The British National Party is contesting over 720 council seats in the local elections in England on 6 May 2010. Although this is a large number, there are several areas that have a surprising paucity of BNP candidates.
One of those is the racist party’s top target council, Barking and Dagenham, where the BNP goes into the election with 12 councillors, its largest contingent in the country. The BNP has repeatedly said it was going for control of the council. Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, said the main purpose of him standing for Parliament in Barking was to enhance the party’s council campaign.
In the event the BNP has only come up with 34 candidates for the 51 seats on the council. Eight of these are in wards where they have no chance of winning. Although theoretically the other 26 could all get elected, which would give the BNP an overall majority, that outcome is very unlikely, meaning the party has in effect given up on its prime national aspiration.
Only six of the existing 12 councillors are seeking re-election, several in wards other than the ones they represent now. Other BNP candidates have been moved into the borough especially for the election. Often they do not genuinely live there, a point that has been brought to the attention of the Returning Officer.
All this shows how little the BNP cares for the residents of the borough and their concerns. For the BNP, Barking and Dagenham is just a means to an end.
In Stoke-on-Trent, where it had been thought the BNP would try to improve its position in preparation for all-out elections next year, the party is only fielding six candidates, two of whom are existing councillors defending their seats.
In Epping Forest district, all three of the current BNP councillors facing election have vanished and the party is contesting their three seats with new faces.
In Sandwell only one of the two BNP councillors is standing again, similarly in Burnley. Altogether the BNP is defending 28 seats and seeking to regain two where BNP councillors have recently left the party.
As usual there is a handful of candidates from the England First Party, National Liberal Party (formerly Third Way) and the Democratic Nationalists, which arose out of the BNP rebellion of winter 2007-08. There are also rather more than previously from the National Front, which has been attracting some disillusioned former BNP members.
