Beating the BNP in Barking and Dagenham

By Liam Smith

Just over four years ago, Barking and Dagenham experienced one of the darkest days in its history. On Thursday May 5th, 2006, the British National Party won 13 of 51 council seats, and they used this as a base from which to spread fear and division throughout our communities.

I was born in Barking and raised in Dagenham, my family have lived here for over 80 years and my children go to school here. I took over as Labour leader in May 2009 because I wanted to play my part in preventing the BNP from taking over our council. I wanted to get the BNP out of my borough. To do that, I had to make sure that our residents knew that Barking and Dagenham Council was on their side and that we were listening them. Labour needed to run an energetic and intelligent campaign that reconnected with our voters.

We developed and implemented policies that made a real difference to people’s lives: we froze council tax for two years to help those who were struggling through the recession; we introduced an Eyesore Gardens campaign to ensure private landlords kept their properties in a decent state; and we introduced a programme of free activities for our pensioners in our libraries, leisure clubs and community centres.

We started standing up better for Barking and Dagenham, even when this meant we had to disagree with plans from a Labour government. We’ve made sure we were strong representatives for our community, and we’ve run campaigns that made our area better. We stopped a prison being built in the borough, and we campaigned for money to be released from central government to build our first council homes in over 25 years.

We campaigned as a party as we never had before. We began our campaign a year before the election, supporting and supported by our MPs. By polling day we had spoken to nearly two thirds of the people who live in Barking and Dagenham.

We listened, acted and communicated with our voters. On May 6th, the residents of Barking and Dagenham responded by electing 51 Labour councillors – the BNP were defeated in every ward and wiped out from the council.

We know that the threat of the BNP in Barking and Dagenham has not gone away, and our job now is to change the conditions that led to the rise in the BNP. With 51 Labour councillors we have the opportunity to change the way the council does business forever. We have the chance to build strong and lasting relationships with our voters, and we have the responsibility to deliver a bright future for all our residents.

It is a responsibility we take very seriously.