 However, during the tour, the Australian secret service were informed by the London authorities that Gilligan and Frederick Toone were members of the British Fascists.Although the organisation never achieved the same level of influence in Britain as the British Union of Fascists, which formed in 1932, the British Fascists were popular for a short time during the mid-1920s.The primary focus of the organisation was to oppose communism, but MI5 considered its threat serious enough to warrant placing leading members under surveillance.