Statement by Paul Golding - This morning at 10am, a High Court judge delivered his decision after a court hearing yesterday between Britain First and the Electoral Commission.

It is the view of Britain First and our legal team, that this ruling constitutes a strengthening of our legal position against the Electoral Commission.

Firstly, the judge declared that our case against the Electoral Commission had merit and was “arguable”.

This is legal talk that describes a “strong case”.

This implies that, had external circumstances not interceded, our case would have had a strong chance of victory.

However, the judge then explained that, due to the Covid pandemic and “public health emergency”, and the chronic delays and backlogs it had created in the civil legal system, the entire case, as it stood, had become stale due to the long passage of time.

He remarked that in the meantime there had been many changes to “factual circumstances” that made the old case very outdated.

The judge stated clearly that this was not the fault of either of the parties in the dispute, but due entirely to Covid.

Likewise, because of the chronic delays caused by Covid, Britain First has missed the boat to register in time for this year’s local elections which takes place in early May.

Therefore, and for reasons completely out of everyone’s control, there was now no urgency to get the case wrapped up and finalised quickly.

Because of these two factors - the old age of the case and the delays caused due to Covid that mean we could not register in time for this year’s elections - the judge decided against awarding a “costs order” which would have led to Britain First paying the Electoral Commission’s legal fees.

Although the judge refused to have the case heard quickly because of the reasons outlined above, he did not award costs to either parties in the dispute, especially considering that Britain First had an “arguable” case against the Electoral Commission.

One major worry that gave me much anxiety over the last few days was that, if the judge threw out our case altogether, we would have been ordered to pay the Electoral Commission’s legal fees, estimated at upwards of £20,000.

But, thanks to Covid delays and our “strong case”, he decided this would be very, very unfair.

Considering all the circumstances, the judge decided that the best course of action would be to call a halt to the current proceedings and strongly recommended that Britain First submits a fresh application to be registered as a political party.

Throughout these proceedings, the Electoral Commission had been strongly hinting that Britain First should submit new applications - a recognition of their weak legal position - something which was confirmed by the judge’s comments today.

The judge gave several remarks about how the Electoral Commission should approach any new applications by Britain First, essentially telling them to tread carefully in the future.

He also said that, if the Electoral Commission should refuse a fresh application by Britain First in the immediate future, Britain First could then re-apply to the court and permission for the case to be heard will be granted.

The judge then said that, at this specific time, he did not want the courts to interfere with the autonomy of the Electoral Commission, but that if circumstances changed, then the courts would get involved.

These hints were essentially a warning shot to the Electoral Commission.

Our legal team advised us that, based on everything that has already happened in court, the Electoral Commission would be in big trouble if they refused any future applications.

In his judgement, the text of which we will get our hands on in due course, the judge hinted heavily that, essentially, the next time Britain First applied to be a political party, the Electoral Commission would have to tread very carefully in the way it treated our application.

So, in a nutshell, we can summarise the conclusion of our case against the Electoral Commission like this:

Covid delays have rendered the first case, first lodged nearly two years ago, as outdated and stale and shouldn’t really be put before the court now due to the passage of time and changes of circumstances that have happened since.

The Britain First case against the Electoral Commission was “arguable” and has merits as a legal action.

It is not the fault of Britain First that the case has faced severe delays and for these reasons, neither Britain First or the Electoral Commission has to pay the other’s legal costs.

The best way forward is for Britain First to re-apply to be registered as a political party and the Electoral Commission should take great care when processing our new application.

If the Electoral Commission is stupid enough to refuse us again, we can re-apply to the court and they will be in big trouble.

This is a simplified summary of what happened yesterday and today, so what happens now?

As per the judge’s recommendations, I am flying to Northern Ireland in the next few days to meet with our barrister and solicitor.

The reason for this meeting is to create a legally “air tight” application for Britain First to submit to the Electoral Commission, one which cannot be refused.

Our barrister and solicitor are going to help us ensure that all of the Electoral Commission’s concerns are ironed out completely so they have no legal basis to object or reject our application.

This new, legally-tight application will then be submitted to the Electoral Commission offices in London for rapid processing, a process which usually takes around four weeks.

In tandem with creating and lodging a new application, our solicitor and barrister will create, in the background, a new application to court so that, if the Electoral Commission are stupid enough to refuse us again, we can apply immediately to the same judge for an expedited hearing to force them to register us.

So, in summary, early next week we will submit our new application to be registered, and then four weeks or so after that, we should be finally registered as a political party.

With his remarks and recommendations today, the judge essentially laid down the gauntlet to the Electoral Commission.

Perhaps he did not want to give Britain First a major legal victory, so he gave the Electoral Commission a route away from total humiliation.

This way, he may suspect, Britain First will submit a new application to be registered as a political party and the Electoral Commission will finally accept, saving the establishment from the embarrassment of losing a major court case to a “bunch of far right extremists”.

Regardless, our legal team insisted that today was a victory for Britain First, even if the format of this victory was unexpected and hard to understand for the layman.

We have made substantial progress today, as the Electoral Commission have been dragged to the highest levels of the court system and been scolded in the process.

They now know that we mean business and we will pursue this to the bitter end.

Trust me when I say, the establishment is watching all of this very closely, and they now know that Britain First is not a cowboy movement, but a ruthlessly efficient and tenacious beast that cannot be tamed.

This is also a victory for all of the humble prayers said by thousands of dedicated British patriots.

The Lord will not abandon the British nation and He will use our movement to fight back against the forces of evil that are engulfing our nation.

Many times in the Holy Bible the ancient Israelites were overrun, punished, even exiled and massacred, and their homeland and cities were completely destroyed, but God always brought them back from the brink of obliteration.

In fact, the Old Testament – which makes up the majority of the Bible – is a back-and-forth story of God’s loyalty to His chosen people, who today are Christians in general.

So it falls on us, modern day British patriots and Christians, to be strong, unceasing, relentless and fearless in pursuit of our dream, the resurrection of a Godly, Christian nation where the British people can live forever in peace and prosperity

Deus Vult! OCS