BNP beaten into third place in Sandwell

| Friday, 7 December 2007 Source: Searchlight

The BNP suffered a humiliating defeat in a crucial council by-election in Sandwell last night, in a ward in which it had won several seats over the past few years.

The election in Princes End was caused after BNP councillor James Lloyd was thrown out for non-attendance after he had not been to a meeting for over six months. Labour fought a model campaign and in Delia Edwards had an excellent candidate who now, as a councillor, will serve local people well.

The BNP distributed at least four leaflets across the ward, including two full-colour leaflets, but was never able to answer for Lloyd's awful record.

Searchlight played a significant role in the campaign, producing one colour leaflet before the election was formally called and another distributed over the final weekend. We focused heavily on Lloyd's poor record and it was gratifying to hear so many voters on polling day make reference to our material. We were supported by dozens of activists from around the country who came out in awful weather over the last weekend to campaign for us and the Labour Party.

In the end the Labour Party won the seat comfortably, with the BNP trailing in third place with less than 20% of the vote.

LLabour 796 (48.1%)

Conservatives 517 (31.2%)

BNP 314 (19.0%)

Lib Dems 29 (1.6%)