Plague of Hale

The British National Party provoked fresh controversy this week after announcing they were fielding a candidate in one of the most populous Jewish areas in the country.

Jewish leaders and Barnet councillors have expressed alarm after BNP candidate Stephen Curry was put forward to contest the Hale Ward in a Barnet byelection on May 1 at the same time as the London Assembly and mayoral votes.

Jon Benjamin, Chief Executive of the Board of Deputies, which is leading the Your Voice or Theirs campaign to stop the BNP gaining ground, said, “This should galvanise everyone to go out and vote – we cannot afford complacency. When the BNP ran in Canons Ward Stanmore last November we encouraged voters to vote and they polled very badly, but these results only come about if the community and all right thinking people stand up against extremism and don’t merely wish it away. The GLA elections in particular will work in favour of the BNP if the turnout is low, so we are urging people to make their voices heard.’

Brian Gordon, Conservative Councillor in the Hale Ward, , which has one of the biggest Jewish populations in the borough and includes Edgware United Synagogue and Mathilda Marks Kennedy School, told the Jewish News: “People have got to come out in force to ensure he gets as small a proportion of the vote as possible. You don’t want to give him any kind of psychological morale boost. If they were to get any significant amount it encourages them to push further. We all agree that the BNP has a very innocuous programme even if it is covert, we have to combat it.”

Barnet Council Leader Mike Freer said: “It is a democracy, however unpalatable their views are, the BNP will continue to put them out. We have to make sure the electorate comes out and defeats the BNP resoundingly.”

Community Security Trust spokesman Mark Gardner, added, “The BNP’s presence in this by election compels Jewish voters to get out and vote. They should also encourage their neighbours and friends to do likewise.”

Other candidates to replace Conservative councillor Jane Ellison who resigned last month are Tory nominee Tom Davey, Alex Brodkin for Labour, Geoffrey Jacobs for the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party’s Andrew Newby.

It marks an increase in BNP activity around Jewish areas. The editor of the Hampstead and Highgate Express this week defended a decision to run an advert for the British National Party in the Archant-owned paper.

Writing for the Jewish News today, Ham and High editor Geoff Martin said: “No matter how repugnant the BNP might be, it has a right as a political party to fight this election on equal terms.”

He warned that blocking the ad would have been a “blatant act of political censorship” and highlighted the Board of Deputies’ Your Voice or Theirs campaign as demonstration that the only way to challenge the BNP is through “the individual choice which the ballot box affords.”

A spokesman for the BNP, whose leader Nick Griffin once published a booklet outlining a Jewish conspiracy in the UK and called the Holocaust an “extremely profitable lie,” said: “People will have to get used to the BNP standing at elections. It is ironic that so called liberals are actually calling for blanket censorship. It is something people will have to get used to. Most people accept in a democracy that all sides of the argument must be heard. We have had a number of enquiries from other newspapers. There will be other adverts.”

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