Today was the last day for submission to the Electoral Commission of the 2011 audited accounts for main parties (with a turn over of over £250,000 per year). We can tell you that the British National Party 2011 audited accounts were not submitted today ...

We have great pleasure in informing our members, supporters and our political opponents that our accounts did not go in today as they have already been submitted and accepted by the Electoral Commission.

EARLY AND WITH A FULL AUDIT PASS.

The full set of audited accounts will be published on the Electoral Commission website on 2nd August 2012 but we thought you may like to read an advanced publication of the National Treasurer, Clive Jefferson's 2011 report.

Treasurer's Statement

This set of accounts, delivered on time, with our first ever full audit pass and recording our first operating surplus since 2004, shows the incredible turnaround of the British National Party’s financial situation from the troubled years of 2009 – 2010.

From an annual operating loss of £401,962 in 2010, these accounts show the result for the year as a very healthy £214,473 operating profit at the end of 2011.

This is a tremendous achievement which would not have been possible without the solid work of our Chartered Accountant, our Regional Treasurer, James Mole and Geof Dickens, head of the party’s Scrutiny Committee.

As well as the Treasury team our Chairman Nick Griffin and every member of staff have worked harder and longer and with more commitment and dedication than any group of individuals I have ever had the honour of working with.

In short, the task I was given in late 2010, to relocate and reorganise the full operating practices of the British National Party, in order to save the party from impending financial collapse, has been done, done well and the credit for the success of the necessary yet ambitious project must go to the full team as opposed any individual.

The challenges facing the party during 2011 were almost overwhelming, the large historic debts from 09/10 had to be managed and reduced at the same time as we were dramatically reducing our staffing levels and outgoings.

All this after a perceived poor General Election result in 2010 and in the teeth of ongoing ‘internal’ political issues that ran right through to the middle of 2011, combined with various external attacks in the shape of court actions.

Many observers thought we faced an impossible task and opponents wrote as off as ‘finished’. I am very pleased that, together, we have been able to prove our various doubters WRONG.

The party’s income dropped during 2011. The drop in membership and subscription fees was significant but was the natural consequence of the internal political friction caused during the leadership challenge of 2011 and in particular the highly exaggerated, and clearly false, tales of our imminent demise propagated by the media, our political opponents and without doubt by hostile infiltrators of the kind whose existence in our party was so spectacularly confirmed during the controversy over Metropolitan police officer Mark Kennedy in January 2011.

As part of the Treasury department’s long term plans for the British National Party, the first membership fee increase in six years was proposed, debated at both the Advisory Council and the AGM and voted through unanimously by our Voting Members.

This increase came into effect on 1st December 2011 for new members and the end of December 2011 for existing members. The increase was approximately 60% and the result of this membership increase is that the party can operate more efficiently and the financial model can cope with the drop in membership numbers that is usual in the years between the European and General elections.

It is also notable that general donation income dropped significantly during 2011, down £391,894 from 2010. This was expected as we totally changed the framework of the party, moving from a model based on huge and very expensive postal fundraiser mails shots to the monthly servicing of the membership with the British Nationalist, our members bulletin.

The operating profit of £214,473 at the end of 2011 is proof positive that the new model, although bringing in less money, saves so much money that it is a profitable, financially viable model, one that we will continue, refine and improve.

The reduction in the cost of postage from £206,793 in 2010 to £54,614 - a saving of £152,179 - combined with a staff/professional fees saving of £546,760, allowed us to transform the British National Party into a leaner, more efficient and financially viable political party, the savings made more than compensate for the loss in general donation income.

It is worth noting that the life membership provision in the accounts is also reduced from previous years as we have very successfully introduced a “gold life” level of membership where the life members pay an annual subscription thus allowing us to service the life members and reduce the life membership provision in the accounts.

In any case, while we have adopted the accountancy convention of treating the servicing of life members as a liability, I have to say that a large number of our life members continue to be active members who continue to contribute to the party, making the supposed ‘liability’ very much notional rather than any kind of real burden.

In summary, we have successfully managed and reduced our debts during 2011 and have a long term sustainable plan that is working very well. We have carried out all the necessary downsizing and reorganising of the party with only minimal disruption to the membership, while still retaining the ability to fight national elections.

By the end of the year dealt with in these accounts, it was clear that the progress would continue through 2012 and, of course, it has done so.

n addition, I am delighted to be able to give advance notice of the fact that substantial income from bequests this year will, when the accounts for 2012 are published, show an even more rapid and dramatic improvement in our financial position.

This will make a significant impact on our balance sheet and will make the prospect of the British National Party moving from our most over-extended position of £800,000 in the red in 2009/10, to us being once more in the black a distinct possibility in the next set of accounts.

The financial crisis is over.

The British National Party has survived and is now moving forward again from a position of solid financial viability, professionalism and probity.

Clive Jefferson

British National Party Treasurer