The BNP’s election campaign turned out to be a disaster yesterday as their share of the vote was seriously cut down across the East Midlands and the country as a whole. Newcomers, the British Democrats, failed to make any impact and the English Democrats did very badly as well. UKIP’s populist right wing politics seems to have eclipsed the far right, perhaps for good.
Here’s how the BNP share of the vote looked in the wards in which they stood at the last elections in 2009 compared with the current results.
- Derbyshire: 2009: 19.2% 2013: 5.5%
- Leicestershire: 2009: 14.3% 2013: 8.4%
- Lincolnshire: 2009: 11.1% 2013: 4.3%
- Northamptonshire: 2009: 13.2% 2013: 4.7%
- Nottinghamshire: 2009: 10.9% 2013: 2.4%
In other words the BNP has done extremely badly, a view shared by their last remaining councillor, Cathy Duffy, who flounced out of the count in Leicestershire before her (poor) result was even announced.
Another welcome result at these elections was the booting out of Graham Partner, elected as BNP Councillor for Coalville in 2009 and being rejected by the electorate as a British Democrats candidate this year. We won’t be sad to see him go.
Whilst the further collapse of the BNP is to be welcomed, the rise of UKIP poses new questions and challenges for those who oppose anti-migrant racism and right wing populism. This analysis by the Independent Working Class Association is not a bad place to start in understanding the relationship between UKIP and the BNP and stating the challenges facing those who seek to oppose their right wing populism with a genuine working class politics.