Matthew Collins, author of Hate: My Life in the British Far Right, assesses the British National Party’s chances in the forthcoming London elections, for HOPE not hate.
The British National Party’s campaign in London is in trouble, even before it has properly begun. Devoid of activists, riven with splits and lacking money, the BNP is struggling to fight anywhere near the campaign it mounted in 2008. However campaign organisers know that as the election incorporates an element of proportional representation – where 11 seats are allocated across London in a “top up” section – the party stands a chance as long as it can get its name on the ballot paper.
The BNP goes into the London elections hoping to replicate its success four years ago, when it just scraped over the line to win a seat in the “top-up” section on the London Assembly.
With that came a £50,000 a year salary, money for two staff and a platform from which they could spread their poison.
Of course, as with most things BNP recently, it all went badly wrong. Its elected representative Richard Barnbrook, walked out of the party and became an independent.
Now the BNP is trying again but is under much more difficult circumstances.
Several of its branches do not exist, or are barely functioning, and many of their activists have defected to rival far-right parties or simply just dropped out.
At a recent BNP London Executive Council meeting in January there were long faces about their prospects, with Nick Griffin admitting that they did not have the money to stand in each of the 12 London constituencies. The meeting agreed they would concentrate their resources in a handful and just hope that their name recognition would push them over the line again in the “top-up” section.
If they do get elected it will be by default rather than design.
Their London organiser, Steve Squire, is embroiled in a bitter and quite public row with his former partner Claudia Dalgliesh, which has led to her posting allegations about Squires’ involvement in the sex industry. When HOPE not hate put the allegations to Squire his only comment was “I do not make comments to people I do not know. Goodbye.”
Dalgliesh has also made allegations of sexual harassment against Nick Griffin.
She is now closely aligned to Eddy Butler; the former BNP election chief has gone over to the English Democrats.
Since then, Butler has been busy prising BNP members away. Among them is Michael Barnbrook, no relation to Richard, who claims to have ignited the expenses scandal back in 2009 when he reported Conservative MP Derek Conway over parliamentary allowances.
The English Democrats and the British National Party will now go head-to-head for the racist vote in London. With no love lost between the main protagonists, it looks as though it will be a bitter and nasty fight.
Griffin and Squire are pinning their hopes on the two pages the BNP is entitled to in the Mayoral candidate booklet, which is distributed free to every household in London.
Amusingly but perhaps unsurprisingly, the BNP leader is heralding this free mail shot, available to every candidate, as proof that the party is running its biggest campaign to date.
This article originally appeared in HOPE not hate magazine. You can visit their website here.