Running short, running scared?

Searchlight / HOPE not hate by Matthew Collins | Tuesday, 6 July 2010

Barnbrook after feeling the stress of an election campaign

The BNP has spent the past few days bussing in its big guns from all over the country in an attempt to get Richard Barnbrook elected back onto Barking and Dagenham Council in this Thursday's Goresbrook ward by-election.

The BNP's recently elevated "Returns Officer" Clive Jefferson has travelled all the way from Cumbria to stay with Barnbrook and oversee the campaign, despite the fact that the renegade Eddy Butler is supposed to be Barnbrook's election agent.

Former BNP deputy leader Simon Darby has also arrived, blogging separate desperate interviews with both the candidate and Jefferson, making appeals for more members to come to B&D and help get the BNP vote out. They're trying to be upbeat and talking up their chances, but it's quite clear that the BNP in Barking and Dagenham has been decimated not only by the current internal split but also by its total wipeout in the May elections. Barnbrook would appear to be the only former BNP councillor shameless enough to show his face in the borough again.

Despite Butler, who is challenging Nick Griffin for the BNP leadership, cancelling a meeting on the weekend supposedly to campaign instead for Barnbrook, he was nowhere to be seen on Saturday when the Griffin, his arch enemy, made a brief appearance in the borough. The BNP might have been able to deliver more leaflets for the hapless Barnbrook had the no fewer than seven security staff, dressed in black suits and sun glasses, actually delivered some leaflets instead of just watching Griffin's back.

The party continues to obsess about Searchlight's campaigning and while Griffin and his private army of minders played cat and mouse to avoid coming face to face with Butler and his followers, 20 HOPE not hate activists leafleted the ward with a reminder of Barnbrook's previous record on the council.

We also managed to dig up this picture taken at Barnbrook's house the last time he suffered the stress of an election campaign. The BNP's activists may be worried about Thursday's election, but history dictates that at least they'll be well refreshed.