Challenging the BNP – now complacency is our biggest threat

By David Sparks

The major electoral defeat suffered by the BNP on May 6th was the brightest candle in a dark night for Labour. The BNP lost 27 council seats, more than ever before. The fireworks in Stoke and Barking & Dagenham, where the BNP did not win any of the seats they contested, were spectacular. We certainly have cause for celebration – but it would be a mistake to think that we have eradicated them for good. The biggest threat now in the fight against the BNP is complacency.

The high profile electoral wins hide a murkier underlying truth about the BNP’s growing popularity. The BNP share of the vote actually rose, as it has done at every general election. They got more votes per candidate than ever before and half a million people across Britain voted BNP. The evidence is clear: the BNP have not gone away, and despite their failure to gain electoral ground, they continue to pick up support.

If we are to eradicate them from our political landscape forever, then we as a party need to make sure we accept our role and responsibility in making that happen. Local Labour is clear about this: the solutions to the problem of the BNP are local, political and long-term.

Where the BNP are active they spread lies, myths and rumours. They divide the community and make the most vulnerable feel threatened. Some people in white working class communities feel disconnected from politics and have fears about housing and public services. But the BNP capitalise on these genuine concerns by spreading rumours about who’s to blame and setthing groups against each other to achieve their racist ideological ambitions.

Our councillors are the frontline of attack. We are the local decision makers who can make a difference. We are the representatives who must reconnect with people. We are the campaigners who stand up for the concerns of our residents. These are responsibilities we can never abdicate, or franchise out to other groups. And we will never forget that we will always offer a Labour solution to defeating the BNP – we will never seek to appease their views or forgive hatred and division.

To defeat the BNP we must start from a position of understanding. We must understand that the BNP are a symptom of an illness. That illness is alienation, and it has infected some of our strongest communities all across the country.

We all know the signs: declining turnout, decreasing social capital, people telling us “you don’t want to hear what I really think”, our usual voters shrugging their shoulders and saying “no thanks”. Then the narrative begins to take shape: it is all the fault of the immigrants, the outsiders. They are stopping us from living the dream and the political establishment is helping them to do it. We are angry about what is happening, and things are getting worse. Nobody is doing anything about it and nobody is listening.

This illness has turned hope into concern, dreams to disappointment and ambition into anger. The Labour Party can and must be the cure.

First, we must break some barriers down. We must do this not by marching on them, not by shouting them down with a megaphone, not by throwing leaflets written in Westminster at them. We must break them down with the ring of a doorbell, with a hand reaching across the garden fence, by listening and understanding, by responding and listening again.

We must show patience and persistence as we try to reconnect. We must start to give people hope. We must rebuild communities, with the Labour Party and civic participation at the heart of them. We must make sure we are part of every aspect of our communities. We must support the renewal of British working class culture.

The deeper, longer-term problem is the disconnect that is felt by many. That is a problem that the Labour Party was formed to solve, it is a problem I joined the Labour Party to solve and it is a problem that only the Labour Party can solve. Our core purpose has always been to seek to represent the people who don’t feel they are being represented.

The LGA Labour Group have set out our approach in a pamphlet published today, “Challenging the BNP”. This provides an in-depth guide and a practical blueprint for defeating the BNP. At a time when so many feel betrayed or just bored with politics, it is worth remembering that the battle with the BNP is part of the endless conflict between good and evil.

Politics cannot get more important than that.

If you would like a copy of the LGA Labour Group’s pamphlet ‘Challenging the BNP’ please email [email protected].