Friday, February 16, 2007

Far right defeated in local elections...

I'm not one to celebrate when the woolly LibDems win a council seat, but I'll make an exception in the case of a by-election in Burnley last night.

The LibDems - who run the Council in coalition with the Tories - held off a strong challenge from the far-right BNP, pushing Labour into third place.

But Labour also gained a seat in a neighbouring Burnley ward last night: a by-election was called in Danesholme ward because a LibDem councillor currently serving eighteen months in prison for election fraud has been barred from holding public office.

It's worrying, however, to see a former BNP organiser standing under the banner of English First Party polling 141 votes, despite being sentenced to six months and banned from holding public office for five years in 2002.

The English First Party's 141 votes were four times more than Conservatives rather meagre 35.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting to note the obvious tactical anti-BNP voting in the Brunshaw ward; LibDems went up 16% on last year, Labour down 6%, Tories down 10%.

fairdealphil said...

that's true: the electorate clearly had it worked out in Brunshaw...

interesting that in the other ward the BNP gave a free run to their former organiser who was jailed for election fraud...