The BEU was anti-socialist and thought that the Labour Party would "Bolshevise Britain" and argued for a paramilitary force to combat it. It was also associated with the antisemitism of Leopold Maxse. It held anti-German demonstrations in Hyde Park and elsewhere and is thought to have had around 10,000 members across fifty branches by the end of 1918. The BEU advocated 'wholesale internment' and received over 1,250,000 signatures on petition for this cause, which it presented to the Prime Minister. It also disrupted meetings of pacifist and civil liberties groups and produced anti-German posters.