Although fascism in the United Kingdom never reached the heights of many of its historical European counterparts, British politics after the First World War saw the emergence of a number of fascist movements, none of which ever came to power.
Pre-War
A number of fascist movements emerged before the Second World War. Even before the March on Rome, Italian fascism gained praise in sections of the press, with articles appearing in both the Saturday Review and Pall Mall Gazette in 1921 and in The Times in 1922 praising the fascists for their strike-breaking and general anti-trade union activities. On 4 November 1922 a group of black-shirted admirers of Benito Mussolini held a remembrance service at Westminster Abbey which the Workers' Socialist Federation protested, both for the group being allowed to march to the abbey and for the fact that they were permitted to use a building as significant as Westminster Abbey in the first place. However it would be 1923 before any formal group seeking to connect itself to fascism would be formed. Whilst none of these gained any parliamentary representation some of them enjoyed wider notability. Amongst the more important groups that were founded were:
The British Fascists (BF), founded in 1923 as the British Fascisti by Rotha Lintorn-Orman, one of the very few women to ever lead an avowedly fascist movement. Initially they had only a limited political platform but supported Italian fascism from 1931 to their demise in 1936. The National Fascisti, a splinter group of the BF founded in 1924 that from the outset fully supported the tactics of Benito Mussolini. They fell apart after another group, the British National Fascisti, broke away from them. The Imperial Fascist League (IFL), also a breakaway from the BF, formed by Arnold Leese in 1929. After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany they embraced Nazism. The British Union of Fascists (BUF), formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley as a successor to his New Party. The largest British fascist party, it absorbed members from other groups and called on the support of leading figures including members of the House of Lords, Commons, many Knights of the realm, as well as, for a time, the Daily Mail newspaper. The Militant Christian Patriots were a strongly anti-Semitic propaganda organisation that was formed around 1935 and briefly held a high-profile. The National Socialist League, a pro-Nazi breakaway from the BUF, formed in 1937 by William Joyce and John Beckett. It was wound up in 1939 when Joyce emigrated to Nazi Germany. The English National Association, initially called the British National Party, sought to bring together former BUF members during the war. The Scottish Fascist Democratic Party existed in the early 1930s under William Weir Gilmour. Weir Gilmour had been a candidate for the New Party but had refused to join the BUF as he felt it was dominated by Roman Catholics, whom he despised.
Minor movements
Alongside these several more minor groups that adhered to fascism were also established. Amongst those identified were: