Tory candidate accused of echoing the BNP message

The future of a Conservative candidate was hanging in the balance last night after he became embroiled in a race row over his campaign literature, The Times can reveal.

Luke Mackenzie, a Tory candidate in a British National Party (BNP) target ward in Basildon, was accused of peddling scare stories by suggesting that people who wanted to stop asylum-seekers being given council houses should vote Conservative.

David Cameron faced calls to disown the candidate last night, but the Conservative Party avoided immediate action, saying that it would examine the election leaflet this week. This contrasted with the swift action last month to dismiss Patrick Mercer from the Tory front-bench after he referred to “black bastards” in the Army. A Tory spokesman said: “We encourage all councillors to confront the BNP and not to pander to them.”

Mr Mackenzie, who is standing against the local council’s only ethnic minority councillor, told The Times that he did not believe that his remarks would inflame racial tensions because “people were aware of this anyway”.

The leaflet, headed “Conservatives: We’re on your side”, refers to being on the “front line” in a “battle”, talking about local people “getting organised” and “fighting back”. It says: “I support Conservative policy of giving council housing to Basildon residents and not [of it] being used to house asylum seekers. There is a shortage of homes, but at the same time the Labour Government is encouraging record levels of immigration.”

Opposition politicians said that the remarks were highly inflammatory and echoed the message used by the BNP in other parts of the country.

Mr Mackenzie, a 21-year-old politics student at Westminster University, is standing in the local elections against Labour’s Swatantra Nandanwar in a ward where the BNP took 22.7 per cent of the vote in 2004. The party’s record for the area is 25.3 per cent in the Fryerns ward last year.

This year the BNP is contesting 11 of the 14 seats up for election in Basildon, part of a remarkable surge of activity across the country. It is to field 655 candidates, double the number who stood last time. It currently has 49 council seats.

Mr Mackenzie denied accusations he was stoking up racism. “At the end of the day it’s [the main parties] not saying things like this that is encouraging racism tension because the only place people can turn to is the British National Party.”

He said that there was strong feeling among residents that people from outside the area were causing a housing shortage. “They blame the influx of immigration [as one reason for this], because there isn’t enough housing in the UK and you’ve got thousands of people coming from abroad.”

Asked what he thought Basildon residents felt about immigration, he said: “They think it’s entirely out of control.” He said that it was a view that he shared, adding: “The cause of this is that there is no real control over who is here.” It is already virtually impossible for asylum seekers to get housing in Basildon after the council changed the system to give preference to people who have been in the area a long time.

Jon Cruddas, a Labour MP and deputy leadership contender who campaigns against the BNP, said: “This dangerous exploitation of people’s fears is a gift to extremist organisations such as the BNP. Peddling myths about immigrants pouring into a town or about asylum seekers supposedly being given council housing ahead of other residents is incredibly unhelpful. If David Cameron is serious about fighting racism he should disown this candidate straight away.”

Times Online

Hope not Hate blog: Football healing Oldham's divisions

What a privilege to see Manchester in sunshine! A really beautiful day - great washes of sun across a bright blue sky as we headed up to the Oldham Athletic stadium at Boundary Park early this morning.

We were met by dozens of kids from a local primary school who are taking part in a special Football in the Community project and took a stadium tour with them.

Oldham's problems with racial tensions have been well covered and don't need re-hashing here, but these were a group of children from all different ethnic backgrounds, and the guy running the project, James Mwale, explained that football was a brilliant way to get different messages across.

If kids play together in teams they tend to stop noticing each others' skin colour, and once they get to know young people from other backgrounds they realise what they have in common. It challenges their ideas (or more importantly their parents' ideas). Their school is in an area where substantial numbers of votes go to the BNP in local elections which is why this work is so important. A couple of the kids said they had experienced racist bullying, but said the project was helping them to integrate with the other kids.

Anyway, the kids loved the stadium tour, and even the Man City and United supporters enjoyed meeting Oldham Athletic Centreback Neil Trottman - an FA cup goalscorer no less...!

It was fascinating to see what a football club looks like behind the scenes, the kitchens and TV rooms and a faint whiff of Eighties' aftershave lingering in the air.

After Oldham I wanted to go to Bernard Manning's Embassy Club with the loudhailer, but we were short of time and had to get right across Manchester to Salford by 11.45 to meet champion boxer and Olympic silver medallist Amir Khan at the gym he trains at. It was a much bigger gym than yesterday's and the air was thick with fresh sweat, deep heat and adrenaline. There's something good about boxing gyms though, and I think it's the contrast to posey sort of London healthclubs, which are all lycra bodysuits, blonde wood and hairdryers. These were men and women in ordinary unfancy kit sweating their guts out on battered equipment.

Amir's workout was phenomenal: the skipping alone deserved an Olympic medal. His concentration was absolute and his feet seemed to bounce in perfect time like a metronome. He has an amazing manner about him, a very direct honesty. He leapt up into the driver's cab of the bus and signed our Hope not Hate flag and spoke brilliantly to our film crew about why racism made no sense. Even racists must have cheered when he won that silver medal. He's a one-man pint-sized retort to bigotry.

After Amir, we screeched off (well crawled) to Granada Studios, home of Coronation Street, where the bus was honoured to receive such luminaries as Hayley Cropper (Julie Hesmondhalgh), Kelly Crabtree (Tupele Dorgu) and Jerrry Morton (Michael Starke, or, frankly, Sinbad), household favourites one and all.

Each person spoke movingly and articulately about racism, about standing up for what you believe is right. As Tony the driver said: "Who needs a script if you can talk like that?"

Brilliant end to a top day out - thank you Manchester!

Hero of the day: Amir Khan. Beautiful boy, beautiful soul, astonishing ambassador for Britain.

Observation of the day: Among anti-racists it seems the rule is that every third man must have a beard.

Beard of the day: We're not sure if it was a beard or a cat.

Revelation of the day: The Corrie stars.... soapstars should get on their soapbox more often instead of those endless bloody clipshows of the world's 7,000 worst cop shows....

Smell of the day: Deep heat at Amir Khan's gym in Salford. It was as if the walls were drenched in it.

Tune of the day: Theme from Corrie... altogether now... "duuuh, duh, duh, duh-duh, duuuuur..."

Mirror

Hope not Hate: The BNP and the ‘big lie’

A common tactic of the BNP is the promotion of the ‘big lie’. The issue might vary from place to place but the concept is the same.

The BNP will tap into a local issue or concern and give it a racial twist. They will repeatedly peddle this lie to portray the other parties as out of touch and to promote their own racist agenda.

• In Barking & Dagenham they tapped into concern over a lack of cheap affordable housing by claiming there was a secret ‘Africans for Essex’ scheme in which non-whites were given £50,000 grants to buy property in the area.
• In Sandwell the BNP claimed that a local library building was going to become a mosque.
• In Amber Valley they claimed that a local 15-year-old white girl had been sexually attacked by three asylum seekers.
• In Thurrock they claimed that Hackney council had struck a secret deal to ship over 3,000 asylum seekers.

On each occasion the BNP lied.

This BNP tactic might be no great surprise but how you deal with it can win or lose you an election. Ignore it and not only does the myth quickly become a fact but the BNP then portrays the other parties as running scared on the issue. Sometimes there might be an element of truth in the BNP claim. If there is, fine, admit it. Issuing a denial which can easily be disproved will only reinforce the BNP message.

However, the manner in which you reply to it can make or break your campaign. There is a danger that simply a denial from the council or the local MP will not be enough, especially if they themselves are not trusted. It is more important that you find local people, especially those not identified with party politics, to speak out.

Hope not Hate

£370,000 to fight race hate

The biggest ever attempt to combat race hate in Lancashire will be spearheaded by equality chiefs who have secured a £370,000 grant.

Preston and West Lancashire Racial Equality Council (REC) is celebrating a major cash injection from the Lottery's Reaching Communities programme, which will allow it to expand its Race Hate Awareness campaign for the next five years. It comes two years after the city was shamed as England's worst trouble spot for racist incidents – and 10 months after the British National Party secured votes in city elections.

A year ago the LEP revealed incidents in Lancashire's schools were also at an all-time high – with nearly 472 reported to the county's education authority in 2004/2005 compared to 351 the previous period. But the project aims to stop trends like this by educating the public, especially schoolchildren, on the effects of racism and prejudices.

Chief executive Faruk Desai MBE said: "The grant will enable us to provide much needed assistance to victims of racism.

"The funding will allow us to support the public sector in developing and implementing policies spanning much of Lancashire in order to make it a safer and cohesive place for all, and targeted outreach services will be provided through this funding to those district areas most in need."

Lancashire Evening Post