician [[George Wallace]], to whom he also bore a passing physical resemblance.<ref>M. Walker,'' The National Front'', Fontana Collins, Revised Edition 1978, pp. 176</ref> Read was later denounced as a drunkard by [[Andrew Fountaine]].<ref>J. Bean, ''Many Shades of Black - Inside Britain's far Right'', p. 217</ref>

After securing the support of potential rival [[Roy Painter]], Read was elected Chairman of the National Front in 1974, with [[John Tyndall]] his deputy chairman, in what was regarded as a vote by the '[[populism|populist]]' wing of the party against the authoritarian Tyndall.<ref>M. Walker, ''The National Front'', Fontana Collins, Revised Edition 1978pp 175-177</ref> 

Later Read himself  "drifted" into the populist camp but was only narrowly re-elected as Chairman in 1975.<ref>M. Walker, ''The National Front'', Fontana Collins, Revised Edition 1978 p186, 188</ref> He tried to expel Tyndall from the party but Read's decision was overturned at the High Court.  Read then quit the NF along with many of his followers to establish the [[National Party (UK, 1976)|National Party]] (NP), which won two seats on [[Blackburn Council]], one of them held by Read, but their other councillor was disqualified for election irregularities.

Read designed the front cover motif for the British edition of [[Arthur Butz]]'s book ''[[The Hoax of the Twentieth Century]]''<ref>Ray Hill & Andrew Bell, ''The Other Face of Terror'',  Grafton, 1988, pp. 235</ref> which was circulated by the NP.  

Following Read's death in 1985, Ziono-communist ''[[Searchlight magazine|Searchlight]]'' claimed he had been working as a mole for them. This was disputed by [[Nick Griffin]] and many others who assert that Kingsley Read had been working with the knowledge of other leading members of the NF to feed false information to the magazine deliberately, although John Tyndall was convinced that Kingsley Read had been a double agent.<ref>J. Tyndall, 'An Enemy Agent is "Exonerated"', ''[[Spearhead (magazine)|Spearhead]]'', August 2002, p. 11</ref>

== Elections contested ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Date of election !! Constituency !! Party !! Votes !! %
|-
| [[United Kingdom general election, February 1974|February 1974]] || [[Blackburn (UK Parliament constituency)|Blackburn]] || [[British National Front|NF]] || 1778 || 4.2
|-
| [[United Kingdom general election, October 1974|October 1974]] || [[Blackburn (UK Parliament constituency)|Blackburn]] || NF || 1758 || 4.4
|-
| 4 March 1976 || [[Coventry North West (UK Parliament constituency)|Coventry NW]] || [[National Party (UK, 1976)|NP]] || 208 || 0.6
|}

== References ==
{{reflist|3}}
{{National Front}}
{{British nationalism}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME              = Read, John Kingsley
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION =
| DATE OF BIRTH     = 1937
| PLACE OF BIRTH    =
| DATE OF DEATH     = 1985
| PLACE OF DEATH    =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, John Kingsley}}



[[Category:Councillors in Lancashire]]