BNP activist to keep job as community care worker

Rob Waugh | Friday, 18 March 2005 Source: Yorkshire Post

A British National Party Parliamentary candidate will be allowed to keep her job as a community care worker in Leeds after her clients said they had no problems with her work.

The Leeds City Council Tory member responsible for social services, Peter Harrand, said Julie Day would continue in her job with a company contracted to provide community care for the council.

Mrs Day, who is to stand for the Leeds West constituency, said she was delighted that she was not going to be "discriminated against" for being a BNP activist.

But the leader of the council's Labour opposition, Keith Wakefield, said he was angry and concerned that the ruling coalition at the city council did not appear to have taken the issue very seriously.

The situation in Leeds is different to that in Bradford when, in very similar circumstances last year, Bradford BNP councillor Arthur Redfearn was sacked by West Yorkshire Transport Services, a subsidiary of parent company Serco which provided transport for disabled people under a contract with Bradford Council.

Coun Redfearn went to an employment tribunal, which ruled the company had legally sacked him on health and safety grounds. Serco said it feared there might be attacks on its buses or on Coun Redfearn himself once the association with the far-right party was known.

Coun Harrand, Leeds Council's executive board member for social services, said Allied Healthcare, the parent company of Yorkshire Careline which employs Mrs Day, had carried out an audit of her work.

He said: "As we requested, Allied Healthcare sent out questionnaires to all the service users and they are content with the service they are receiving.

"There have been no complaints – everybody is satisfied with the service they have received from this lady.

"Until there is anything to the contrary, things will continue as they are. On that basis, we will not be taking any further action."

But Coun Wakefield was bitterly critical of the council, which is run by a coalition of Tories, Liberal Democrats and Greens.

He said: "I am very disappointed, indeed angry that the ruling administration does not appear to have taken this issue very seriously.

"As I have said before, I have grave concerns that someone with such extreme political views is working with some of the most vulnerable members of society. Surely, if the individual concerned is not in the direct employment of the council, discussions could have been held with the agency to find her a less frontline role.

"I will be raising this matter with the leader of the council as a matter of urgency."

However Mrs Day said: "I see no problems with myself working anywhere. I believe no-one should be discriminated against because they choose to be a card-carrying member of the BNP or just chooses to vote for the BNP.

"It's totally undemocratic – it's not what this country has always stood for.

"Coun Wakefield has no right to call my performance into question. I've been doing this job and similar work for 16 years."

Members of the far-right BNP are currently banned from being members of the either the police or the prison service and a ban is also being considered across the entire civil service.