BNP gains two MEPs

HOPE not hate / Searchlight by Sonia Gable | Monday, 8 June 2009

The British National Party has two MEPs. Nick Griffin, the party leader, was elected in the North West with 8% of the vote and Andrew Brons, a veteran nazi, took a seat in Yorkshire and The Humber with 9.8%. Both won the final seats allocated in their regions with the lowest possible percentages, because of the precise way the votes for the other parties fell.

Largely the BNP succeeded because the other parties failed. In Yorkshire and The Humber, the Labour vote fell so far – to less than double the BNP vote – that the Government party only took one seat. In the North West just 2,500 more votes for the UKIP or slightly over 5,000 more for the Greens would have deprived Griffin of a seat. The fact that nearly 70% of the electorate in these regions did not think it worth while to defend democracy by voting probably also made it easier for the BNP to gain the proportion of votes it needed. The BNP vote in these regions fell compared to 2004, but low turnout from disillusioned voters allowed it to gain seats.

Nationally the BNP vote share was 6.2%. That is just 1.3% more than the last time round in 2004. In terms of votes the BNP took 943,598 this time compared to 808,200 in 2004. The BNP did badly in the South East (4.4%), South West (3.9%, London (4.9%) and Wales (5.4%). Even in the East of England, where the party at one stage thought it might take a seat, it polled only 6.1%. In Scotland, where the BNP has never had much support, it came home with 2.5%.

In the West Midlands the BNP's 8.6% was not enough to allow Simon Darby, the deputy leader, to join his colleagues in Europe, likewise the East Midlands, which only has five seats, gave the BNP only 8.7%, far from the vote needed. In the North East, which sends just three MEPs to the European Parliament, the party never had a chance of winning one, but its 8.9% is worrying.

This was the BNP’s biggest election effort ever. The party poured up to £0.5 million into the campaign, hoping the investment would yield all the funding to which MEPs are entitled and the chance to link up with nazis and fascists internationally. Against the fascist party was the biggest and most professional HOPE not hate campaign we have ever staged. Throughout the campaign we worked with the media to inform the public about the real face behind the BNP’s lies and racism. We worked with Blue State Digital to reach hundreds of thousands of people in the biggest online political campaign in British history. And above all, thousands of people, many who have never campaigned politically before, have distributed newspapers and leaflets, held events, told their friends and got involved.

The BNP still ended up with two seats, but it was not because people supported what the BNP stands for. We held the BNP vote back, but our campaign just could not stand up to the relentless onslaught of bad publicity over the MPs’ expenses scandal, coming on top of the economic recession and growing unemployment, which meant many people did not vote at all. Rest assured we shall quickly expose the BNP's failings in Europe as we have exposed the failings of BNP local councillors. The fight goes on.