Paul Golding

Paul Golding is a British political leader and activist who leads the far-right group Britain First.

Golding is a former British Nationalist Party communications officer and district councillor for Swanley, Sevenoaks. He stood as a candidate in the 2010 general election, but only received 2.8% of the vote. He was expelled from the party after assaulting a half-Turkish member in 2008.

In May 2014 Golding was arrested outside the Indian embassy during an Al-Muhajiroun rally for breach of the peace and criminal damage. He stood as a Britain First candidate in the following European election for Wales. He received less than 1% of the vote.

In August 2014, the Advertising Standards Agency accused Golding of illegally using images of the crown on the Britain First logo and demanded that he remove images of it from the party's website. Golding refused and no further action was taken.

In 2015, Golding had a restraining order filed against him after being convicted of harassing the sister-in-law of a terrorism suspect. He was also convicted of breaching the 1936 Public Order Act by wearing a political uniform. He also threatened to bury a pig at the site of a planned mosque in Derby in the mistaken belief that it would stop the construction. At the Britain First Annual Conference that November, led by Golding and his deputy Jayda Fransen, several policies were agreed, including the abolishing of the BBC and the word "racist".

He stood for the position of London mayor in 2016, but only won 1.2% of the vote.

In 2016, Golding went to prison for eight weeks after breaching a court order banning him from entering a mosque or telling others to do so after he drove a group of Britain First members to a Cardiff mosque. Leadership passed to Jayda Fransen for six months.

In 2017, Golding and Fransen were charged with religiously aggravated harassment and Golding's Twitter account was banned in Germany. Golding was also given a suspended prison sentence and forced to do community service after admitting to assault by beating. He was also accused of sexually abusing an underage girl, however this was never proved.