Local elections 2008 - a statement by Searchlight

The BNP has failed to make its expected breakthrough in the 2008 local elections, ending up with a net gain of just ten council seats. More significantly, its vote in many of its heartlands has gone down, in some cases quite considerably.

On election day the BNP predicted it would win 40 new councillors and three seats on the London Assembly. However, when the first results came in, it quickly became clear that this was too optimistic. As the night continued the size of the BNP failure became apparent.

The BNP won three seats in Stoke-on-Trent and two each in Amber Valley, Rotherham and Nuneaton & Bedworth. It also took one seat in Thurrock, Three Rivers, Pendle and Calderdale. It also successfully defended seats in Epping and Burnley. This takes the number of BNP councillors to 55, up from 45 before these elections.

However, it also lost two seats it was defending in Epping and one in Kirklees.

In most areas the BNP share of the vote was well down on last year, which in itself was down on the previous election, particularly in its traditional heartlands.

Local authority	2006	2007	2008
Sandwell	33.0%	24.6%	17.4%
Dudley	26.5%	18.7%	14.7%
Kirklees	18.4%	16.5%	14.4%
Burnley	30.0%	25.1%	22.8%
Thurrock	26.7%	24.5%	21.4%
Broxbourne	N/A	20.0%	15.4%
Epping	N/A	18.5%	15.0%

The fall in the BNP vote was especially surprising given Labour’s difficulties. Just under 80% of the BNP’s target wards were held by Labour but it seems that the BNP did not benefit from this. Instead, early analysis seems to show that many BNP supporters either stayed at home or switched to the Conservative Party. Suddenly, for those who wanted to register an anti-Labour vote, there was an alternative.

The BNP’s decline did not happen by chance. Searchlight and the HOPE not hate campaign had been working tirelessly in the key wards for many months. We organised telephone and doorstep canvassing, direct mail shots and localised leaflets. We worked with all the political parties best placed to beat the BNP and co-ordinated work with the trade unions, and faith and community groups.

Nationally, we joined forces with the Daily Mirror to run another HOPE not hate tour of Britain. In addition to our colourful old London bus, daily articles in the newspaper and a daily video on YouTube, we sent out over 150,000 “Get Out and Vote” emails on the day before polling. It was the largest ever email campaign in domestic British political history. Our finest hour came with U-Day two days before the election, when 700 volunteers braved inclement weather to deliver 200,000 campaign leaflets at 200 tube and railway stations in the Greater London area.

The BNP did not achieve its hoped-for breakthrough but there is no room for complacency. With the BNP on course to win one seat on the London Assembly and the European elections, contested under PR, only a year away, the BNP is still a major threat. We should be encouraged that the BNP can be defeated in its heartlands by a strategy that takes the party on rather than ignores it, but there is still a lot of work to do.

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