At the time it was suggested that Beackon was virtually illiterate and was unable to read council documents; he later strenuously denied the allegations while admitting that he had trouble understanding their meaning. When the seat went up for election again in 1994 a strong mobilization of voters against the BNP was undertaken by Labour, with the turnout rising to 65%. Despite Beackon's generally ineffectual performance as a councillor he added 561 votes to his total, although the seat was lost as the rest of the vote largely coalesced around Labour, and the Liberal Democrat vote collapsed. He was the only successful BNP candidate during John Tyndall's tenure as party leader. The BNP did not win any more council seats until they won three seats in Burnley in 2002. Before and during his run as a Tower Hamlets councillor, Beackon served as the BNP's chief steward, which included the job of ensuring order at BNP meetings. As chief steward he was given the job of leading the party's bodyguard group set up in 1992. Made up largely of casuals and white power skinheads, the group soon proved difficult for the middle-aged Beackon to control, and before long, real control lay with Charlie Sargent and his brother Steve. Following Beackon's election, the group became disillusioned with the electoral path and broke away from the BNP, adopting the name Combat 18. Eddy Butler and Tony Lecomber were among the BNP members targeted for attack, in what became a bitter split. Beackon's profile fell away somewhat after his election defeat as the BNP failed to capitalise on their breakthrough. He remained loyal to Butler, who had fallen out of favour with Tyndall, and was interviewed for the first issue of "The Patriot", a dissident journal within the party associated with Butler, Lecomber, Michael Newland, Steve Smith and others on the party's 'modernising' wing, all of whom went on to back Nick Griffin in his successful challenge to Tyndall's leadership. Indeed, Beackon appeared in "Moving On, Moving Up", a glossy brochure produced by Griffin during his leadership campaign, endorsing the former Political Soldier for the BNP leadership. Despite this support Beackon remained a peripheral figure within the BNP under Griffin's leadership and before long he fell in with the group of anti-Griffin activists around Tyndall. His eulogy to Tyndall was one of the few written by an active BNP member to appear in the final issue of "Spearhead", released immediately following Tyndall's death.