BNP alert as voters head for the polls

Michael Youds | Thursday, 1 May 2008 Source: The Flintshire Standard

PEOPLE in Wrexham and Flintshire are being urged to vote in today's council elections to prevent the BNP winning any seats.

Politicians from the major parties have united in a last-minute plea to voters to stop the far-right party making gains at county and community council level.

The British National Party came within 2,580 votes of gaining a North Wales regional seat in last year's Welsh Assembly elections after winning a record level of support on the regional lists, coming fifth in many cases.

Two BNP candidates are being fielded in today's Flintshire Council elections – John Walker in Mancot and Mark Deacon in Gronant.

Mr Walker, the BNP's national treasurer, is also standing as a candidate for Hawarden Community Council.

Mr Deacon is bidding to be elected to Llanasa Community Council.

A further seven BNP candidates are standing in Wrexham County council.

Carl Sargeant, Labour AM for Alyn and Deeside, led the anti-BNP calls.

He said: "Today is a very important day for local politics where we ask people to exercise their democratic right to vote, which people have died for in this country.

"It's really important that people use their vote for one of the mainstream parties as there are parties such as the BNP who have some extreme views.

"Only by using your vote will you be able to ensure these parties don't get elected."

Conservative Mark Isherwood, North Wales regional AM and vice-chairman of anti-fascist group Searchlight Cymru, said extremist parties should not be trusted.

He added: "Former generations fought to keep extremist politics beyond our shores.

"We must do what we can to ensure that remains the case."

The BNP caused controversy recently by refusing to reveal the location of its new merchandising HQ in North East Wales.

The facility, which produces patriotic memorabilia including T-shirts, books and badges, is based somewhere in Deeside, but BNP leaders refused to be more specific, claiming revealing the location was "not in the party's interests".

The row saw Alyn and Deeside MP Mark Tami brand the BNP "extremists".

Liberal Democrat Eleanor Burnham, regional AM for North Wales, said: "I'm obviously very concerned about this and took part in a cross party anti-fascist march in Wrexham on April 12.

"What we don't want to end up with is apathy and therefore we need to get as many people out as possible."

John Walker denied the party is racist.

He said: "We stand for the indigenous people of Britain. We are very concerned about mass immigration because we believe it is bad for Britain and we are certainly not racist."

Speaking about the large number of candidates being fielded by the party in Wrexham, he said: "We've seen a big growth which is largely due to the flood of migrant labour into the town and this has seen a corresponding rise in support for the BNP in Wrexham.Hence in North Wales as a whole we have fielded 20 candidates in 40 seats.”

One politician who isn’t representing the BNP today is Mike Howard, councillor for Rhewl Mostyn on Mostyn Community Council.

Cllr Howard joined the BNP unexpectedly in 2006, after being elected as an Independent two years earlier.

He has since left the party, and will be elected unopposed as an Independent candidate today.

He said: “Once I got into the party I found it wasn’t what I wanted.

“The party isn’t going the same way as me in terms of policies and what I stand for.

“I want to be judged as an individual by the people of Rhewl Mostyn.”