Ellie Walker: 'Joining the BNP was misguided and it's a racist party'

Ellie Walker: 'misguided' to have ever been a member of the racist BNP

The wife of the city's former BNP leader has launched a scathing attack on the "racist" organisation after joining another political party.

Councillor Ellie Walker has become a member of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's new Community Voice group after several months spent as a non-aligned councillor. Mrs Walker quit the British National Party in March, along with husband, and former group leader, Alby Walker. But Community Voice leaders told Mrs Walker they would only accept her if she issued a public statement distancing herself from the far-right party.

And the Abbey Green ward member, who was elected as a BNP councillor in May 2007, has now said: "I was misguided to have ever been a member of the BNP and admit that I was part of an organisation that held racist views and that my association with the BNP reflected badly on me personally. During my time as a councillor, working closely with the community and all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, I have come to realise that the views of the BNP are wrong."

Mrs Walker also revealed her daughter-in-law is Sri Lankan, and that her grandchildren are of mixed race. She added: "While a member of the BNP, I realised that it was not what I thought it was, with many individuals only interested in hate and lies. Stoke-on-Trent is a fantastic, diverse and tolerant place to live and represent [and], if it is to move forward, it must continue to be so."

Community Voice's lead spokesman, Councillor Mick Salih, said he had no problem accepting Mrs Walker's application to become the party's sixth member. He added: "Community Voice despise and is totally opposed to the BNP and everything it stands for. Racism, indeed any discrimination, has no place in a modern, tolerant city like Stoke-on-Trent. Ellie has put all that behind her and earned admiration from all political parties across the city council when she not only left the BNP but exposed the hidden extremism."

The addition of Mrs Walker to the fledgling party makes it the fourth largest group on the council. It is behind 26-member Labour, the nine-strong City Independent Group and the eight-member Conservative and Independent Alliance. It is also now one place ahead of the five-member BNP group and the four-strong Liberal Democrats.

Current BNP group leader Councillor Michael Coleman said he was aware of Mrs Walker's move to Community Voice, but was sceptical about her denunciation of her former far-right connections. He said: "This has to be the biggest political conversion in the history of Stoke-on-Trent – to go from hard right to hard left. I have known Ellie a long time and all I can say is that her views fitted in well with the BNP and she was an outstanding councillor for us. I wish her well in her new group, but I don't accept any of her accusations about our party. She was elected on a BNP ticket, and I do wonder whether voters in her ward will accept her conversion or feel betrayed by it. I suppose this shows that we are gradually gaining political acceptance, as until now no other party would have accepted a former BNP member."

This is Staffordshire

A touch of the Moonies

Sycophant –noun: a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite; lickspittle; toady; crawler; lackey; Paul Morris.

Somewhere in deepest South Wales there sits a man with only a keyboard and an internet connection for company. With his right hand he's probably glugging on the cheap Tesco lager he apparently boils down in an effort to improve the alcoholic content, while his left hand is out of sight, but curiously active, as his thoughts focus upon the one true love of his life, that great architect of the BNP's Great Leap into the abyss, Nicholas John Griffin.

No greater love has this earth ever known than that of the penny-pinching Green Arrow Paul Morris for his increasingly wealthy leader. Morris, we recall, was the man who told us in all seriousness that he prayed for Nick Griffin and lay awake at night worrying about his safety. Before the general election, in a typically extravagant outbreak of toe-curling fervour, he rhapsodised:

Nick Griffin is special. He is not like other men. He understands that the rank and file of the British National Party are its backbone. He genuinely cares about not just his country but the members of the Party that has brought to where it is today [sic]. If I did not believe that then I would not be writing now. You guys about to go leafleting and canvassing would be putting your feet up now if you did not believe in him. The truth is this and some might think it dramatic but it is true. There is no other political leader in this country who so inspires his supporters that they would be prepared to risk their lives for him.

Now I don't know about you, but to me there appears to be more than a touch of the Moonies about this unnatural devotion of Paul Morris to a man who thinks he's a twit, as if Morris were having the greatest difficulties in distinguishing the allegedly political BNP from a Jim Jones-like religious cult.

For some considerable time now visiting the chapel of strangulated spelling and grotesque grammar that is his website has been like landing in the middle of Stepford, with the difference that not only have the wives been replaced by inanely smiling and slavishly compliant look-a-likes, but so have the husbands. There is nowhere else in cyberspace quite like it - a worshipful gathering of cranks, kooks and offenders against good English at one in their belief that Britain lives under the yoke of a Marxist government intent on forcing them to become gay Muslim paedophiles (or something like that), which government can only be overthrown by the infallable strategic planning sourced in the formidable intellect of Saint Nicholas Griffin.

Saint Nick, of course, is ultimately responsible for the strategy that led the BNP to repeat all the mistakes made by the National Front in its 1979 electoral wipe-out, and to succeed in doing it - as Griffin and his supporters repeatedly stated - at a time of "exponentially growing support", "perfect conditions", [insert hyperbole here] etc., etc. In other words, conditions that were the polar opposite of those faced by the National Front in 1979.

If anybody had failed to be impressed with the widespread notion that electoral support for the BNP was exploding beyond its natural bounds, it was us. We weren't impressed by their performances in the locals of 2007 and 2008, nor in the Euros (for reasons we detailed at the time) and ever since, when, in by-election after by-election we recorded nothing but retreats in all but one case where the BNP's results could be measured against previous outings, and poor to indifferent showings elsewhere.

With this woeful track-record somehow ignored or explained away to their satisfaction, BNP members enthusiastically set about building their general election campaign on the expectation of voting riches to come, so closeted in the self-sustaining world of unreality Saint Nick had built around them that they never noticed for a moment that BNP support was in fact, to use the unlovely American expression, in the toilet.

Naturally they had to be opposed in their areas of localised strength, and sometimes they managed to do us that favour themselves in precisely those areas, as per the Alby Walker and Bob Bailey debacles in Stoke and Barking.

To come away with a 1.9% vote share and the loss of most of its councillors was a seismic shock to the faithful, who thought they might just scrape an MP or two, save most of their deposits, and fix the jewel of Barking and Dagenham council firmly into their crown.

1.9% is shockingly bad, by whatever yardstick is used. For comparison, the NF took 0.7% in 1979, and lost every deposit. If the same rules by which the 1979 general election was held were in place today every BNP candidate other than Nick Griffin would have lost their deposit. Griffin, of course, ensured that the bulk of the BNP's financial and manpower resources were recklessly sunk into his own campaign, since he could not be seen to do worse than the discarded Richard Barnbrook in 2005. Somehow, despite all the effort and all the expense, he contrived to do just that.

As the enormity of the defeat sank in, so began the recriminations.

Griffin, not being the kind of leader who accepts responsibility for his own decisions, began by fingering the sacked Eddy Butler and Simon Bennett, with whom he picked a completely unnecessary fight just days before polling. There was also the excuse of "changing demographics" in east London, which the genius of the BNP's messiah had somehow failed to notice until the votes were counted, "massive voting fraud", and (surprise, surprise) unspecified internal wreckers and malcontents.

Bennett's removal of the BNP website just before polling can have had almost no effect on the BNP's vote, despite increasingly persistent attempts by Griffinites to pin much of the blame for their leader's self-induced catastrophe upon him. And, of course, Griffin only noticed how appalling an electoral strategist Eddy Butler really was when, prior to the election, Butler was rumoured to be involved in plans for a post-election leadership challenge.

Just as the National Front's 1979 rout led to the deposing of chairman John Tyndall, so the calls for the deposing of Nick Griffin are growing, even among those who have previously demonstrated a level of belief in the man not so far removed from that of Paul Morris and his collection of gullible fawners.

Attempts to show that, in some strange way, the BNP advanced and is now "a force to be reckoned with" that is "feared by the establishment" are falling on deaf ears. You simply can't argue with 1.9%. It is atrociously bad. It is worse than even the most optimistic of the BNP's opponents dared imagine. Even yours truly, never one to overestimate the BNP's electoral performances, thought they would poll an average 4%.

And so, despite all the hype, the hope, the expectation - and the dizzying amounts of cash they invested - the membership of the BNP came away from their "breakthrough" election in negative territory. All was for nothing, and less than nothing, all of it turned to dust on the overweening hubris of the man they believed would lead them into the promised land of mainstream respectability.

No amount of comparing the vote this time with last time is working. Repeating ad nauseam that the BNP with its 2.2% beat some unheard of party in some distant reach of the country is having zero effect. Claiming that the BNP tripled its vote while neglecting to mention that it also tripled its candidate numbers is seen through in an instant.

No, you can't argue with 1,9%. It's a figure that invites the ridicule of the BNP's opponents and is guaranteed to nurture demoralisation and dissatisfaction among the faithful - and that demoralisation and dissatisfaction is widespread is immediately evident to anybody with an internet connection.

We are aware of a number of organisers glumly complaining that members are jumping ship. Of course they are - they want tangible results for their £30 a year, their endless donations and their tireless efforts, just as all those NF members did in 1979. And if they don't get tangible results, if all their leader can offer is electoral obliteration, a slew of weak excuses that would insult the intelligence of an ant, and an internal witch-hunt, then they are very likely to take pattern by the vast majority of their NF counterparts in 1979, and leave the whole pointless shambles behind.

Not so that living embodiment of cringing sycophancy Paul Morris. Ridiculed and derided as much by his own side as ours, this pompous collection of petty hatreds and frustrations has a fondness for posing as a knowledgeable bod with the inside track on the BNP and a good deal of influence with its leader, who, he doubtless convinces himself, fulsomely returns Morris's respect and admiration.

Morris also has a fondness for posing as a man with a nationalist past. In BNP circles, to claim that you were a member of the 1970s National Front is akin to claiming that your father landed on the beaches at Normandy (which just happens to be another of Morris's claims). It earns you veteran status, the right to respect, the right to pontificate from atop a tower of hard won experience. It is exactly what Paul Morris most yearns for, and so in an early and unwise pop at BNP "traitors and fifth columnists" so littered with typos, errors and execrable grammar we assume it to have been tapped out under the influence of several saucepans-worth of boiled lager, Morris makes the claim that "I once belonged to and physically fought for on the streets, the National Front" [sic].

Er, no Paul. You didn't. You were never a member of the National Front, as we have said before when you have made this claim, and we have our information from one of the best sources there is. No doubt you desperately wish now that you had joined the National Front "three years after I had left the Royal Navy", but you didn't. You left a doubtless grateful navy and joined the National Party, which vanished in 1977. And that was the end of you for 30 years.

It would be cruel to have too much fun at the expense of Paul Morris, since he is so good as to provide us with unmatched comedic entertainment at every opportunity he can find. "Dice are rolling, the knives are out" was his first airing of the BNP's extremely dirty laundry in public, in which he slated Simon Bennett (for whom he has developed an almost maniacal dislike) and Mark Collett - "Quite frankly I have always distrusted him and having access to information that I cannot yet divulge, my fears about his honesty and integrity I believe were found to be correct."

There's Morris the all-knowing, tipping the wink and tapping his nose that he's a Very Important Person, privy to information better not shared with lesser mortals. If you must, backpage through his interminable blogged screeds to find quite a different picture.

By last Friday, when the best option for the BNP would have been to shut the doors, close the windows and conduct its screaming match in the privacy of its own home, Morris decided to hook up loudspeakers to the outside wall and broadcast the unseemly squabble to the world, in a long-winded rant that now included Eddy Butler among the growing list of enemies entitled "Is it time for a Night of the Long Knives?".

We seriously doubt that Morris has met most of those he so freely attacks, but Griffin has spoken, and any enemy of Griffin is an enemy of the unctuous Paul Morris; and if they're an enemy of Morris, they're automatically the enemy of the little army of Morrisettes who gather together on his blog in a daily competition to see who can fawn best to Griffin in the greatest number of misspellings.

Now we have been rather quiet on the matter of the growing rifts within the BNP, largely because there's not much we can say while they so publicly tear lumps out of each other - it's been a case of getting in the popcorn, sitting back and watching the show.

So who's doing the greatest damage to the BNP in the early stages of the post-election civil war?

Naturally, the largest part of it must be laid at the farmhouse door of serial self-preservationist Nicholas Griffin, but for our money the hands down winner is not Simon Bennett or Eddy Butler but one unremittingly stupid Welshman with a computer, a supply of boiled lager, unfortunate amounts of free time in which to consume it, and an unnatural fixation on the personality of a political failure, aided and abetted by that weird congregation of unthinking Morris-alikes who prostrate themselves at the shrine of Saint Nick.

Drink, anybody?

Stoke-on-Trent BNP councillor in Nazi salute row

Steve Batkin (pictured above on the far-right, so to speak)

A BNP councillor has appeared on an anti-BNP website holding a Union Jack flag – standing next to three men doing a Nazi salute on a War Memorial in Stone. Cllr Steve Batkin, who has served the Bentilee ward since 2003, has said he was attending a funeral and he has not had contact with the men since.

Maurice Cousins is the Deputy Editor of ‘Nothing British’, where the image is currently appearing: “We thought this was disgraceful considering the British National Party dresses itself up in the flag and in the honour of those who have given their lives in this country. This man was elected in 2003, what is this man still doing there?”

Cllr Batkin defended his actions – saying it was down to the other men’s “drunken youth”. “You’ve got a few seconds to think and when someone just puts their hands up in a few seconds and a fascist salute, basically you’re trapped. We’ve all said things in the past, including Nick Griffin himself, where we regret some of the things we’ve said and some of the situations we’ve been in. Nevertheless I do not condone right wing people doing right wing salutes and dressing in a cult. It’s counter-productive and it doesn’t help the BNP one bit. That’s how drunken youth react at times when they’re rebellious, they might do silly things.”

Stoke BNP leader Michael Coleman does not condone Batkin’s actions and doubts that the matter will be taken further within the party. “I’d like to denounce it, it’s not part of the BNPs philosophy. I don’t want to represent those ideas, but it was 8 years ago and it was a different world back then.”

Ex-BNP councillor Alby Walker, who left the BNP to stand as Independent, said that Cllr Batkin is not an exception and this is why he left the BNP: “I shall make it my job now to expose to the public what the true face of the BNP is, what’s behind the scenes rather than the public persona they’re putting on at the moment. The true face of the BNP behind closed doors is quite different to what you will see publicly and that’s coming from the horses mouth. These are some of the reasons I had to move away from the BNP. I did try to change the image but obviously it’s still lurking in the background.”

Staffs Live

Dissent derails Stoke BNP election campaign

Alby Walker: could not stand the BNP’s nazis and Holocaust deniers

Simon Darby, the deputy BNP leader, once promised that he would never desert the people of Dudley North, where he had stood in previous elections. In January he did just that.

He had set his sights on the more winnable constituency of Stoke-on-Trent Central. Over the past few years Alby Walker, the Stoke BNP council group leader, had given the BNP a measure of respectability, gradually gaining nine council seats and ‘setting the party on the road to ‘taking control. This steady progress has now been derailed. Darby and Nick Griffin, the party leader, in their rush for glory pushed Walker aside and declared Darby the candidate. Walker stood down as branch organiser shortly before Christmas causing the local party to fracture.

Wary of Walker’s popularity in the local BNP and the local community, the BNP cautioned its followers not to attack him. Darby damned him with faint praise on his blog, claiming that Walker had endorsed his campaign and would act as his election agent. However, on the day Darby launched his campaign Walker threw a spanner in the works with an announcement that he had left the BNP and would stand against Darby as an independent. The gloves came off. Darby began impugning Walker’s reputation, insinuating that the local Labour party had bought him off.

On a regional BBC programme Walker stated, “there’s a vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP that I cannot identify myself with. They’ve still got senior members of the BNP who will be candidates in the general election that have nazi, naziesque sympathies.”

He also accused Griffin of using the BNP “as some kind of vehicle to make himself rich and famous”. He added later that the BNP insisted its candidates undergo training on how to answer questions about the Holocaust, aware that its antisemitism was its Achilles heel.

The BNP responded viciously, stating that Walker had jumped ‘before he was pushed because of his “pressing mental health issues”, an accusation that is a hallmark of totalitarian regimes the world over. ‘It also insinuated that Walker was a former football hooligan. The statement was quickly removed from the party website but the damage was done. Ellie Walker, Alby’s wife who was also a BNP councillor, declared herself independent. It was to be expected, stated Simon Darby though gritted teeth.

Walker’s resignation has seriously affected Stoke BNP. In 2008 the party fielded a record 11 council candidates; this year it has only six, two of whom are councillors seeking re-election. Michael Coleman, who took over ‘from Walker, conceded that he had approached 25 people to contest the 20 available city council seats for the BNP but most declined.

“I have had a bit of a falling-out with people over this and it has caused a rift within the group,” Coleman admitted. “We thought we would be able to ‘put up about 14 candidates this year. The Alby Walker situation has also damaged us to a degree, as some of the people who would have stood for us have left because they feel he has been treated badly.”

Only a few months ago the BNP looked likely to emerge as the dominant force on a fractured city council. Instead, having found only four new candidates, Coleman is squandering one in an act of petty spite by putting him up against ‘Alby Walker in Abbey Green in an attempt to damage Walker’s chances of re-election. The remaining BNP councillor in Abbey Green, Melanie Baddley, enters the general election, in which she is contesting Stoke North, with her reputation tarnished following the arrest of her husband over an alleged drugs offence. He is currently on police bail.

Stoke BNP also has to contend with the emergence of the England First Party (EFP) in the city, which is giving disgruntled former BNP activists a vehicle for their discontent. Coleman dismissed it as “just vengeful hatred” from former members “directed against myself and possibly a few others in the BNP”. No doubt he is incensed that Spencer Cartlidge, once a regular BNP candidate who left before the 2008 elections, is challenging BNP councillor Anthony Simmonds in Weston and Meir North.

Another EFP candidate, Mark Leat, is a former BNP councillor for Longton North who was sacked from the BNP and subsequently defeated, but is contesting the ward again. The BNP could not find anyone to stand ‘against him. The EFP is also contesting Fenton, where the BNP polled 36.1% ‘in 2006 but is not standing this time. This, perhaps more than anything else, is indicative of the turmoil within the BNP in Stoke.

Searchlight

BNP members 'hold Nazi principles'

As the BNP launches its London election campaign, a former party activist tells Channel 4 News some of the party's members have Nazi-esque tendencies.

The BNP faced protest this week as it launched its electoral campaign at the Home Office's main immigration centre in Croydon, in south London. The BNP activists stood their ground despite the anti-fascist demonstration, and delivered their message.

Councillor Bob Bailey, the London campaign manager for the BNP, said: "Immigration is the second biggest issues facing the politicians and government of this country. We are here to day to break the silence."

This is a crucial time for a party trying to capitalise on winning two seats in last year's European elections. But allegations of inner-party feuding have threatened to hit the party in areas such as Stoke on Trent and Barking which is seen as central to the BNP's campaign. The working class majority in Stoke on Trent are disillusioned by the old political order - in the mid 90s all 60 councillors here were Labour, now they number just 14.

Which is why it mattered when Alby Walker - former group leaded for BNP councillors in Stoke on Trent - resigned four months ago. He is now standing as an independent in this election.

"There's a vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP," Mr Walker told Channel 4 News. "There are people with Nazi-esque tendencies that do support Nazi principles."

Mr Walker said that he was aware of the controversy sounding the party when he joined but said he was "assured from the highest level by Nick Griffin and Simon Darby, the deputy leader… that the BNP was taking a new direction and people like that wouldn't be tolerated."

"But after being there for seven years I noticed that the same people were still there or hanging round in the background.

A BNP official has described Alby Walker as a disillusioned individual who's struck out for himself. But in London in recent weeks another BNP councillor has split from the party after a dispute with a fellow activist.

"It is the same old racist, right-wing party," former BNP councillor for Havering, Mark Logan, told Channel 4 News. "I'm not going to be used as a political vehicle to make Nick Griffin rich and famous."

Nick Griffin is hoping to gain a seat in Barking in east London, where the party polled 17 per cent at the last election. If they do not win a seat at Westminster, it is not inconceivable they could take control of the council in Barking, as its proclamations on immigration strike a chord with many in the area. The party is quick to reject any claims of Holocaust denial and racism, and has little time for talk of inner-party turmoil.

"Out house is very much in order," Cllr Bob Bailey told Channel 4 News. "The party's funding is increasing year by year. The membership is increasing year by year. The amount of people we put forward at every level at elections is increasing year by year. The mainstream parties are adopting out policies now. We are shaping the political conversation of Britain now."

The BNP is due to publish its manifesto next week.

Channel 4

The British National Party and the Holocaust

The far-right party admits that it is a tricky subject for candidates

The British National Party, whose leader, Nick Griffin, is standing for parliament in Barking, has made great efforts to present itself as a legitimate political organisation. But what other party would give media training to its election candidates on how to avoid questions about the Holocaust?

Alby Walker, a former BNP councillor in Stoke-on-Trent who is now sitting as an independent, has told the New Statesman that he received the training before last year's elections for the European Parliament. "We were given advice on answers and the kind of questions you'd be asked. BNP candidates had previously been tripped up by questions about the Holocaust."

The training consisted of practice interviews with a panel of three party officials, Walker said. "For example, they would tell us to say there wasn't just one Holocaust but that there were left-wing ones, too. Or [to say]: 'Yes, it was a terrible thing that happened, but it's not relevant to the modern day.' "

When asked by the New Statesman about Walker's claims, the BNP leader Nick Griffin initially dismissed them as "lies" and said: "We have media training on a whole range of subjects." But, asked if that training specifically covered the Holocaust, he admitted: "That subject does come up, yes."

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: "The Holocaust is a historical fact, and if it has any relevance to the current election, it is as a stark reminder of where bigotry and intolerance can lead. Perhaps that explains the discomfort some politicians feel in talking about it."

New Statesman

Struggling in Stoke

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Iliacus. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.

Stoke-on-Trent is meant to be a jewel in the crown for the BNP - why else would they parachute Simon 'Stoke - is that near Barking?' Darby into the Stoke Central constituency?

However, with the publication of the nominations for the City Council elections (also on May 6th) we can see that the wheels are not so much coming off, as bouncing through the hedge at the side of the road!

All twenty City Council seats have a single seat up for re-election. Labour and the Conservatives are fighting all 20. Liberal Democrats 19. Independents (Stoke has lots of different Independents) 18. UKIP 10.

And the BNP? Six candidates. Six. Three of whom are existing sitting councillors. Hardly a sign of strength.

And in Darby's 'target' seat of Stoke Central, supposedly the second-best BNP prospect in the whole of Britain, they are contesting just three of the seven wards. No normal political party would consider failing to field a full slate of local election candidates in what is supposedly a key target constituency. But then, as we all know, the BNP is not normal.

There's a further interesting detail. One of the six towns which make up the City of Stoke-on-Trent is Longton. Its two wards (North and South) have long been considered the BNP's heartland in the area. It elected the first BNP councillor in 2002. In 2007 Griffin himself attended the Stoke count because he expected Longton North to become the first ward in Britain to elect a full slate of BNP members in three consecutive elections (they didn't). In 2008 they polled 25.8% in North; 19.4% in South.

And in 2010 they are contesting neither seat!

Meanwhile, in the Abbey Green ward of Central they face their own former group leader (Alby Walker); in Weston & Meir North (South constituency) they face an EFP candidate. The local elections are going to be rather overshadowed by the general election, but the results in Stoke-on-Trent could prove to be very interesting on May 7th.

'There is real risk from BNP here'

Simon Darby, deputy leader of the BNP, claims
his election in Stoke-on-Trent 'would send shock waves'

A statue of Josiah Wedgwood one of the titans of the industrial revolution and a prominent anti slavery campaigner stands guard at the entrance to Stoke-on-Trent train station.

The brooding figure is a reminder of the city's industrial past when its name was synonymous with pottery and ceramics. But Stoke's industrial might is a distant memory and the constituency is at the centre of one of the most fascinating contests of the election.

The British National party, which says it is fielding a record 326 candidates, is focusing most of its resources on two seats - Barking in east London and Stoke Central, where the party's deputy leader, Simon Darby, is standing.

"There is a real threat from the BNP here," says Nick Lowles from the anti-fascist Searchlight as he puts the finishing touches to one of 80,000 Hope Not Hate newspapers to be distributed across the city. "The stakes could not be higher. Four weeks from today we could be looking at our first BNP run council and there is the possibility that the party could gain an MP here and in Barking."

The BNP has seven councillors in Stoke and its campaign has been helped by a local Labour organisation beset by infighting. Last week the television historian and Guardian columnist Tristram Hunt was parachuted in as Labour's candidate - reportedly at the behest of Lord Mandelson. Local activists were horrified and one, Gary Elsby, announced that he is to stand as an independent.

That, combined with the social and economic fallout - unemployment is running at almost 9% and the number of people with no qualifications is twice the national average - has helped create what one Labour activist said should represent a "perfect storm" for the BNP.

"A city in long term economic decline, a Labour party in disarray and the BNP already an established force on the local council - it should be a gift," he said.

However there are signs that the far right party is struggling. Last weekend the rumblings over Nick Griffin's leadership burst into the open when the publicity director Mark Collett was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill him.

The BNP said Collett, a long term confidant of Griffin, had been kicked out for attempting to launch a "palace coup" and on Monday a meeting was hastily convened to discuss the party's future.

In Stoke the sense of a party at war with itself is not helped by Alby Walker, who led the BNP on Stoke council for four years before suddenly announcing his resignation earlier this year.

Walker said he had decided to stand as an independent in the general election because of a "vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP that I cannot identify myself with. They've still got senior members of the BNP who will be candidates in the general election that have Nazi, Nazi-esque sympathies".

Since then another BNP councillor - Walker's wife - has left and the National Front, long a thorn in Griffin's side, has announced it is planning to stand a candidate in the city.

But Darby denied that the party was floundering. He said Walker had "been got at" and described the arrest of Collett as an internal matter. "It is either going to be Labour or me," said Darby, who was pictured arriving at a right wing conference in Milan last year greeted by men giving a one-armed fascist salute. "This is a second front we have opened up and we think that we have a chance of causing a shock here."

As he delivered leaflets on a pre-war housing estate in Blurton area, Darby said the main issue in the city - where 93.5% of the population are white - is the influx of immigrants.

"They are genetically modifying this area, they are bringing in people with a different genetic make-up," he says stuffing another leaflet through a letterbox. "My election would send shock waves and would stop these people coming in," he said.

In the Jumpz cafe in the shadow of Stoke town hall, Alby Walker says it is this sort of attitude that persuaded him to leave the party he joined in 2002. "They are obsessed with race and are good at stirring up trouble but don't really have any answers. I couldn't even say a black football player had played well for fear of being ridiculed. As I went along I realised I was more interested in the community side of politics - getting things done - I just wish I had come to my senses a couple of years ago."

Tony Walley, managing director of an aluminium company, has been following the twists and turns of politics in Stoke on his blog Pits n Pots. He says Walker's decision to leave the BNP will hurt them. "He was the one who did on the real bread and butter community politics - helping pensioners on the estate, getting people's gardens sorted that sort of thing. There was never any talk about race or immigration."

Walley says Labour will also be hit by the defection of Elsby, others suggest he may squeeze the BNP vote by giving another option to disillusioned Labour supporters.

However things fall in this fractured political landscape, where up to 11 people are expected to stand, Walley is adamant that it will be New Labour's fault if the BNP do get in. "Come election night I think this constituency is going to be one of the most interesting to watch."

Among those paying close attention will be the volunteers and political activists who make up the Hope not Hate campaign based in east London.

From its base in a vast "war room", the organisation has built up an email list of 142,000 people, 20,000 who are actively involved in campaign against the BNP - delivering leaflets and manning phone banks. "A lot of people are disillusioned with the party politics but we have found - particularly among younger people - a real desire to get involved and do something to stand up to the BNP," said Lowles who is heading up the campaign. "But it is all about what happens in the next four weeks and how many people we can get out to take the fight to the BNP."

Back in Stoke, Tristram Hunt is getting to grips with the realities of a general election campaign. Armed with bananas and a take-away sandwich he listens in a cramped campaign office as Rob Flello, MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, gives a frank explanation of where Labour has gone wrong in the city.

"A lot of our councillors let down the communities that they were supposed to represent," said Flello. "As a party we took our eye off the ball in Stoke ... We have had a period of naval gazing but now we have got huge energy here now and we are getting out there and taking the fight to the BNP."

Hunt, who has been criticised for being an outsider with a public school background that may alienate the core Labour vote, nods in agreement. When Flello leaves to start another round of canvassing Hunt says that it is only the "political commentators and blogs" that are interested in his background.

"On the doorstep you can get through to people and they are not concerned about all that - it is simply about jobs and getting investment and permanent, secure employment."

And how will he take on the BNP? "By pointing out what a disaster it would be for the city. What teacher will want to come and teach here, what lawyer will want to come and work, what company will want to come and invest?"

Guardian

Politician lodges complaint over BNP using wife's photograph

The former leader of the British National Party in Stoke-on-Trent has lodged a formal complaint against four party members

Councillor Alby Walker, who quit the BNP in February, made the complaint to Stoke-on-Trent City Council's top legal officer.

Mr Walker alleges that current BNP group leader councillor Michael Coleman and BNP councillors Philip Sandland, Steve Batkin and Anthony Simmonds breached the members' code of conduct. The allegation relates to recent campaigning ahead of elections. It states party activists distributed a newspaper, with a picture of Mr Walker's wife without permission.

Councillor Ellie Walker left the party last month to join her husband as a non-aligned councillor. She said at the time that the BNP leadership had mounted a smear campaign against her husband, who is running against the far-right party's national deputy leader, Simon Darby, for the Stoke-on-Trent Central Parliamentary seat in the General Election.

Mr Walker said: "This complaint arises from the BNP distributing 18,000 newspapers with Ellie's photograph prominently displayed on the front page, promoting BNP policy, even though at the time she was not part of the BNP group. The four BNP councillors were identified as delivering this newspaper by several residents and two serving city councillors."

Mr Coleman told The Sentinel the BNP distributed the newspapers at the end of March, and he was not aware at the time Mrs Walker had left the party.

The Sentinel

Stoke-on-Trent BNP Group Reduced To 7

Stoke-on-Trent BNP councillors have been reduced in numbers to 7 from the initial 9 earlier in the year.

After Alby Walker stepped down as BNP group leader in the city the group were reduced to 8 and at todays full council meeting Councillor Ellie Walker was sitting away from the rest of the BNP group and sat with her husband with the non aligned councillors.

During a vote on the nominations for appointment to school governing bodies which included Councillor Steve Batkin from the BNP being nominated as a governor at Endsor High School Ellie Walker abstained from the vote, effectively voting against the BNP group who all voted in favour of all the nominations.

We have been told that Ellie has moved away from the BNP and is just waiting for the paperwork to be completed by Member Services.

Alby Walker confirmed that Ellie has moved away from the party during his speech on item 14 of the agenda asking the council to arrange a suitable event each year to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Pit n Pots

BNP councillor admits BNP Nazism

Former BNP Stoke councillor Alby Walker was widely acknowledged to be a popular and relatively capable councillor in the BNP strong-hold of Stoke on Trent. After several years involvement right inside the BNP, Alby Walker gained detailed insights into the internal workings of Nick Griffin's party, and into the true motives of the BNP leaders. In this video Alby Walker speaks openly about what he found in the BNP, and he should be congratulated for having the courage and dignity to share what he learned.

Thanks to UKfightback for the heads-up

Former Stoke-on-Trent British National Party man criticises party

Alby Walker and Porky Griffin in happier times

A former leader of the British National Party (BNP) in Stoke-on-Trent has criticised his old party as he prepares to fight it in the general election. Alby Walker said "there's a vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP".

Mr Walker will stand as an independent parliamentary candidate in Stoke-on-Trent Central and face the BNP's national deputy leader, Simon Darby. Mr Darby said the chances of Mr Walker becoming an independent MP for Stoke-on-Trent "are zero".

Mr Darby said: "It should be obvious to everybody that this is somebody who's a bit disillusioned with the party, as many people within other parties become disillusioned, struck out for themselves and want to become an independent candidate."

Mr Walker told the BBC's Politics Show in the West Midlands: "There's a vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP that I cannot identify myself with. They've still got senior members of the BNP who will be candidates in the general election that have Nazi, Nazi-esque sympathies."

Mr Walker had been in the BNP for eight years and was leader of the group of nine BNP councillors on Stoke-on-Trent City Council until he quit in January.

BBC

National Front joins fight for MP's seat

The extreme right-wing National Front is to contest a Parliamentary seat in Stoke-on-Trent

The party has set its sights on Labour MP Mark Fisher's Stoke-on-Trent Central constituency. It will be the first time in more than 30 years that the whites-only organisation has fought a General Election in the city. The last time was in 1979 when it contested the Stoke-on-Trent North seat.

But this time the National Front (NF) faces direct competition from British National Party (BNP) deputy leader Simon Darby. Former Stoke-on-Trent BNP leader Councillor Alby Walker also plans to stand in the constituency as an independent candidate. Other candidates include Conservative Norsheen Bhatti, Liberal Democrat John Redfern and Independent Paul Breeze.

Mr Walker said the NF had asked him to represent them, but that he had rejected the offer. He said: "They contacted me and offered me £1,000 towards my election expenses if I stood for them in Stoke Central. But I'm not interested in party politics any more and I'm certainly not interested in the National Front. They say they are getting a lot of people defecting from the BNP since the party voted to relax its whites-only membership rules. But I'm not worried as I don't think they have the slightest chance of winning."

NF executive member Steve Reynolds confirmed that the party was contesting Stoke Central. He said: "We have got a local man who will be standing for us, but we are not in a position to release his name just yet. Our main platform will be anti-Muslim and anti-immigration.

"We have always had a number of members in the Stoke-on-Trent area and we always get a lot of enquiries and feedback from there, so it's a natural choice for us. We are also getting a lot of disillusioned BNP members and supporters joining us, because they are not happy about the party's new membership rules."

But Mr Darby said he believed fighting a NF candidate will help his and the BNP's campaign. He added: "We're always being accused of being the National Front in disguise, but now people will be able to see that we are two totally different parties with different policies."

Former deputy elected mayor and city councillor Mr Breeze said he was shocked to learn of the NF's bid. The Hanley One Residents' Association chairman said: "It may be a good thing in that I expect it will fragment the far-right vote and prevent either the BNP or the National Front getting in. But it is also drawing attention to Stoke-on-Trent for all the wrong reasons.

This Is Staffordshire

BNP election launch off to a bumpy start

Scuffles with demonstrators marked the official launch of BNP leader Nick Griffin's national election campaign

About a dozen protesters broke through a police line and ran at Mr Griffin as he was being bundled into his waiting car by minders. One activist was dragged to the floor by police, while another reached the BNP leader's vehicle before being hit by a bodyguard. There were no arrests, but 16 uniformed and plain-clothes officers had to form a protective cordon as Mr Griffin sped from the scene.

The far-right party chairman travelled to Stoke-on-Trent yesterday to unveil his General Election strategy. Demonstrators waving anti-fascist placards chanted "Nazi scum" as Mr Griffin arrived at the Meir Community Education Centre, 90 minutes behind schedule, surrounded by his security staff.

The protesters, led by Staffordshire University's Students' Union president Assed Baig, pictured below far right, were clearly audible from inside the tiny classroom throughout the 15-minute press conference.

Mr Griffin told supporters that his party has its best ever chance of winning a Parliamentary seat in the Stoke Central constituency. He said: "For the first time I can honestly say that the party is in with a serious chance of winning seats, including here in Stoke, without a shadow of a doubt. I want us to make the Parliamentary breakthrough here, and I think it's possible."

But he tried to play down the revelation in yesterday's Sentinel that former city BNP group leader councillor Alby Walker is standing against deputy party leader Simon Darby for the Stoke Central seat.

Mr Griffith said: "I think it's highly likely that Alby Walker will be standing in Abbey Hulton as an independent councillor, but it's highly unlikely that he will be standing against Simon in Stoke Central. I have spoken to Alby and I know that he has got a few family issues to sort out, and he has been under a huge amount of pressure.

"He is torn because of the support he has received from residents, but if he feels that standing as an independent councillor is the only way he can carry on in politics then he should do so. My advice to the local BNP is that they should not stand against him and that they should back him as an independent councillor."

But he also said: "It will be unfair if he does stand against Simon, as he had said he didn't want to do it. Obviously it will be a blow to us if he does stand, but I hope that he won't."

Mr Darby also initially said there was no chance of Mr Walker standing against him, saying: "I spoke to him last night and he is not going to be standing in that constituency."

However, The Sentinel has learned that Mr Griffin called Mr Walker straight after the launch event to try to persuade him not to stand. Mr Walker said: "Nick rang me afterwards and said how disappointed he was to read in the paper about my decision to stand against Simon. He was hinting that I should retract what I had said, but I wasn't willing to. I told him I was disillusioned with the BNP and the state of the city, and that I just need to find at least £500 to fund my campaign."

Stoke Central Labour MP Mark Fisher, has dismissed Mr Griffin's claims that his seat is vulnerable. He said: "It looks as though the wheels are coming off their election campaign already, as it seems to be falling apart before it has even begun. I don't think it says much for the BNP's chances if they can't even hold on to the former leader of their party in the city."

The Sentinel

Defector damages BNP election plan

Alby Walker: kicking Simon Darby where it hurts

The BNP's hopes of winning a maiden Parliamentary seat in Stoke-on-Trent are in disarray today following the defection of one of its most popular members

Alby Walker now intends to stand against the far-right party's deputy leader, Simon Darby, in the General Election. Mr Darby has set his sights firmly on snatching Labour MP Mark Fisher's Stoke-on-Trent Central seat. And he had confidently predicted that Councillor Walker was to manage his campaign.

Mr Darby sees the seat as winnable, due to public discontent with mainstream politicians, and is bullish about his chances. But The Sentinel can exclusively reveal that, far from masterminding Mr Darby's campaign, Councillor Walker actually intends to stand against him as an independent candidate.

The embarrassing blow comes as Mr Darby and BNP leader Nick Griffin are due to launch their national election strategy, and their challenge for the Stoke Central seat, in the city today. Councillor Walker's move is likely to split the right-wing vote, as he has a personal following in his own Abbey Green ward.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Darby seemed to have no idea that his former ally would be fighting him for the same seat. He said: "I don't think that's the case at all. I've not heard anything about that. I know that anything can happen in politics, but I wouldn't have thought that was true."

He added: "It was Alby that asked me to stand and offered to be my election agent, so I can't see him standing against me for the same seat."

But when confronted yesterday about rumours of his political defection from the BNP, Councillor Walker admitted he is planning to quit the party and stand against Mr Darby. He said: "I am not going to deny the rumours about standing as an independent candidate, although I would need to find a financial backer in order to make that happen. I was going to walk away from politics, but so many people in my ward have begged me to stand because they feel I have worked hard for them as a councillor. I am therefore considering standing for re-election as an independent councillor as well as standing for the Parliamentary seat."

Mr Walker, who stood down as the BNP's city council group leader without warning last month, said he had become increasingly disenchanted with politics and wanted to focus on helping residents. He said: "I'm fed up of party politics. I believe it is fragmenting the council and hurting the city because nothing is getting done. Being a councillor has really opened my eyes and I realise that the only important thing is the residents and the community."

He added: "I have been heartened by the approaches I have had from many people in my ward asking me to stand, but I am only willing to stand as an independent and work for local residents."

The Sentinel

English Defence League in Stoke, 23 January

There is a strong Stoke division of the EDL, based around Stoke City supporters, and unofficial Stoke City internet message boards are full of talk about their mobilisation in the city on 23 January.

The link between certain Stoke City supporters (the “Naughty Forties”) and the fascists has existed for a number of years, and has been documented in past issues of Searchlight. The BNP deny that they are in any way linked to the EDL, but in practice the local EDL supporters are also BNP supporters. For example, Shaun Grimsley, who recently stood for the BNP at a by-election in Cannock Chase, is also a self-confessed Nazi and an EDL activist.

There have been some tensions in the local BNP recently. Alby Walker, the leader of the BNP group on the City Council, recently resigned unexpectedly. Walker was seen as a “moderate” (in BNP terms), and is likely to be succeeded as leader by hardline Nazi Michael Coleman.

NorSCARF is the North Staffordshire Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, which was originally founded in 1977 to oppose the National Front. We are an autonomous local anti-fascist campaign covering Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and the Staffordshire Moorlands. We have links with both Searchlight and the UAF: there is no separate UAF group in the area.

NorSCARF has close links with the trade union movement through the North Staffordshire Trades Council. NorSCARF is quite unusual in encompassing all strands of anti-fascist opinion within a single organisation, and of course the kind of debates going on inside the anti-fascist movement generally have been taking place within NorSCARF.

How to relate to the disaffected working-class people attracted to the BNP and the EDL is, of course, the big question. NorSCARF are aware that to date we have been simply firefighting, and that we do need to carry on serious sustained work in the working-class estates where the BNP have made inroads.

One of the particular problems we face in Stoke-on-Trent is the fragmentation of the political scene. The City Council is made up of at least nine separate political groups, including several distinct groups of “Independents”, including some politically close to the BNP.

In this year’s May elections, the BNP are defending three seats. However, seven more are vulnerable to a BNP win (these are wards which have previously elected BNP councillors, or where the BNP has come second). In the worst scenario, the BNP could win all these seats.

Adding these ten to the six not standing for re-election this time, that would increase the size of the BNP group to 16 — the largest single group on the Council, with more councillors than the Labour Party. They would become the official opposition to the current ruling coalition of Tories and Independents.

From a personal (rather than a NorSCARF) perspective, I would add that the Labour Party are barely credible as an opposition. There is an internal war within the party locally, whereby the Blairites (mainly located in Stoke South constituency) are trying to purge the party of the old left (mainly located in Stoke Central and Stoke North), with the assistance of the party’s regional organiser.

A number of very experienced former councillors, including a former leader of the Labour Group, have been prevented from going on the party’s panel of candidates. Only eleven prospective candidates have been approved, despite the fact that there are twenty wards in the City. The Labour Party will therefore not even be able to stand a candidate in every ward.

• 23 January: assemble with NorSCARF 12.30pm, outside NORSACA, Lindsay Annexe, Cannon Place, Hanley ST1 4EP

Worker's Liberty

BNP deputy leader abandons ‘own people’

BNP deputy leader Simon Darby

The British National Party has put forward its deputy leader as its general election candidate in Stoke-on-Trent Central, one of its top target seats nationally

Simon Darby will help the party launch its nationwide campaign to withdraw Britain’s troops from Afghanistan at a press conference in Stoke-on-Trent on Friday 15 January. Opposition to the global war against terrorism, in the form of the Afghanistan war, will be the BNP’s primary general election campaign theme, Nick Griffin, the party leader, announced at the end of December.

The press conference will also spearhead the BNP’s campaign for the three Stoke-on-Trent parliamentary seats and its local election effort, where the party hopes to defend three of its nine seats and make new council gains. Two BNP councillors, Michael Coleman and Melanie Baddeley, will stand for Parliament in Stoke South and Stoke North respectively.

Darby’s selection in Stoke Central was unexpected as he had already declared a firm intention to fight Dudley North, where he stood in the last general election. “Dudley North is where I will once again demonstrate my faith in my own people, a constituency where in 2005 I doubled my vote to 9.7%,” Darby wrote on 1 August 2009.

“Even if through their gullibility the people of this historic, English town manage to find themselves displaced, disenfranchised and replaced by the evil ambitions of the Islamo-Marxist monsters I will not have it said that nobody cared enough about them to give them a choice between effectively life or death.”

Darby’s concern for the people of Dudley North appears to have been overtaken by the prospect of greater personal glory in Stoke-on-Trent. He thinks there is “a real chance of a BNP victory here”, especially as the Conservatives have “decided to insult the electorate with a joke candidate – a Pakistani, belly-dancer”. It is unclear whether it is her ethnicity or her profession that upsets Darby more.

Darby claims that his selection for Stoke Central was “agreed some time ago”, but “kept under wraps”. That seems unlikely as Alby Walker had been expected to contest the seat until his sudden decision just before Christmas to quit as leader of the city’s BNP council group.
According to Darby, Walker has offered to act as his election agent and Ken Griffiths, a BNP Black Country activist, will step into the breach in Dudley North.

Hope not Hate

Is BNP leader quitting now while he's ahead?

The British National Party has been at the forefront of politics in Stoke-on-Trent for the past seven years, since outsider Steve Batkin stunned sceptical observers by coming third in the 2002 mayoral elections.

Since then, while more established political parties have crumbled and lost ground, the BNP has seized upon the slightest sign of weakness in its opponents.

Mr Batkin may have been a lone figure in the council chamber in 2003, but within five years he was joined by eight more members. In the same period, Labour's once total grip on power evaporated, leaving the party with little choice but to go into opposition for the first time in the city council's history. The Conservatives have had to form a tenuous alliance with centre-right independents to muster enough numbers to occupy key political posts.

The recent emergence of the Stoke-on-Trent Independent Group not only cut the Conservative and Independent Alliance to just seven members, but also made the BNP the outright third largest political group in the city, just five seats behind Labour.

When last year's mayoral referendum took place, the BNP backed the campaign to retain the elected mayoral system, leading many political commentators to speculate openly about the possibility of a BNP mayor running the city. In short, the BNP under Alby Walker's leadership had become a major political force. But that all changed on Wednesday evening when Mr Walker sent a tersely-worded email to council officers stating that he had quit as leader.

Of course, he would not be the first senior political figure to stand down for personal reasons. But the email made it clear that he was stepping down before his group had even begun to appoint a successor. In fact, that is not likely to happen until January. Then, when The Sentinel contacted deputy group leader, Councillor Michael Coleman, three hours later, he said he knew nothing of the resignation.

Leadership changes happen, but stable political parties try to plan ahead to smooth the transition and reassure their members and supporters. The BNP is not a localised council group operating in its own tiny bubble of influence. It is part of a large, organised political body with its own national and regional leadership structure. It is unthinkable that anyone in the BNP's hierarchy who knew of Mr Walker's intention would let him make his announcement without carefully managing the situation.

But party leader Nick Griffin certainly seemed to have no knowledge of the crisis developing in the city he likes to call the jewel in the BNP's crown. Speaking from the climate summit in Copenhagen, an obviously flustered Mr Griffin said: "I'm afraid I don't know anything about this. I've no idea what's happening in Stoke-on-Trent."

Clearly party chiefs, like the council group, did not know of Mr Walker's plans until after he had executed them.

When he confirmed his resignation that evening, he not only admitted that he was unlikely to stand for election to retain his seat in May, but also refused to say whether he would remain with the party at all. One source close to Mr Walker has suggested the announcement was timed to prevent someone else leaking the news of his planned resignation to "stab him in the back". But the fact that his own group did not know what he had done, even hours afterwards, implies that the attack he feared was expected to come from within, rather than from rival parties.

Since Wednesday, the group has been displaying a united front once again, and members are bullish about its chances of making yet more gains at the polls. Mr Coleman confidently expects to take 10 more seats in May and a further 15 in 2011. But he may have given an insight into the real mood within the group when he said: "It is going to be a difficult 18 months ahead of us. It's getting harder now, not easier."

He also said that he felt Mr Walker had "done the sensible thing" in resigning now, to let others take on the burden of fighting three Parliamentary and 20 council seats next year, as well as all 45 council seats in 2011.

Up until now, the BNP's successes have been victories against the mainstream parties on the back of mounting public discontent with New Labour, and the Blair and Brown Governments. It would seem that Mr Walker certainly has done the sensible thing – he is quitting while he's ahead, before the progress he has made begins to falter.

The current balance of power within the council means that, in order to continue their meteoric rise, the BNP is soon going to have to vie for votes with the independents – solid community candidates who are not shackled by party dogma and whips or hampered by the conduct of their representatives in Westminster.

Mr Walker was facing re-election in May, and would have been a prime target for his political foes. Defeat would have been a massive blow for his party and a major propaganda coup for his rivals. But his departure ahead of polling day means that, should another party take the seat, they will not be able to claim the trophy of toppling the BNP leader, and their victory cannot be recorded as a defeat for the far-right party.

Mr Coleman may make an even stronger leader for the group; only time will tell. But if he fails to deliver on his morale-boosting promises of sweeping electoral gains over the next two years, then he could find himself at the head of a declining party with no political weapons he can use to fight back at the formidable independents.

The Sentinel

Shock for Stoke BNP as leader quits

Alby Walker (left) with BNP leader Nick Griffin

The BNP in Stoke-on-Trent have been thrown into turmoil by the shock resignation of their leader

Councillor Alby Walker told his nine-strong group last night that he was standing down with immediate effect. And he is also unlikely to stand for re-election to the council in May.

Mr Walker, aged 52, told The Sentinel that he wanted to devote more of his time to family and work commitments. The ward member for Abbey Green had led the group since being elected to the city council in May 2006. However, there have been rumours of growing friction within the group over its future leadership and political direction.

Mr Walker announced his resignation in a brief email to council officials, saying: "As from your receipt of this email I am standing down as group leader of the BNP group. When this issue has been resolved within the BNP group the new leader will inform you of the new group structure in due course."

Mr Walker admitted he had been contemplating the move for some time. He said: "I am finding it difficult to juggle the political workload with my work commitments outside the council, running a joinery business. I have also had numerous things on my plate in my personal life, including my wife Ellie's treatment for breast cancer. I increasingly felt that I was not giving the role and my responsibility to the group my full attention, so in the interests of the group I have taken the decision to stand down."

Mr Walker also hinted that he is considering giving up his council seat ahead of the May elections. He said: "I won't deny the rumours at this stage, but I will have to discuss it with the group before I can make a proper decision."

But he declined to say whether he would remain a BNP party member. He added that he felt he had helped to change public perceptions of the BNP in the city and boost support for the far-right party. He said: "When I took over, BNP councillors were regarded as lazy ward members who didn't make a positive contribution to debates. I have totally transformed the group and our approach to politics, and I just hope that whoever takes over will take that forward."

The group will be run by deputy leader councillor Michael Coleman until a new leadership structure can be decided.

Mrs Walker, aged 54, said she fully supported her husband's decision, but she had no plans to leave the group. She said: "I support what he is doing, but I think it's a shame as he is really the backbone of the group."

Mr Coleman was last night unavailable for comment.

Labour group leader councillor Mohammed Pervez said: "I think this is a matter for the BNP to sort out. I don't want to get involved in their affairs; I've got far more important things to do."

The Sentinel

Breaking news: Alby Walker stands down as BNP leader on Stoke Council

The British National Party (BNP) group leader on Stoke-on-Trent City Council has announced that he is standing down from the post with immediate effect. Alby Walker, who represents Abbey Green ward, told councillors about his decision on Wednesday evening. He will remain as a councillor. The BNP group currently has a total of nine councillors on the authority.

More news as we get it...