Paul Golding has promised thousands of “patriots” will attend his Britain First rally in Birmingham this coming weekend. There will be “a larger turnout of patriots from around the country compared to our last event in Nuneaton”.

That would not be difficult.

The Nuneaton march and rally was a total, ignominious failure with just 100 or so in attendance (plus several hundred spare flags and a dozen portaloos) and did not exactly put rocket fuel into the BF engine.

But, as with the Nuneaton fiasco, Golding has now issued a desperate-sounding, last minute begging letter, saying he has to raise £13,000 in short order to finance the event, or it will have to be cancelled.

Which begs the question:

Where the hell is all the money going?

On several occasions in recent months Golding has made dramatic claims about Britain First membership. Last November he has claimed that it has around 20,000 paid-up members.

More recently, he posted a document online which purported to show that the figure is now over 21,000.

But BF membership costs a minimum of £4 per month. Which means that he is pulling in over £80,000 each month.

Or almost £1 million per year. And that’s assuming everyone is only paying the bare minimum.

And then there’s the merchandise. And those dreary books he insists on writing and flogging to his poor members as if it were their patriotic duty to buy them.

All in all, it’s a fair bet he’s raking in well over £1 million per year.

So where is it all going?

Running on empty

There’s no evidence that much of it is being spent on anything as substantial as staff costs and, indeed, the last time BF posted accounts with the Electoral Commission, to the end of 2022, these said that only around £100,000 per year was going out in wages. Income then was just over £400,000

And yet, Golding’s latest begging letter claims he’s pretty much out of money and running on empty.

“We need to cover this invoice of £13000 for a 4000 watt PA system and staging…

“This is our biggest event ever…do something, or our children are doomed…

“Thousands coming to Birmingham…

“God forbid we would have to cancel or massively downgrade our event…”

But, there’s a problem: he has a £13,000 bill to pay and has to pay 40% of it up front by Wednesday (14 May). And, apparently, “This is a tall order, even for us…”.

Dying a painful death

So, let’s get this straight, Paul.

You’re pulling in over a million quid a year and yet you can’t find just over £5k as the down payment on your event hire?

Really?

We think it’s time to tell us where all the money is going.

Or more to the point, tell your 20,000 members why they should yet again put their hands in their pockets to plug apparent funding gaps that you haven’t even bothered to explain to them.

Because, either a million has come through the BF books in the last year, and you’re sitting pretty, or your boasts about the membership figures are total fiction and Britain First is dying a painful death.

Actually, we’re pretty sure we know the answer…

But Britain First supporters and members might want to think about that before they chip in, yet again, to that financial black hole that is the Paul Golding grift fund.

We at Searchlight nevertheless encourage maximum turn out of anti-fascists and anti-racists in Birmingham on Saturday.

Our streets must never be a safe, unopposed space for fascism.