BNP disrupts EU poll

Village poll backs EU referendum, but campaign group and vote organiser annoyed by BNP flyers

An unofficial poll in Mortimer West End has shown villagers want a referendum on the latest EU treaty. But the poll’s organiser said he was “bloody annoyed” that the British National Party had muscled in on the vote to hand out party literature.

Around 17% of local residents turned out to vote in the village hall on Thursday (November 29) on whether the government should hold a national referendum on the Lisbon treaty, which critics say is introducing an EU constitution. They voted 51 to 3 in favour of a referendum.

Organiser Oliver Sims said: “We are very pleased with the result, which shows an overwhelming majority in favour of a referendum. Clearly people do not believe Mr Brown when he claims that the current treaty is different from the EU constitution. The government makes this claim against all the evidence, contrary to the stated opinions of most European leaders and in spite of the conclusions of the Labour-led Parliamentary EU Scrutiny Committee.”

But Mr Sims said he was angry that the controversial British National Party distributed leaflets from non-party political campaign group www.iwantareferendum.com. The leaflets had been stamped to tell residents that BNP members had delivered them, and enclosed a separate black-and-white party flyer.

Mr Sims said he’d been told by some local people that they didn't turn out to vote because they thought the BNP were involved in the poll. He said: “I’m bloody angry about it. The campaign was meant to be completely non-party political.”

Director of www.iwantareferendum.com Neil O’Brien said the pressure group, which has backing from MPs in all three main parties, sent out leaflets to thousands of people who requested them. He believes he has now identified the BNP member who had distributed them in Mortimer West End.

“Obviously we won’t send them any more,” he said. He added: “We’re not interested in having them involved and we don’t want to work with the BNP. It doesn’t really need any explanation as to why not,” he said.

BNP spokesman Simon Darby said: “As an anti-EU, anti-federalist party we’ve been around before anyone. It’s a bit rich to say we’re jumping on a bandwagon.”

He added the poll result showed the BNP’s intervention hadn’t harmed the campaign.

“I think all the anti-EU people should work together, and if people from other political parties want to get us out of the EU that’s a good thing,” he added.

The unofficial poll was arranged in the village hall after Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council prevented villagers from holding an official parish vote. At a parish council meeting on October 23, more than twenty villagers voted unanimously in favour of the poll. Under the 1972 Local Government Act, a poll on any subject must be granted by a local authority if at least 10 residents at a parish meeting vote in favour of it. But the borough council told Mr Sims that they could only allow a vote on local and not national issues.

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