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

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

Populist Politics, the BNP Way

Parties that do not hold office have, it is said, the luxury of opposition. The far left is all too often a case study in this piece of political wisdom. There's been plenty of times I've wondered if much of the far left actually want to recruit millions to its politics - I suspect for many a petty sect and guru, they don't. But for parties that have a little more muscle, electorally speaking, this luxury manifests itself in populism. On the one hand there are the politics of easy solutions to complex problems, and on the other there's being seen to be doing popular things.

This pretty much sums up the political approach of the BNP. Their politics are entirely negative - blame the "Marxists" who run the government and media. Blame the Muslims/blacks/asylum seekers, etc. We know the tiresome drill, and it's unfortunate crap like this can fall on fertile ground in some places. Take Stoke for example. This kind of "politics" is the BNP's stock in trade. Presumably the Potteries would flow with milk and honey if the foreigners depart and take their funny languages, religions and clothes with them.

But there's another aspect to Stoke BNP, and this is the second dimension of populism - of being seen to do popular things. So successful has the BNP been pursuing this that Stoke Central Labour MP, Mark Fisher has publicly stated that he believes them to be good community councillors. What is it that they do?

Take Cllr Steve Batkin, for example. To call him a complete tool in the council chamber would do my screwdriver set a great disservice. But during his first term on the council in Longton North, Batkin built a reputation as a community councillor. Got a lawn needing a mow? Need help with that flatpack cabin bed? Just give your friendly neighbourhood fascist a bell and around he'd come. You could tag-team the MDF as he informed you on the finer points of ornithology and Holocaust revisionism. And if no one required his special services he could be found of an afternoon litter-picking his way around the ward. For this he's earned the almost-affectionate epithet of Bin Bag Batkin.

Credit where credit's due. Old Bin Bag has finally learned to utter a few words in the council chamber, which is more than can be said for his fellow BNP'er, Cllr David Marfleet. Almost two years he's sat there and not uttered a single word. Will he serve a full term without opening his gob?

There is a more damaging aspect to this kind of populism. Ellie and Alby Walker (pictured), who along with Michael Coleman form the "brains" of the local BNP group, are past masters at this sort of activity. One thing the Walkers do without fail is provide a kind of meals on wheels service for some of the old folk around Abbey Hulton and often leave full council to do the rounds. Yes, it's great PR for the BNP. I'm sure their families might appreciate the Walkers' efforts and think about putting a cross in the BNP's box come the next elections.

But hold on a second, shouldn't this be a service provided by the council? If it is failing on meals on wheels, instead of taking on the responsibility themselves wouldn't the Walkers be better serving the voters of the Abbey by making sure this service is available? They obviously do not think so. Not only have they failed to raise the issue in the council chamber, despite plenty of opportunities for doing so, Ellie Walker left one council meeting specifically on elderly provision ... to deliver the meals! And the Walkers have the bare-faced cheek to pretend they're the only ones who care about "our people"!

If the BNP gave a shit they would have addressed the lack of service provision to the Abbey's elderly. But it suits them politically to be seen to be doing something about it themselves. This is not community activism. This is not what being an effective councillor is about. It's pure gesture politics.

A Very Public Sociologist