BNP councillors left squirming

David Williams | Friday, 7 September 2007 Source: Searchlight

Stoke-on-Trent's British National Party councillors have scored a massive own goal in their ongoing attempt to harass and embarrass the city's Labour Mayor.

The six-strong Stoke BNP councillors' group has been trying to stamp its mark on the council chamber since it doubled in size in the May 2007 local elections by attacking Mayor Mark Meredith. They have accused him of showing the BNP "disrespect" by stating publicly that he would not associate with them and that a vote for the BNP vote was "a negative vote".

The Standards Board for England, which regulates the behaviour of councillors, rejected a BNP complaint, saying it was "insufficiently serious" to merit investigation. Unable to let go of a lost cause, the BNP tabled a motion for a council meeting on 2 August demanding that Meredith apologise for refusing to work with them. Alby Walker, leader of the BNP councillors, claimed: "More than 8,000 people voted for the BNP last May and Mr Meredith is saying to each and every one of them that they don't count".

Typically for the BNP this was a distortion of what the Mayor had said, which was simply that he would not meet with any of its councillors individually because the party's racist policies were "divisive".

This was lost on the BNP councillors who continued to pursue their grudge against Meredith into the council chamber. After presenting the motion the BNP launched into a five-minute tirade arguing, incorrectly, that the Mayor had breached the council's own statement on diversity and equality. Blithely ignorant of council procedures, like BNP councillors throughout the country, they believed they could then shut down the debate by withdrawing their motion. What they failed to realise was that once a motion had been proposed it had to be debated.

What followed was a serious embarrassment for the BNP. Councillors from across the political spectrum weighed in with speeches that left the BNP councillors squirming. Two of them were rude enough to leave the debate they had initiated before its end.

Conservative councillor Roger Ibbs delivered a particularly devastating condemnation. He said he was not unwilling to work with individual BNP councillors if they could bring something positive to the table but the fact was that they never did, and their voting and attendance records were atrocious. Councillor Mike Tappin, leader of the Labour group, was similarly forthright stating: "Let the word go forth from this time and place that we intend to defeat everything the BNP stands for".