Eddy Butler

{{Hatnote|For other people of similar name see Eddie Butler or Edward Butler.}}

Edward Mark Butler (born in Bloomsbury on 13 November 1962) is a former National Elections Officer of the British National Party (BNP) and amateur ripperologist. He was dubbed the BNP's "elections guru" by its newspaper, Voice of Freedom,[http://www.bnp.org.uk/freedom/Vof73-5.pdf "May 3rd 2007: The Campaign Starts Now!"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929181849/http://www.bnp.org.uk/freedom/Vof73-5.pdf |date=29 September 2006 }} article from The Voice of Freedom until being suspended and expelled from the party in 2010 by Nick Griffin. He then became a member of the English Democrats before becoming associated with the For Britain Movement.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

File:Eddy Butler.jpg

Since 2020, under the alias Edward Stow, he has run a YouTube channel called "The House of Lechmere",https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCrXgAUoOgcqTAvQzyJNNL7w where he advocates for the theory that Charles Allen Lechmere was the 19th century serial killer best known as Jack the Ripper and was also likely responsible for the broader Whitechapel Murders and the Thames Torso Murders.

First BNP tenure

Butler was originally the Tower Hamlets organiser for the National Front but, after having been expelled from that party by Griffin, in 1986, joined the British National Party in the same year.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3igG5AUl_U |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/p3igG5AUl_U |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|title=BNP East Ended- part 4|date=14 January 2010|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}} Butler first came to prominence in the early 1990shttps://hopenothate.org.uk/2021/04/28/for-britain-the-bnp-and-epping-forest-a-history/ when he was party organiser in Tower Hamlets. Whilst in charge here Butler masterminded the 'Rights for Whites' campaign, a locally based initiative that sought to highlight supposed council "bias" against the White British. The campaign, which initially presented itself as independent before linking directly to the BNP, was instrumental in building up support for the party in the area, which culminated in the election of Derek Beackon as a councillor in Millwall in 1993.N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, pp. 55–6

Butler's success brought him promotion within the party and he was soon appointed National Elections Officer. Whilst in this position, in 1994, he was the victim of a knife attack, allegedly carried out by members of Combat 18.N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p. 66 Butler also became closely associated with party 'modernisers' such as Tony Lecomber, Michael Newland and others associated with The Patriot magazine. Butler left the BNP in 1996 only to rejoin in 1998. As a member of the Bloomsbury Forum, Butler was closely linked to the founders of the Freedom Party and joined that party in 2001.N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p. 69

Second BNP tenure

Although appointed as the Freedom Party's Campaign Director, Butler subsequently returned to the BNP in 2003, again as its National Elections Officer, played a part in the party's campaigns in the 2006 local elections.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}} In 2009, he was the party's lead candidate for the European Parliament election in the Eastern region,{{Cite web|url=http://bnp.org.uk/eu-elections-2009/candidates/eastern/|title=British National Party}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} in which the BNP's party list achieved 6.1% of the vote.{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/elections/euro/09/html/ukregion_32.stm|title=European Election 2009 | East of England|website=BBC News}} He was the party's candidate for Harlow in the 2010 General Election.{{Cite web|url=http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/guide/seat-profiles/harlow/|title=Election Guide 2010 " Harlow|website=UK Polling Report|access-date=3 July 2019|archive-date=3 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703144708/http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/guide/seat-profiles/harlow/|url-status=dead}} and also a candidate in Barking and Dagenham in the London borough council elections, held on the same day.

On 18 June 2010, Butler announced that he would challenge the then leader, Nick Griffin, for the leadership (office of national chairman) of the BNP the following month.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}} On 11 August 2010, it was announced that he had not obtained the 840 nominations required to trigger an election.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}}

On 13 October 2010, Butler was expelled from the BNP, allegedly for breaching the party's code of conduct.http://eddybutler.blogspot.com/2010/10/expelled.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101128095731/http://eddybutler.blogspot.com/2010/10/expelled.html |date=28 November 2010 }} {{User-generated source|date=August 2022}} He was denied a disciplinary tribunal on the grounds that he had less than two years' continuous membership of the party at the time of his alleged offence(s).{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}}

English Democrats

On 26 November 2011, Butler joined the English Democrats.{{cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2016/01/what-killed-bnp|title=What killed the BNP?|last=Wigmore|first=Tim|date=12 January 2016|work=New Statesman}} He stood for the Loughton Fairmead Ward for the 2012 Epping Forest local elections and gained 97 (12.22) votes, last out of four candidates.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/modgov.html|title=Election results for Loughton Fairmead, 3 May 2012|date=3 May 2012|publisher=Epping Forest District Council}} At the 2015 general election, he contested Harlow, which he had previously fought for the BNP, polling 115 votes (0.3%).BBC News Election 2015: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000729 Harlow]