As politicians and commentators across the West warn of a resurgent far-right in 2025, a look back at the history of British extremism reveals a pivotal, dark figure from the Midlands. Colin Jordan, a man largely forgotten outside of extremist circles, was the architect of post-war neo-Nazism in the UK. His story, rooted in Birmingham and the West Midlands, offers crucial context for understanding the enduring appeal of fascist ideology.
The Making of a Neo-Nazi: From Smethwick to Cambridge
Born in Smethwick in 1923, Colin Jordan's journey into extremism began early. A smuggled copy of Oswald Mosley's fascist newspaper, Action, ignited his interest as a schoolboy. A family holiday to Nazi Germany in 1937 proved profoundly influential, solidifying his teenage admiration for Hitler's regime.
Despite winning a scholarship to Cambridge University, Jordan's politics were already taking shape. He patriotically joined the British military during the Second World War but requested a non-combatant role, his views coloured by the fiercely antisemitic writings of Arnold Leese. Leese, a veterinarian from Lancashire, convinced Jordan that the war was a 'Jewish war' designed to destroy Aryan strength.
After the war, Jordan returned to Birmingham, graduating from Cambridge in 1949. He found a city undergoing significant demographic change, with new Irish, Jewish, Caribbean, and South Asian communities arriving for work. This shift created a backdrop of racial tension, with signs reading "No Blacks. No Irish. No Dogs" appearing in some shop windows. Jordan saw an opportunity, believing Birmingham could be his base for a Nazi-inspired revolution.
Political Activism and the Path to Notoriety
Jordan entered the political fray during the 1950 general election, mounting an antisemitic campaign against Jewish Labour MP Julius Silverman in Erdington. The campaign, involving vandalism and nuisance phone calls, failed but showcased his penchant for direct action.
His activities impressed his idol, Arnold Leese, who bequeathed his London house to Jordan. In 1957, the property became the headquarters of the White Defence League, a group Jordan formed to "preserve the white race". He sought to capitalise on events like the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, printing inflammatory literature and becoming a media spokesperson for extremist views on immigration.
His Nazi sympathies soon caused a split in the far-right. After the White Defence League merged into the original British National Party (BNP), Jordan argued it was too soft. In 1962, he co-founded the explicitly Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) with John Tyndall, spreading Leese's antisemitic gospel and gaining support from American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell.
Infamy, Imprisonment and Decline
Jordan's most infamous stunt came in July 1962 in Trafalgar Square. Surrounded by members of his paramilitary group, Spearhead, he gave a speech declaring "Hitler was right", raised the Nazi salute, and shouted "Sieg Heil!". The resulting riots between fascists and anti-fascists brought him national notoriety, especially as the horrors of the Holocaust remained fresh following Adolf Eichmann's execution the previous month.
His notoriety cost him his job as a schoolteacher in Coventry after parent protests, a dismissal that made national headlines. Despite his incitement of violence, it was a domestic terror plot that finally led to a prison sentence. Later in 1962, Jordan and Tyndall were convicted for supplying their paramilitary group with chemicals used in explosives.
Jordan's activities grew increasingly bizarre, involving secret pagan ceremonies in forests where he was declared 'World Führer' by international neo-Nazis. His brief, infamous marriage to Françoise Dior—niece of the fashion designer—involved a blood ritual over a copy of Mein Kampf. His credibility crumbled after further prison time and a 1975 conviction for shoplifting women's underwear from a Tesco, which made him a figure of ridicule.
He died in 2009, his antisemitic and white supremacist beliefs unchanged since his Trafalgar Square speech. Today, he is venerated only by small extremist circles online.
A Legacy of Intolerance and a Warning for Today
Colin Jordan was an extreme product of the racial anxieties of 1950s and 60s Britain. His campaigning in Smethwick is believed to have contributed to the toxic atmosphere that led to Conservative Peter Griffiths' notorious 1964 election victory, fought on openly racist slogans.
His story demonstrates how extremist ideas can subtly influence the mainstream. The anti-immigrant rhetoric later used by Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher found fertile ground partly prepared by far-right agitators like Jordan.
Today's far-right, from the BNP's past surge in the West Midlands to Nigel Farage's Reform Party targeting the region in upcoming local elections, has learned from Jordan's failure. Open Nazism is political suicide, but soft-pedalling fascist ideas as national pride and stoking immigration fears continues to shift the boundaries of political discourse.
As Birmingham and the UK face renewed economic stagnation and social tension, the history of Colin Jordan serves as a stark reminder: the ideologies he revived from the margins still seek a path to the mainstream.
