General Election 2001

Nazi Results

"We have found from experience that any constituency in which the BNP can take around 3% in a parliamentary election contains council seats in which it is possible to take around 25% of the vote or even more. This string of near 5% votes therefore provides us with a number of winnable council wards in which the British National Party can take the next step into the mainstream" Nick Griffin, Friday 8 June 2001.

The Nazi British National Party achieved their best general election result ever in Oldham, with 11% in one constituency and 16% in another.  The BNP stood 33 candidates in the General Election, the National Front stood five.

The BNP saved their deposits in five places:  Burnley, Oldham East and Saddleworth, Oldham West and Royton, Poplar and Canning Town and Barking.  Their overall share of the vote was 3.74%.  The NF achieved derisory votes of around 1% in areas where they have whipped up racial tension, in Margate, Birmingham and Bermondsey.  It is worth noting that the BNP contested fewer seats and failed to get the party political broadcast that went out to millions of people in 1997.

In 1997 the BNP saved only three deposits in Bethnal Green and Bow, Dewsbury, Poplar and Canning Town.  56 BNP candidates took 35,393 votes, averaging 1.35%.  The total far right average including the NF and other rump Nazis was 87 candidates totalling 49,750 votes, an average of 572 votes or 1.23%.  This was the highest far right vote in a general election since 1979.

In 1992 the Nazis could only muster 27 candidates who got 11,821 total votes an average of 436 votes or 0.94%.

BNP LOCAL STRATEGY

The BNP has targeted specific areas.  Their long term plan is to begin to build support in specific areas, hoping to win a council seat in the 2002 local elections.

Nick Griffin the BNP Fuhrer is clear about this:

"The BNP will most certainly make its next breakthrough in a run down working class area.  The people who have been abandoned by Labour and have never been represented by the Tories will, in their desperation, turn to us".  We have already been warned that Labour's second term will be 'bloody'.  The Nazis plan to exploit any tensions for their own racist agenda.

The BNP have gained from their electoral strategy in council elections.  Last year they polled 23% in Tipton Green (West Midlands) and 26 percent in Bexley (South East London).  The Nazi vote has also increased in the wake of the racist hysteria over asylum seekers by mainstream politicians and the media.

"It's fun to watch the government and the Tories play the race card.  This asylum seeker issue legitimises us ... William Hague, the Tories' 14 pint skinhead, is our second best recruiting sergeant at the moment" Nick Griffin.

A WARNING SIGN

This Nazi vote result must serve as a warning to us all.  We have witnessed the rise of the far right across the rest of Europe.  This is the BNP's aim.

"They look at us and shudder as then think of what has already happened in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium and Denmark" says Griffin.

Wherever the BNP have picked up votes we must build a strong anti-Nazi movement.  We must be on every estate, in every school, college and workplace to ensure that the Nazis cannot get a foothold in mainstream politics.

The BNP want to exploit democracy in order to smash it.  They want to build "a strong disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan "Defend Rights for Whites with well-directed boots and fists.  When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate ... It is more important to control the streets of a city than its council chamber."

We must continue to build an active and vibrant anti racist movement in Britain.  Now is the time to join the Anti Nazi League!

The Nazi Vote

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*The BNP stood in the West Bromwich W by-election in 2000 (Griffin 794; 4.2%); the constituency was the Speaker's seat in 1997, so the mainstream parties did not contest it, hence the high ND percentage of the vote.