Robert West

Robert Malcolm Brian West (born 11 October 1955) is a British National Party (BNP) activist and founder of the Christian Council of Britain. Theological training and claimed ordination West is not an active minister of any mainstream Christian organisation, and his credentials remain ambiguous. Despite this, West has been described as the BNP's religious affairs spokesman. West has stated that he is "an ordained elder" of the Apostolic Church; however, the church denies knowledge of him and has distanced itself from his views, saying that "the only means by which he can maintain either his membership or office [of the Apostolic Church] is by attending one of our churches. If he were an active member of the Church his views would not be accepted by the Church and disciplinary action would be undertaken by the Church which strongly distances itself from views such as these". At the website of the Apostolic Church, the third article under "Guidelines For Belief", makes it clear that only by regularly participating in the life of its church can one be considered a member, stating that " commitment is no good to God or to the Church". In a BBC broadcast in April 2009, before the European election, West produced a framed certificate, which he claimed was evidence of his right to be considered an ordained minister. He said, "I attended the Apostolic Church training college, 1978 to 1979 in South Wales and I was in charge of one of their churches, which I ran, in effect, as a pastorate, for two years. And this has not been bought off the internet. It's a genuine article." On its website, the BNP says, "The Rev Robert West was ordained by the Vice President of the Apostolic Church in 1979 and in 2003 he entered politics to help bring the Christian message to all the peoples of Britain."