Richard Barnbrook
Encyclopedia
Richard John Barnbrook is a British
politician and member of the London Assembly
. Having been elected as a British National Party
(BNP) candidate, he resigned the BNP whip
in August 2010. Barnbrook was a councillor, and leader (2006-08), then deputy leader (2008-10), of the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council
. He represented Goresbrook ward.
, Barnbrook attended the Royal Academy of Arts and finished his studies in 1985. He worked as an artist and art teacher. His art projects included directing and appearing in the film HMS Discovery: A Love Story, which received substantial media coverage as a result of its scenes of male nudity and homoerotic themes, and which was described as "gay pornography", but which Barnbrook insists was nothing more than an art film and certainly not homoerotic. In 2000, Barnbrook was appointed managing director and artistic designer to the Jubilee Woods Trust, which was set up to create new woodland plantations with the theme of environment, education and art, one for every county in the UK, to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, to which Sting was one of the principal benefactors. Barnbrook received royal acclaim for his designs for heraldic planting formations, but only one of these came to fruition in north Liverpool. When Barnbrook’s connections with the BNP came to public notice, Barnbrook was dismissed before the project could be completed, and none of his other designs got off the drawing board.
, Barnbrook joined the BNP in 1999. He was a BNP candidate in the 2005 general election
. He received 4,916 votes (16.9%) 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 2008 London mayoral election
, 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.
Barnbrook challenged for the leadership of the BNP in July 2010 but, like the other challengers, Butler and Adams, failed to obtain the very large number of nominations required of a challenger in order to trigger an election. Barnbrook resigned the BNP whip
in August 2010, following his unheeded demand for an inquiry into allegations of corruption against the party leadership. Barnbrook was then expelled from the party. Since August 2010 Barnbrook has sat in the London Assembly as an independent member.
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 sick leave on grounds of stress. He had also failed to provide written evidence. 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 "unintentional inaccuracies" in the interview on knife crime due to his dyslexia and background noise. He subsequently posted an apology on his blog which stated: "I apologise for giving out this information based on anecdotal reports and thereafter for not ensuring that the videos were removed or at least amended, once I knew the information to be incorrect. I have a passionate interest in the scourge of knife-crime which affects our whole community and will continue to speak out on the issue. I have no wish, however, to stoke fear of crime and realise the importance of conveying accurate information. I will seek to work far more closely with the Police and other agencies in future to ensure that I am able to do this".
Richard Barnbrook appealed against the outcome of the earlier hearings. He was represented by Patrick Harrington
(the General Secretary of Solidarity – The Union for British Workers
, acting in a personal capacity) at the appeal and Mr James Goudie QC acted for the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. The appeal was heard on 21 January 2010 and the decision announced on 18 February 2010. At the hearing, Harrington made a number of submissions on behalf of the appellant. Two cases were cited:- Mullaney –v- The Adjudication Panel for England [2009] EWHC 72 (Admin) and Livingstone -v- The Adjudication Panel for England [2006] EWHC 2533 (Admin).
Harrington's key argument was that Barnbrook at any one time wears three hats. The first for his political position within the BNP. The second as Assembly member for the GLA. The third of LBBD Councillor. Sometimes the boundaries between these three functions became blurred, according to Harrington. In relation to the video the appellant was not acting in his capacity as a councillor. When Barnbrook made reference to Barking and Dagenham it was by way of an illustration in the same way as he had cited incidents that had occurred in other parts of England. The Tribunal agreed with Harrington. It "concluded that the Appellant was not conducting the business of the Authority nor acting or claiming to act as a representative of the Authority. While there is reasoning which could lead the Tribunal to find that the Appellant was acting in his capacity as a councillor or was giving the impression that he was representing the Authority, there are also contrary arguments, and on balance, the Tribunal has concluded that the Appellant was not, on the particular facts, so doing."
They went on to say that "The Tribunal therefore came to the conclusion that the Appellant’s actions of appearing in the video and posting it on the web do not fall within section 2 of the Code and therefore the Code has not been engaged and no finding in respect of disrepute can be supported".
On this basis the Tribunal ruled:-
"In view of the Tribunal’s finding that the Code of Conduct had not been engaged any findings reached by the Standards Committee (and whether or not adjudged by this Tribunal as being supported by evidence) are now without basis. The Appellant’s appeal against the findings and sanction are therefore upheld."
Earlier in the hearing the Counsel for the GLA and Harrington had reached an agreement whereby Barnbrook's apology was accepted, he accepted a technical breach of the code and no sanctions were imposed. Counsel for the GLA made it clear that it had never been part of their case that Richard Barnbrook had intentionally given out false information.
Barnbrook was engaged to ballerina Simone Clarke
. However, in August 2008 it was reported that he had been seeing a Finnish nurse, Annika Tavilampi, whom he had met over the Internet. The relationship has since ended. 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." In November 2008, he claimed that they are no longer engaged.
London Mayoral elections
London Assembly elections (Entire London city)
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
politician and member of the London Assembly
London Assembly
The London Assembly is an elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds majority, to amend the mayor's annual budget. The assembly was established in 2000 and is headquartered at City Hall on the south...
. Having been elected as a British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
(BNP) candidate, he resigned the BNP whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
in August 2010. Barnbrook was a councillor, and leader (2006-08), then deputy leader (2008-10), of the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council
Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council
Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Barking and Dagenham is divided into 17 wards, each electing three...
. He represented Goresbrook ward.
Background
Born in CatfordCatford
Catford is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-Architecture:...
, Barnbrook attended the Royal Academy of Arts and finished his studies in 1985. He worked as an artist and art teacher. His art projects included directing and appearing in the film HMS Discovery: A Love Story, which received substantial media coverage as a result of its scenes of male nudity and homoerotic themes, and which was described as "gay pornography", but which Barnbrook insists was nothing more than an art film and certainly not homoerotic. In 2000, Barnbrook was appointed managing director and artistic designer to the Jubilee Woods Trust, which was set up to create new woodland plantations with the theme of environment, education and art, one for every county in the UK, to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, to which Sting was one of the principal benefactors. Barnbrook received royal acclaim for his designs for heraldic planting formations, but only one of these came to fruition in north Liverpool. When Barnbrook’s connections with the BNP came to public notice, Barnbrook was dismissed before the project could be completed, and none of his other designs got off the drawing board.
Politics
Previously an activist for the Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, Barnbrook joined the BNP in 1999. He was a BNP candidate in the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
. He received 4,916 votes (16.9%) in Barking
Barking (UK Parliament constituency)
Barking is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. It has elected Labour MPs since its creation in 1945, usually with strong majorities.- Boundaries :The...
coming third and only 27 votes behind the Conservative candidate, Keith Prince. The constituency was won by Margaret Hodge
Margaret Hodge
Margaret Hodge MBE MP, also known as Lady Hodge by virtue of her husband's knighthood, is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Barking since 1994. She was the first Minister for Children in 2003 and was Minister of State for Culture and Tourism at the Department...
.
Barnbrook was the BNP's candidate for the 2008 London mayoral election
London mayoral election, 2008
The London mayoral election, 2008 for the office of Mayor of London was held on 1 May 2008 and was won by Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson....
, 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.
Barnbrook challenged for the leadership of the BNP in July 2010 but, like the other challengers, Butler and Adams, failed to obtain the very large number of nominations required of a challenger in order to trigger an election. Barnbrook resigned the BNP whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
in August 2010, following his unheeded demand for an inquiry into allegations of corruption against the party leadership. Barnbrook was then expelled from the party. Since August 2010 Barnbrook has sat in the London Assembly as an independent member.
Standards Committees hearings
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." Councillor Valerie Rush subsequently complained to the Greater London Authority that she knew the statements to be false as the alleged murders never happened, and accused Barnbrook of bringing his office into disrepute. 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.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 sick leave on grounds of stress. He had also failed to provide written evidence. 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 "unintentional inaccuracies" in the interview on knife crime due to his dyslexia and background noise. He subsequently posted an apology on his blog which stated: "I apologise for giving out this information based on anecdotal reports and thereafter for not ensuring that the videos were removed or at least amended, once I knew the information to be incorrect. I have a passionate interest in the scourge of knife-crime which affects our whole community and will continue to speak out on the issue. I have no wish, however, to stoke fear of crime and realise the importance of conveying accurate information. I will seek to work far more closely with the Police and other agencies in future to ensure that I am able to do this".
Richard Barnbrook appealed against the outcome of the earlier hearings. He was represented by Patrick Harrington
Patrick Harrington
Patrick "Pat" Harrington is a British Politician, currently General Secretary of Solidarity – The Union for British Workers an organisation affiliated to the British National Party, and a Director of the Third Way think-tank...
(the General Secretary of Solidarity – The Union for British Workers
Solidarity – The Union for British Workers
Solidarity – The Union for British Workers is a United Kingdom trade union formed in late 2005 that is closely associated with the British National Party and Third Way think tank. It is named after the Polish trade union Solidarność, and its logo also appears to be derived from that of the Polish...
, acting in a personal capacity) at the appeal and Mr James Goudie QC acted for the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. The appeal was heard on 21 January 2010 and the decision announced on 18 February 2010. At the hearing, Harrington made a number of submissions on behalf of the appellant. Two cases were cited:- Mullaney –v- The Adjudication Panel for England [2009] EWHC 72 (Admin) and Livingstone -v- The Adjudication Panel for England [2006] EWHC 2533 (Admin).
Harrington's key argument was that Barnbrook at any one time wears three hats. The first for his political position within the BNP. The second as Assembly member for the GLA. The third of LBBD Councillor. Sometimes the boundaries between these three functions became blurred, according to Harrington. In relation to the video the appellant was not acting in his capacity as a councillor. When Barnbrook made reference to Barking and Dagenham it was by way of an illustration in the same way as he had cited incidents that had occurred in other parts of England. The Tribunal agreed with Harrington. It "concluded that the Appellant was not conducting the business of the Authority nor acting or claiming to act as a representative of the Authority. While there is reasoning which could lead the Tribunal to find that the Appellant was acting in his capacity as a councillor or was giving the impression that he was representing the Authority, there are also contrary arguments, and on balance, the Tribunal has concluded that the Appellant was not, on the particular facts, so doing."
They went on to say that "The Tribunal therefore came to the conclusion that the Appellant’s actions of appearing in the video and posting it on the web do not fall within section 2 of the Code and therefore the Code has not been engaged and no finding in respect of disrepute can be supported".
On this basis the Tribunal ruled:-
"In view of the Tribunal’s finding that the Code of Conduct had not been engaged any findings reached by the Standards Committee (and whether or not adjudged by this Tribunal as being supported by evidence) are now without basis. The Appellant’s appeal against the findings and sanction are therefore upheld."
Earlier in the hearing the Counsel for the GLA and Harrington had reached an agreement whereby Barnbrook's apology was accepted, he accepted a technical breach of the code and no sanctions were imposed. Counsel for the GLA made it clear that it had never been part of their case that Richard Barnbrook had intentionally given out false information.
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.Barnbrook was engaged to ballerina Simone Clarke
Simone Clarke
Simone Clarke is an English ballerina and former Prima Ballerina of English National Ballet company. In 2006, she was the centre of controversy when it was revealed that she was a member of the British National Party...
. However, in August 2008 it was reported that he had been seeing a Finnish nurse, Annika Tavilampi, whom he had met over the Internet. The relationship has since ended. In statements made before he met Clarke, however, Barnbrook was quoted as saying, apropos her relationship with Yat-Sen Chang
Yat-Sen Chang
Yat-Sen Chang Oliva is a Cuban principal dancer in the English National Ballet.Yat-Sen Chang is a Chinese Cuban born in Matanzas, Cuba. Yat-Sen Chang studied dance at the Cuban National Ballet School, beginning his studies at the age of nine...
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." In November 2008, he claimed that they are no longer engaged.
Elections contested
UK Parliament elections| Date of election | Constituency | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 United Kingdom general election, 2005 The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160.... |
Barking Barking (UK Parliament constituency) Barking is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. It has elected Labour MPs since its creation in 1945, usually with strong majorities.- Boundaries :The... |
BNP British National Party The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982... |
4,916 | 16.9 |
London Mayoral elections
| Date of election | Party | 1st Preference votes | % | 2nd Preference votes | % | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 London mayoral election, 2008 The London mayoral election, 2008 for the office of Mayor of London was held on 1 May 2008 and was won by Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson.... |
BNP British National Party The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982... |
69,710 | 2.84 | 128,609 | 5.23 | Not elected |
London Assembly elections (Entire London city)
| Date of election | Party | Votes | % | Results | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 London Assembly election, 2004 An election to the Assembly of London took place on 10 June 2004, along with the London mayoral election, 2004.The Assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. There are fourteen directly elected constituencies, nine of which were won by the Conservatives and five by the Labour Party... |
BNP British National Party The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982... |
90,365 | 4.71 | Not elected | Multi-members party list |
| 2008 London Assembly election, 2008 An election to the Assembly of London took place on 1 May 2008, along with the London mayoral election, 2008. The Conservatives gained 2 seats, Labour gained one seat, the Liberal Democrats lost two seats, and United Kingdom Independence Party or One London as they became were wiped out... |
BNP British National Party The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982... |
130,714 | 5.3 | Elected | Multi-members party list |
External links
- http://www.london.gov.uk/profile/richard-barnbrook
- Richard Barnbrook, official blog [dead link]
- Richard Barnbrook's Telegraph Blog
- MayorWatch 2008
- BBC: Profile: Richard Barnbrook
- BBC: Candidates & Parties
- Richard Barnbrook interviewed by Eyebrow magazine April 2008
- London Mayor and Assembly Elections 2008 Results