Racism and Facism; UK BNP trebles seats in local elections
01 March 2003
The British National Party (BNP) put up a record number of candidates at the local elections on 1 May, contesting 221 seats, compared to 68 last year. The following day, results showed that the fascist organisation held sixteen council seats trebling its previous total of five. In the North-east, an area that the BNP had targeted, they failed to win a single seat in Oldham, despite standing ten candidates including party leader, Nick Griffin. In Sunderland, where the BNP ran a particularly vindictive campaign against asylum-seekers they also failed to win a seat.
However, in Burnley, Lancashire, where they already had three councillors, the BNP gained five new seats bringing their total to eight and making them the second largest party, behind the Labour Party, on the council. As has been pointed out by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), they mainly won seats in the white, middle class areas where there appears to be a significant number of former Conservative voters who have been influenced by the BNP's "ideal" policy of "an all white Britain". The BNP predict that they will gain overall control of the council by 2004, and the IRR warns that this claim "should not be lightly dismissed".
A second target area for the BNP was the West Midlands, a region where racist and fascist organisations have historically strong links. The BNP gained two seats on Sandwell borough council and also took seats in Dudley and Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. A BNP splinter group, The Freedom Party (formed by disillusioned members at the end of 2000 after a falling out over financial matters) also contested seats in the Midlands. The Freedom Party won a seat on South Staffordshire district council, where ex-BNP deputy leader, Sharon Edwards, defeated the Conservatives. In Calderdale, west Yorkshire, the BNP picked up a seat and now have two council members. In the south the party gained a seat in Hertfordshire.
The BNP's success should not be overestimated, they hold just sixteen seats out of more than 22,000, and successful local campaigning cancelled out their challenge in Oldham. However, the government's policy of appeasing the far-right by adopting increasingly restrictive policies on immigration has proved counter-productive, opening the floodgates for the media to demonise refugees and asylum seekers using same language as the far-right. The results have prompted Labour MEP, Claude Moraes, to warn of the danger that the BNP could win a seat in the European Parliament in elections next year. BNP leader Nick Griffin has already met with French Front National leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, to discuss a joint strategy to fight the European elections.
For a detailed analysis of the BNP's election results see Arun Kundnani "Local election results prompt new urgency in fight against BNP", http://www.irr.org.uk; The Coalition Against Racism - Unite to Stop the BNP campaign can be contacted at PO Box 263, Oldham OL8 1PZ. Tel. 0161 624 1060; Times 15.4.03.