Focus on marginals leaves room for BNP

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Stuart Weir (Cambridge, Democratic Audit): What is potentially a highly significant political struggle is being fought by an alliance of left-wing Labour and trade union members, the churches and Searchlight (the anti-Fascist magazine and organisation), against the British National Party. This struggle is largely grassroots, and it rarely if ever gains the oxygen of publicity it should have. As Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham where the BNP have long been active, says: "The BNP is emerging as a significant threat throughout the country. It averaged 14.7 per cent in the 742 wards it contested in this year's local elections, now has 47 councillors and, left unchecked, could gain MEPs in the next European Elections." Professor Helen Margetts, at Oxford, is also conducting research that indicates that the BNP's unpopularity among voters is receding.

As Cruddas has long argued, the BNP's rise can partly be explained by the failings of the current electoral system that encourages the major parties to concentrate their efforts on a small number of swing voters in a handful of key marginals. Voters outside this arena are marginalised. The BNP campaigns vigorously among former and existing Labour voters in traditional "heartlands" who feel vulnerable and neglected by the party. Meanwhile, a recent report into the health of local Labour parties found a great imbalance between the money spent on voters in marginal areas to those in safer seats. David Cameron's shift away from traditional Tory politics also leaves room for the BNP on the right, while his party also concentrates its attention and Ashcroft gold on the marginals. The shrinking activist base of the two main parties and their consequent weakness on the ground compounds the danger, as work for the Rowntree Trusts has shown.

The major theme of Cruddas's remarkably strong bid for the Labour Party's deputy leadership was the need to restore face-to-face campaiging in neglected communities. Labour Friends of Searchlight are organising a weekend school in early December in West Bromwich to encourage local Labour parties to do just that. But this is an issue that demands wider attention and action not just across parties, but by central government and local authorities, who need to make a reality of all the rhetoric about participatory democracy.

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