February 11, 2007

BNP to pick up £410k from taxpayers for Assembly election

The British National Party will be handed hundreds of thousands of pounds in free publicity paid for by the taxpayer for this year's National Assembly election campaign.

The far right group plans to field candidates in every region of Wales - entitling it to around £410,000 in state-funded advertising.

Standing in every region will ensure the party gets the most out of the electoral rules. Any party which fields at least four candidates in every region is entitled to an election broadcast. The three-to-four minute prime-time screening on BBC One and Two Wales and ITV Wales is the equivalent of £75,000 in advertising.

And the party will also be able to claim postal costs from the Government to send out 1.2m leaflets, one to every household in Wales. The cost of second-class postage on these will be £335,000.

The BNP wants to end immigration from everywhere except Western Europe, North America and Australia; repeal all anti-discrimination legislation including the Race Relations Act; bring back the death penalty; reintroduce National Service; pull Britain out of the European Union; and encourage women to stop working to become full-time mothers.

Members of the Electoral Commission addressed a meeting of BNP activists in the Vale of Glamorgan on Tuesday to tell them what they were entitled to and how to claim it.

A commission spokeswoman said: "The Electoral Commission is both offering and providing briefing sessions to all political parties contesting elections to the National Assembly for Wales on May 3.

"The sessions involve explaining the regulations underpinning campaign expenditure for both parties and candidates and supplements the guidance materials which are published on the Commission's website. We have already briefed the Welsh Conservatives, Welsh Liberal Democrats, UKIP as well as the BNP with further sessions planned at the forthcoming spring party conferences of all the main parties."

Plaid Cymru AM Dai Lloyd said while the BNP was legally entitled to receive support, he was "sickened so much public money is going to help them peddle their racist, prejudiced claptrap".

"They are an absolutely abhorrent organisation and I don't want any part of my taxes going to fund them, quite frankly," he said. "But we are where we are - they're not illegal, unfortunately, and they're allowed to stand in elections."

The BNP is known to be campaigning heavily at the moment in a bid to gain momentum ahead of next year's council elections. It has branches in Wrexham, Anglesey, Swansea and Blaenau Gwent and has been leafleting mostly council estates for months. A BNP spokesman said: "As far as our plans for the forthcoming Welsh Assembly election, we have not yet formally announced our candidates. However, everyone in Wales will be able to have the chance to vote BNP."

Dominic MacAskill, regional organiser for the union Unison, said they would "support postal workers and broadcasting workers who refuse to distribute, or be involved in the production of, the BNP's electoral poison. The BNP offers no solutions to the real problems that face Wales, instead they set worker against worker and divide communities through their message of hatred and fear," he said.

The BNP, headed by Nick Griffin, who lives near Welshpool, has never won a seat in Wales but in August the party gained its first councillor here when Mike Howard of Flintshire defected from Labour.

What the election rules say
  • Candidates standing in the Welsh Assembly elections in May pay a deposit of £500 whether they stand as a constituency or regional list candidate.
  • The deposit is lost if the candidate, or the party in the case of a regional list candidate, fails to get five per cent of the vote.
  • Candidates can have their postal expenses for delivering mailshots to voters in their area paid for.
  • If four or more candidates are standing for the party on a regional list, mailshots for the entire region are paid for.
  • If four or more candidates are standing in each of the regional lists - North Wales, Mid and West Wales, South Wales West, South Wales Central and South Wales East - the party is entitled to a paid-for election broadcast.

icWales

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