Ian Anderson (British politician)

Ian Hugh Myddleton Anderson (1953 – 2 February 2011) was a leading figure on the British far-right in the 1980s and 1990s.

Anderson was born in Hillingdon. Anderson's involvement in politics began in the mid-1970s when he was close to certain elements on the right of the Conservative Party, particularly the Monday Club.

Anderson viewed himself as a 'respectable' figure in right wing circles and spent some time at the University of Oxford on two separate occasions studying zoology.

Anderson joined the National Front in the late 1970s and was initially seen as a supporter of National Organiser Martin Webster. However, when the Political Soldier faction, led by figures such as Nick Griffin and Derek Holland, moved against Webster and his assistant Michael Salt, Anderson sided with the rebels and used his casting vote to ensure that Webster and Salt were expelled for mismanagement.

Anderson became a close associate of Andrew Brons and, like Brons, largely indulged the Political Soldiers faction, writing for the Third Positionist party magazine Nationalism Today. He also played a leading role in working with Ian Stuart Donaldson to ensure that Rock Against Communism became the province of the NF rather than the British Movement. As Anderson grew in influence within the NF divisions between the faction led by Brons and himself and the Political Soldiers grew, as Anderson was a strong supporter of electoral participation. He became one of the leading figures grouped around the dissident Flag newspaper (edited by Martin Wingfield) and was expelled by the Official National Front along with the rest of his faction in 1986, reconstituting as the Flag Group. The divisions reached a crisis at the Vauxhall by-election in 1989, where an NF candidate for each faction stood (Patrick Harrington and Ted Budden), splitting support and haranguing one another on live TV as the declaration of votes was made. Anderson, nonetheless, became a powerful figure within the Flag Group and by 1990 was effective leader, Andrew Brons having left the political scene.

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