Britain: BNP wins it's fifth Council seat...
Triumph for BNP sounds alarm bells
Canvassers admit voter anger at increased council allowances while renegade candidate costs Labour seat in deprived Yorkshire ward.
Political alarm bells were ringing across the country yesterday after the British National party's mix of strident racism and pavement politics won the extreme rightwing party its fifth council seat.
Cashing in on a sorry history of neglect in one of Yorkshire's most impoverished wards, the group triumphantly forecast more victories at the local elections in three months' time.
There was little sign of rampant extremism on the tacky-looking estates of Mixenden, which have the worst of all worlds - multiple deprivation in an isolated valley on the edge of Halifax, with none of the life or convenience of the town centre. A surge in turnout from 24% to 37%, and the Liberal Democrats' leapfrog over Labour into second place, convinced everyone the result was largely a two-fingers reaction to those who had held power and influence too long.
The BNP's new councillor, Adrian Marsden, 42, spent the day playing exactly those I'll- shake-'em-up cards, repeatedly flagging his local credentials. He was hugely helped during the campaign, for which the BNP produced eight separate leaflets and a video, by the fact that Labour's sitting councillor had been disqualified for failing to attend meetings - he has been unwell but did not resign.
Sidelining his past links with Combat 18, the violent neo-Nazi group, Mr Marsden basked in his CV as a local man - 18 years in Halifax, with seven children whose future lay in the hands of local schools. "People can link me to whoever they want but the people in Halifax know who I am and what I stand for," he said. "I ran my campaign on the real issues which concern the people in the Mixenden ward."
Memories of the Ridings disaster - when a high school near Mixenden was branded the worst in the country after pupils all but revolted - were also prodded by BNP activists during the campaign. Labour's candidate, Michael Higgins, chaired the local Calderdale council's education committee at the time.
After the result, BNP supporters paraded around streets close to the town hall singing Rule Britannia. But yesterday, after a briefing from party officials, Mr Marsden denied holding racist views and said he was "a local issues man."
Labour strategists, whose computerised canvassing was blinded by the turnout of voters who previously had not bothered, agreed with Marsden on the killer issue that let him squeak to victory by 28 votes. Doorstep reaction, they said, had been particularly fierce about the council's decision to increase travel and attendance allowances.
The home secretary, David Blunkett, called the election "very worrying indeed". "I have said there is a real problem, that the people do not believe and do not feel that their concerns are being addressed," he said. "We need to persuade people that the solution cannot be answered by these far rightwing groups and that the answers they are putting forward are dangerous."
The Labour MP for Halifax, Alice Mahon, yesterday played down the significance of the result. She emphasised that only one in 10 people in Mixenden had backed the BNP in a poll which saw Labour only 10 votes behind Liberal Democrat Stephen Pearson and 142 votes lost to a renegade, former Labour councillor, Redmond Mellett.
"Halifax is a great town and its people are not racist," she said. "Everyone knows where the BNP are coming from and we will fight them and tell people what their true policies are. They may dress in nice smart suits but underneath them they are the same ugly human beings we remember from the second world war, trying to bring division."
Leaders of the other parties held an emergency meeting yesterday, as doctors, Calderdale's mayor and other community figures signed a petition condemning racism. But Labour has also begun an inquest on how a clearly vulnerable target for extremists was allowed to become vacant.
The victory follows an unexpected BNP gain in Blackburn in November and the party's build-up of three council seats in Burnley. In Yorkshire an assault on Halifax and Bradford last May, which tried to capitalise on the Bradford riots of 2001, was fended off.
Mixenden result
(May 2002: Lab 758, Ind 393, C 367, Lib Dem 195)
· BNP gain from Lab · Swing 16.7% Lab to Lib Dem · Turnout 37.2%
The Guardian - Saturday January 25, 2003
Reports from local media in Halifax concerning the election of Adrian Marsden as BNP councillor.
BNP wins seat at Mixenden...
From Halifax Today Website...
The first British National Party politician to be elected in Yorkshire took up his seat today on Calderdale Council. Adrian Marsden, won the intensely fought Mixenden by-election by 28 votes after a nail-biting recount.
He becomes the fifth BNP councillor in the country - there are three in Burnley and one in Blackburn. The result caused widespread dismay among his opponents who described it as a sad blow to Calderdale and its community relations.
When the result was announced at 11 pm yesterday, Coun Marsden refused to comment. He swept out of Halifax Town Hall to the sound of "Rule Britannia" sung by nearly a hundred or so banner waving supporters gathered outside. He was then whisked away in a white mini bus to celebrate elsewhere leaving a handful of Anti-Nazi League protestors and a large group of local and national reporters, photographers and TV cameramen in his wake.
Halifax Labour MP Alice Mahon watched the result unfold and said she was deeply disappointed. "These sort of people peddle hurtful policies to try to cause division within the community - I refuse to accept that the voters of Mixenden are extremist but I'm deeply worried when this kind of party gets a foothold," she said. She urged people not to be too downhearted at the result saying only one in 10 electors in Mixenden had actually voted for the British National Party and Labour would win the seat back again.
Liberal Democrat candidate Stephen Pearson, who was runner-up, said: "We are extremely concerned that an openly racist and fascist party has won this election. "The result sends out a very clear message in a climate where the news is dominated by asylum and immigration, and it is hardly surprising that so many people have been fooled into supporting simplistic ideas," he said.
Conservative candidate Stephen Baines, who was fourth behind Labour's Michael Higgins, said the result would not give the BNP much power in Calderdale. "I believe in democracy and a democratic party accepted in this country has legally won this election." The council's Conservative leader Coun John Ford (Skircoat) said the outcome was bound to be close. "Most of what was put forward by the BNP was based on national not local issues and at the end of the day, that's what people voted on," he said.
Liberal Democrat leader Coun Michael Taylor (Calder Valley) said it was a sad day for Calderdale and there would be repercussions. "It does not reflect well on our district - people will think we have joined Blackburn and Burnley - we will continue to fight racism in all its forms."
Independent Redmond Mellett said the main parties should have made way for him as the only candidate who actually lives in the Mixenden ward. "This result is going to make a lot of people sit up and take notice and questions need to be asked but on Friday I will be back in Mixenden working for the residents," he said.
* The British National Party last fielded a candidate in the Calderdale Council elections in May 2000 when Christian Jackson stood in Todmorden ward and attracted 86 votes.
In 1999, Stuart Hall stood for the BNP in Mixenden and got 59 votes, Adrian Marsden stood in St John's ward and got 213, Christian Jackson 78 in Todmorden, Richard Mullhall in Illingworth received 103 votes and Rachel Clarke in Ovenden got 86.
Majority.....28
Percentage poll.....37.2
Mixed reaction from estate after vote
Worried residents in Mixenden said the election of a British National Party councillor could damage attempts to heal its troubles.
One business owner, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the ward had a bad enough reputation without the election of Adrian Marsden. "It will do nothing for the area. People will treat it with contempt, no matter what the BNP candidate does."
Another angry resident laid the blame for the election at the door of the other political parties. "The BNP did not win this election, the other parties lost. They were not good enough to fight off this man who has been voted in by disaffected young people. Youngsters have seen asylum seekers receiving all of these handouts from the Government while they get nothing. Now they are fighting back."
Miss Nicola Gilmore, 29, of Mixenden Court said the area needed improving, but she was not sure voting for the BNP was the answer. "It could cause a few problems for relations between racial groups, but I hope we can get over this.
"A lot of people will consider voting BNP again in the May elections if things do not improve."
Brian Green, of Jumples Court, said: "I wouldn't normally think of voting BNP, but this time around I had no choice. We need to sort this estate out, but none of the other parties did anything about it. I voted BNP because I believe they can sort it out."
Mr Robin Stevens, also of Jumples Court, said the high level of problems in Mixenden had sown the seeds for a result like this. "It is not a bad area to live in, but there are a number of people living on very low incomes who feel there is no other way out. Looking at the way in which the other parties ran their campaigns, it is difficult to see why anyone would want to vote at all, and this could explain why they have squeezed in this time."
Mrs Noreen Crowther, 72, of Mixenden Road, said she was absolutely stunned by the BNP win. "The second world war was fought to get rid of people like these. We have lost all sense by voting them in."
Like a Cancer in our society
The saddest and darkest day in the history of Calderdale was how Coun Mohammed Najib described the BNP by-election victory.
"We have a good record of racial harmony - we have been building bridges for many years - but these people have created misunderstanding and division," he said. "They are not only against the blacks and the Jews, they are like a cancer in our society and the only solution is to eliminate them at the ballot box."
Councillor Najib (Lab, St John's) was speaking at a meeting in Halifax of the National Coalition Against Racism. He said some people had refused to send their children to school yesterday because so many BNP supporters were in the town for Thursday's election and might still be about.
Councillor Najib said the BNP could offer nothing to the voters of Mixenden or any other area of Calderdale. "Their joy will be short-lived. They will be wiped out at the May elections," he said.
Councillor Lord Shutt (Lib-Dem, Greetland/Stainland) said everyone had heard of GBH and now they would remember BBH - Burnley, Blackburn and Halifax - the only towns where BNP councillors have been elected. "It is something the town and locality will have to do its best to live down in the coming weeks and months," he said. Coun Lord Shutt said local and national issues had influenced voters including the controversial 43 per cent rise in councillors' allowances, the double figure increase in the council tax as well as national issues about asylum and immigration. "There are people who have a lot to answer for," he said.
Councillor Mohammed Azam, from Oldham, the coalition coordinator, said wherever the BNP was active, racist attacks increased. "Most people in Mixenden did not vote for the BNP and at future elections they must come out and play their role in deselecting them," he said.
Holocaust survivor Henry Gutterman said it was sinister that this weekend, the beginning of Holocaust Remembrance Week, that a BNP councillor should be elected in Halifax.
Labour MP Alice Mahon said she was devastated at the thought of having a party like the BNP in Halifax for however short a time. She said many people assumed that the country was being flooded by asylum seekers and that they were responsible for all the country's ills. "But in reality they are being made scapegoats," she said.
The Commission for Racial Equality's acting chairwoman Ms Beverley Bernard, said: "Racist parties are on the verge of gaining a hold on a significant number of voters. "No-one should underestimate the threat this represents to democratic politics. Political victory for racists is a terrible price to pay."
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