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19 December 2024

BNP challenging for local seats again

Article published: Thursday, May 5th 2011

Two years ago at the 2009 European elections, the spectre of the far right gaining a significant foothold in the UK’s electoral politics seemed a realistic prospect. The BNP’s Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons crept into the European Parliament, and the party appeared to be gaining a grip on local councils in several parts of the country. With hard economic times ahead, surely the stage was set?

Much has changed since then though. The BNP failed to consolidate their gains in the European election with a seat in Westminster and it appears,wherever people vote the BNP in, they tend to vote them out again sharpish. At the 2010 local elections, the BNP lost all but two of its 28 councillors up for election – around half of the its total number of local councillors up for election. Following this humiliation, infighting and financial mismanagement have seriously damaged the party’s election fighting capacity. The eleven BNP candidates defending seats at this year’s elections must be worried.

Despite all this, Greater Manchester’s far right are standing in every local authority in Greater Manchester except Oldham and Trafford, a total of 32 candidates. Reflecting the increasing levels of factionalism at this end of the political spectrum, this includes one candidate from the England First Party, one from the National Front, six from the English Democrats and 24 from the British National Party. In Manchester, the BNP are focusing their energies in the north of the city, running candidates in Higher Blackley, Moston, Miles Platting and Newton Heath, Harpurhey, and Charlestown. Higher Blackley is the ward in which they have enjoyed the most previous success, with Derek Adams, the party’s local leader, coming in second place in the 2008 local elections with over 25 per cent of the vote. Adams is again competing for the seat this year, and is the most likely of the BNP candidates to win a seat.

More: QuickKick

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