Colourful Career
Golding was a British National Party (BNP) Sevenoaks District councillor for St Mary's Ward in Swanley from 2009 to 2011. He was also a communications officer for the party. He stood as BNP candidate for Sevenoaks in the 2010 general election, and received 2.8% of the vote. In 2008, it was reported that Golding had been expelled from the BNP for physically attacking Lawrence Rustem, a fellow BNP member working as a Barking Borough Council councillor.
He stood in the 2014 local elections and as a Britain First lead candidate in the 2014 European Parliamentary election for Wales. The party received 0.9% of the vote. Golding had been a member of the National Front and once attended a Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday wearing women's underwear on his head. As leader of Britain First Golding changed the party mantra into the leading anti-Muslim, counter-jihad street movement.
In May 2015, Golding threatened to bury a pig at the site of proposed mosque in Dudley, mistakenly believing this would contaminate the site and render it unsuitable. At the Britain First Annual Conference in November 2015, Golding and his then deputy, Jayda Fransen, led the meeting which agreed a number of policies including banning the media from using the word 'racism' and abolishing the BBC.
He stood as a candidate in the London mayoral election in 2016. He came eighth with 31,372 votes (1.2% of those cast) while Labour's Sadiq Khan was elected as mayor.
In May 2014, Golding was arrested for criminal damage and breach of the peace during an Al-Muhajiroun protest outside the Indian High Commission in London. In July 2014, he tried to have himself arrested at Bexleyheath police station over an incident at Crayford Mosque, but failed, an act widely considered to be a fund-raising publicity stunt.
In August 2014, the Advertising Standards Authority accused Britain First of illegally using an image of the royal crown in its logo, ordering all images of the crown to be removed from Britain First's official website, marketing materials and merchandise "with immediate effect". Golding responded by calling the ASA a "toothless quango with no power which no one takes any notice of." and refused to change Britain First's logo.
In March 2015, he was arrested on suspicion of assault during a Britain First march in Derby, as was an opponent who Golding had claimed assaulted him. Also in 2015, Golding was convicted of harassing a woman, after mistakenly arriving at her home instead of that of a man allegedly linked to the 2005 London bombings. He was also found guilty of wearing a political uniform, an offence under the Public Order Act 1936. A restraining order was issued against Golding and he was fined for both offences.
In December 2016, Golding was sentenced to eight weeks in prison for breaching a court order banning him from entering a mosque or encouraging others to do so in England and Wales. Nine days after the imposition of the court injunction, Golding drove others to a mosque in Cardiff, where they entered, at which point the mosque members found their behaviour provocative and unnerving. They feared the situation could have escalated if prayers had still been going on.
Leadership of Britain First was passed on to the former deputy leader Jayda Fransen in November 2016. Fransen claimed that Golding was taking 6 months leave as leader of the organisation "to address some important, personal family issues".
The satirical news web site, The Rochdale Herald, capitalised on the incident by inviting readers to sponsor his incarceration to raise money for refugees.
[Rochdale is another one of the many towns and cities up and down the UK where there is a severe problem with muslim grooming gangs targeting young and vulnerable white girls, forcing them into drug addiction and prostitution, seemingly with the blessing of the local police force, and local (Labour) councillors and care workers.]
In September 2017, Golding and acting leader Jayda Fransen were arrested and charged with religious harassment. They were both bailed to appear before Medway magistrates in October 2017. Their arrests followed an investigation by Kent Police into the distribution of leaflets in the Thanet and Canterbury areas, and the posting of online videos during a trial at Canterbury Crown Court in May 2017.
In late 2017, accusations were made against Golding by a young woman, who attended one of the group rallies protesting against the sexual abuse of young girls, that Golding had sexually abused her. Graham Morris, a former Britain First member, had claimed that the deputy leader, Jayda Fransen, had encouraged the victim to stay quiet, saying, "I can give everything you need, a platform. I'll do this for you, that for you." On 11 July 2018, the Greater Manchester Police dropped the case.
On 29 November 2017, US president Donald Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos shared by Jayda Fransen on her Twitter account supporting her views. Three weeks later, on 18 December, Twitter suspended the accounts of Golding, Fransen and Britain First for inciting racial hatred. They later joined and asked their followers to go to the Gab social networking service created as an alternative to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. In 2023, Golding and Britain First were unblocked on Twitter.
On 7 November 2017, Golding was sentenced to a 120-day suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work by Sevenoaks Magistrates' Court after admitting a charge of assault by beating. He was also told to pay £750 compensation to his victim, plus £115 victim surcharge and £85 prosecution costs. Summing up, magistrate Alan Austen described it as "A really nasty and vicious assault in a public place".
In December 2017, on a reported visit to Belfast to support Jayda Fransen, Golding was arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland for a speech he gave in the city in August, and was later charged.
On 7 March 2018, Fransen and Golding were found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment at Folkestone Magistrates' Court, as a result of an investigation concerning the distribution of leaflets in 2017 in the Thanet and Canterbury areas. The pair were convicted over an incident at a takeaway in Ramsgate, Kent, during which Fransen screamed "paedophile" and "foreigner", while Fransen was also convicted for approaching a mistaken address she believed to belong to a Muslim defendant on a rape trial. They were both sentenced to prison, with 9 months for Fransen and 18 weeks for Golding.
In November 2018, Golding was charged with a number of offences related to anti-immigration leaflets distributed in Ballymena, County Antrim, and was charged with three counts of publishing written material intended to stir up hatred and one count of using threatening, abusive, insulting words or behaviour. In June 2019, he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, suspended for two years.
In December 2019, Golding announced that he was a paid-up member of the Bexley Heath and Crayford Conservative Association. He explained that he intended to "Help solidify Boris Johnson's control on the leadership, so we can achieve Brexit and hopefully cut immigration and confront radical Islam". Shortly after the announcement, a Tory spokeswoman said that "Paul Golding's application for membership of the Conservative Party has not been approved." In January 2020, Golding released a letter that he had received from the Conservative Party, informing him that his membership had been rejected.
In February 2020, Golding was charged under the Terrorism Act for refusing to provide police at Heathrow Airport with the PIN codes for his phone and computer. Golding was stopped at Heathrow airport in October 2019, while returning from a trip to the Russian parliament, by officers from the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism command.
PC Rory O'Connor, one of the officers who questioned Golding, told the court that Schedule 7 enables accredited officers to search and question people at UK ports on whether "They have been concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism".
He said he had cause to examine Golding under the legislation and recalled him being initially "agitated" and "clearly angry" at being stopped, and shouting at officers.
Prosecutor Samuel Main said that for nearly three hours Golding was questioned about his activities in Russia after flying out with the two others on the 20th October 2019.
Golding told police he was on a "purely political trip" after establishing friendships in Russia during a previous international congress. He told officers that he had travelled under the invitation of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), which he described as a "right wing, conservative, patriotic group" who were not "extreme". Golding said he had not met any representative of the Russian government, the court heard.
He was subsequently sentenced to a conditional discharge for nine months and ordered to pay a £21 victim surcharge and £750 in costs.
Britain First chief Paul Golding ordered to pay damages to ex-lover Jayda Fransen after Belfast case
The case is partly as a result of claims made by Fransen that Golding had turned on her and subjected her to physical abuse. Britain First leader Paul Golding and his Belfast team were ordered to pay his former lover and deputy Jayda Fransen £75,000, we can reveal.
Golding was brought to the High Court in Belfast where a number of "default judgments" were made against him and other party officers from Britain First. The case is partly as a result of claims made by Fransen that Golding had turned on her and subjected her to physical abuse. Fransen, based now in Donaghdee, Co Down, accused the party's current leader Paul Golding of violently abusing and locking her in their home to control her when they were together. The allegations were then aired on a BBC Spotlight documentary 'Britain First: Hateful Secrets' which broadcasted a secret recording of Golding admitting to assaulting Fransen and another woman.
On top of the £75,000 owed to Fransen awarded by the High Court, the same court also decided on further damages that must be paid to her as part of a separate judgment.
Frensen's solicitor, Joe Rice of John J Rice & Co Solicitors, confirmed that Fransen had been awarded £75,000 by the court. "In Belfast's High Court on January 21 2022 a number of default judgments were issued in favour of Jayda Fransen against Paul Golding in respect of other matters including damages for assault, battery and trespassing by Mr Golding against our client. Also a separate default judgment against Paul Golding and other members of Britain First for a debt owed by Britain First to her going as far back as 2019."
Golding failed to turn up at the High Court to challenge the claims made by his former partner Fransen but it's understood he has the right to appeal, though that will be hugely costly even if he were to win.
Former members of Britain First said Golding and his crew are now trying to claim they weren't aware of the legal proceedings. "He didn't take these proceedings seriously, but he certainly knew about them." said a source. "Golding told everyone it was 'shite' and didn't understand just how much this could cost him."
As well as Golding, seven other Britain First leading members are listed on the High Court papers as being liable to pay up to Fransen as they are down as party officers. They include north Belfast Davy Fisher and head of security Sam Cochrane.
A source said "Jayda sued Britain First officials for money they owed her - it included loans to the party, contracts she took out for the party (their phone system, computers), credit cards and bank accounts in her name used by the party that have been left in significant arrears. It also included payments unlawfully made using her card whilst she was in prison. The amount they have been ordered to pay is £75k but there is more to come. In a separate writ, she sued Golding for damages and personal injuries, loss and damage sustained by the negligence, assault, battery and trespass of Golding towards Fransen between 2014-2019, and the court has ordered him to pay her damages to be assessed at a separate hearing."
Fransen and Golding had been far right colleagues as well as lovers and staged events in Northern Ireland together to drum up support for their party Britain First. They even appeared together in court in February 2019 to face charges of stirring up race hate during an event at Belfast City Hall in August 2017. However, by then they had suffered a rancorous split and despite sharing a dock at Belfast Magistrates Court, they couldn't even bear to look at each other and even brought their own security teams who traded insults outside court.
In May 2019 the BBC broadcast a damning documentary about the split where Golding was secretly recorded admitting to violently attacking Fransen. In the recording, Golding is heard saying he has assaulted both Fransen and another woman. After that personal relationship ended, she and others have said the violence continued over a period of roughly four-and-a-half years while she was with the party, which she quit in 2019.