BNP laughing stock at council meeting

| Thursday, 18 May 2006 Source: Barking and Dagenham Recorder

NEW BNP councillors were shouted at outside and inside the town hall, when they attended the first Barking and Dagenham Council assembly since the elections.

During the explosive first full council meeting on Wednesday, with anti-Nazi demonstrators chanting outside, the BNP were mocked as they failed to vote for an amendment they had asked for themselves.

Cllr Richard Barnbrook, leader of the council's BNP party – now the official opposition – wanted to amend the council's constitution to condemn discrimination against "the indigenous majority".

But laughter broke out as only one of the 11 BNP councillors raised his hand to vote for the amendment.

After the meeting, Cllr Barnbrook claimed the mistake had occurred because his party thought they were supposed to press buzzers to vote.

His request to hold the vote again was refused, drawing laughter and heckling from the public gallery.

Chairman Cllr John Davis, at one point ordered Cllr Barnbrook to sit down, after he repeatedly interrupted the meeting claiming his copies of documents had not turned up until the day before.

This brought strong protestations from senior officers and all of the other councillors that everybody had received them at the same time.