Goresbrook by-election called for 23 June

| Wednesday, 18 May 2005 Source: Searchlight

Lawrence Rustem will be the British National Party candidate in the Goresbrook by-election in Barking to be held on 23 June. The election follows the resignation of Daniel Kelley, the BNP's only London councillor, on 16 May after only eight months in office.

Announcing his candidature, the BNP website described Rustem as a "popular hard-working activist". Why, if he is so popular, did the BNP stop him campaigning in Dagenham, where he was the party's general election candidate, and pack him off to Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, until the very last week before polling, when he was brought back not to Dagenham but to neighbouring Barking to shore up Richard Barnbrook's floundering campaign?

Rustem, who is a half Turkish Muslim and was the BNP's candidate in by-elections in Village and Valence wards, Dagenham, last year, is notoriously disliked and distrusted by his fellow party members.

His campaign in Village ward used leaflets full of lies in a bid to stoke up fear and resentment in the community. He failed on that occasion and anti-fascists are already planning a strong community-based campaign to prevent him taking over clueless Kelley's vacated seat.