Britain: BNP wins another council seat
BBC News - 22 November 2002




Robin Evans won the seat with a 16 vote majority		 The BNP has won a surprise council by-election victory in the constituency of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The win in Blackburn, Lancashire -Straw's constituency - adds to the three seats the British National Party already holds in the north west of England. Candidate Robin Evans won the Mill Hill seat in Blackburn with a majority of just 16 votes.

The seat on Darwen Borough Council became vacant after a Liberal Democrat councillor left the area. There were angry scenes even before the count took place at the old town hall in Blackburn.

Between 30 to 40 demonstrators shouted insults at the BNP candidate and his supporters as they entered the building. After a tense recount, the BNP took the seat with 578 votes to Labour's 562, the Lib Dems 505 and the Conservatives 154, with turnout at 39%. The election saw Mr Straw campaigning for Labour.

Successful candidate Mr Evans said: "I do not just regard this as a victory for myself and the Blackburn BNP. "It is an important victory for a long neglected majority in other wards in Blackburn who now have a voice in me." Blackburn has a large Asian community but has avoided the racial tensions seen in other parts of northern England. Race tensions saw rioting in summer 2001.

Politicians, trade unionists and community leaders last month began a campaign to unseat the BNP's three councillors in Burnley. Their election came after inter-racial rioting in Burnley and other towns in the North West in summer last year. The BNP still only has a toe-hold in the north-west, but the latest result will worry the mainstream political parties. The official report into the violence in June 2001 said organised white racists had exploited clashes to exacerbate tensions and fears. It urged the government to tackle " shockingly" divided communities in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham, which have large British Asian communities.

But the BNP has said its election success stems from the marginalisation of white residents by the main political parties. The four councillors now in office are the BNP's only success on local councils since the short-lived election of Derek Beackon in Tower Hamlets, London, in 1993.

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