The British National Party achieved its most significant electoral breakthrough last night when it won two seats in the European Parliament.
In a result that hands the far-right party an international platform, Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, clinched a seat in the North West and the party also gained a MEP in Yorkshire and the Humber.
The party had capitalised on the expenses furore during the election campaign but mainly benefited from the Labour meltdown, winning key votes from its traditional strongholds.
In the North West, Mr Griffin gained the eighth MEP seat, although his party gained fewer votes than in the 2004 election. Labour lost 240,000 disaffected voters. In Yorkshire the BNP won almost 10 per cent of the vote, most of it from Labour.
The result sent shockwaves through the mainstream parties, with the BNP undoubtedly poised to use its win to claim that it has political legitimacy.
Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, described the win as a “sad moment in British politics”. Both Gordon Brown and David Cameron have been outspoken recently about the BNP.
The party polled very well in Labour’s traditional working class strongholds, achieving 16 per cent of the vote in Barnsley, nearly 12 per cent in Doncaster and 15 per cent in Rotherham. It received 120,139 votes in total.
The result will put further pressure on the Prime Minister to stand down and there was speculation last night that it would increase the chances of a leadership challenge.
As Nick Griffin stepped forward to deliver his victory speech, the other winning candidates stepped down from the podium in protest.
The BNP leader told supporters that hundreds of thousands of voters had given their verdict on the old, liberal consensus, had ignored the ‘lies’ of popular newspapers and “truth, justice and freedom are once again flowing over this country. He added: “It is a great victory. We go on from here”.
Mr Griffin said that his party had made political history. “I think it means there is now huge pressure on Gordon Brown to go. The British public have done this in the teeth of a most disgraceful vicious lying press campaign against the BNP. I do not believe it was a protest vote in any way. They voted for our policies. It is an absolutely fantastic result.”
The party’s winning candidate in Yorkshire, Andrew Brons, 61, said that his election was the first step towards Britain separating from the “EU dictatorship”. “Despite the headlines, despite the money, despite the misrepresentation, we have managed to win through.”
Earlier Sir Robert Atkins, the first of three victorious Conservatives in the North West, described the BNP’s triumph as an “aberation that right-thinking people in this country will horrified by”.
Arlene McCarthy, who polled the most votes for Labour, branded the BNP as a party of “prejudice and intolerance”.
Tony Lloyd, MP for Manchester Central, said: “I am not just disappointed, it is a matter of shame. This country is has a deserved reputation as a tolerant society and it now has representatives who are avowed racists.
“Two racists is absolutely a lot worse than one but that is one too many. There is a world of difference between protest and voting for a party whose aim and instincts are fascist,” he said.
Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Blackley, said: “It shows there is something fundamentally wrong at the heart of British democracy and all democracies will have to look carefully at how to proceed. It is also a warning that we should not move to proportional representation for any other election”.
The BNP, which is seen as a racist party, not least because it refuses membership to black people, won its first county council seat in last week’s local elections and last year won a seat in the London Assembly.
It put all its efforts into the European election and ran a national campaign, with Mr Griffin claiming that the party had spent £500,000.
The party will be eligible for funding from the EU and Mr Griffin has previously raised the prospect of forming an alliance with other far-right parties in Europe.
Mr Burnham said that the BNP had become very clever at hiding its racist beliefs. “They dress differently, they act differently, they campaign differently,” he told BBC News. He said that the BNP had been the beneficiaries of an anti-politics mood that had hit all the leading parties.
Many other MPs have been outspoken about the damage they say will be done to Britain’s reputation by the BNP winning a seat in the European Parliament. The first tensions occurred early last night at the count in Manchester.
Mr Griffin was stopped from entering the building by several dozen anti-BNP protesters. They chanted that the BNP, which calls for an immediate halt to immigration to Britain, was a “Nazi” party. Mr Griffin was forced to enter the hall by a back door. He said: “We are not a racist party. We do say this country is full up. The key thing is to shut the door.”
The BNP’s funding for the election campaign has been under scrutiny after it spent £500,000 but declared just £21,132 in donations for the first quarter of this year. Mr Griffin is the subject of a review by the Electoral Commission after The Times revealed that he paid a £5,000 political donation into his own bank account, before passing it to a trade union, without declaring it.
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