How the BNP Blossomed Under New Labour

It was in the final hours of the campaign in the Hasting's Council elections. I was an independent candidate for Castle Ward. Voters received a propoganda flyer from New Labour warning them that a vote for that 'well meaning independent,' would somehow bolster the electoral fortunes of the right-wing, racist British Nationalist Party (BNP). The flyer made no mention of issues. It was, pure and simple, the form of New Labour attack propoganda we have become accustomed to. I was almost flattered that my merry band of Independents and I had stung New Labour sufficiently to gain this kind of negative attention. Indeed, we managed to get 11% of the vote in just three weeks of door-knocking, so, perhaps, the smear tacticians of the New Labour machine were right to be afraid. But, of course, I have nothing to do with the BNP, as everyone knows, and even without the big money New Labour can muster, I easily out-polled the BNP in the election. But again ... the attempt to link my campaign, in whatever desperate and convoluted way, to the fortunes of the BNP did underline the co-dependent relationship that has grown up between New Labour and the BNP.

First, locally, although it has been unwilling to debate the BNP, New Labour has seemed to feel that it needs the specter of the BNP as a principle campaign prop -- a stool pigeon, if you will. In the last two local elections the BNP loomed large as a tool to bludgeon voters into voting labour out of fear of a possible BNP win. (Essentially, though, this was a silly idea. In Hastings the BNP were and are a non-issue -- like I said, I thrashed them by myself in Castle Ward.)

Second, as New Labour has become much less confident about winning elections on the basis of issues, the party seems to have become more paranoid about any opposition candidate and more willing to deploy non-specific propoganda against opposition politicians. Tying everyone else to the BNP is a convenient way of doing this. (Once upon a time, we would have associated such paranoia and 'hate and fear' tactics almost exclusively with the BNP or the National Front. So, it seems that certain elements in New Labour may have decided they could learn a trick or two from the extremists.)

Finally, if we look carefully at the electoral record, we can see not only that the numbers in the BNP have swollen during New Labour's tenancy at No. 10 Downing St., but that a significant percentage of those new BNP supporters are alienated Old Labour supporters. This helps explain why the Labour government in the hopes of wooing some of these supporters back adopted a number of restrictions on civil liberties that have been proposed, also, by the extreme right. Conversely, it is Labour's Orwellian willingness to move so far towards what we might call the 'wild, wacky wight' (in bugs bunnyspeak) that has allowed the BNP, in turn, to present itself to the public as a centre-right party. It is easy to see how, from New Labour's point of view, one way to winning back wayward working class votes could be to appeal to the fraction attracted to the BNP by it's penchant for authoritarian solutions to immigration issues, for instance.

What does this co-dependency, this sharing of authoritarian ideals, mean in the practical sense? Let's begin with something less controversial: "British jobs for British workers." That's from the mouth of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Pithy and populist, the slogan first appeared on National Front placards in the 1960's and features strongly in current BNP political rhetoric ... and, of course, at New Labour Party conferences.

Let's move on to something more sinister. Under New Labour a two-tier citizenship has been implemented. In the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill, the government is able to strip a person who has already been naturalised of citizenship for acts (loosely defined as) supportive of terrorism or for activities considered to be detrimental to the UK.' It's the sort of immigration policy that encourages, well, a police state.

Indeed, to get a feel for just how far this government is willing to go to make the term terrorism work for it, I call your attention to the recent police raid on Damien Green's parliamentary office. In doing so, I am not simply talking about the government arresting opposition politicians. It actually gets worse. Scotland Yard's anti-terror squad searched the Tory MP's computer for references to Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, the UK's most prominent citizen rights organisation. Apparently, her criticism of the government's largely successful campaign against our individual rights, including her opposition to 42 day detention without charge, earned her 'terrorist' status.

This is not the first time Ms. Chakrabarti's opposition to prolonged detention without charge has made her the target of the government. In June 2008, Andrew Burnham, New Labour's secretary of state for culture, media and sport was forced to apologise to her for "attempted character assassination." Fortunately for her, she is not a naturalised 2nd class citizen, but a first class (in more ways than one) citizen who was born here, so she can't be thrown out of the country. Other people not born here, that is second class citizens very much involved in the politics of their community, might not be so lucky.

To summarise, ID cards for citizens, extended detention without charge, pro-European (read white) immigration policies and so on are all ideas that began in the extreme right-wing, but which New Labour has "mainstreamed." And there is a reason for this. New Labour wants to attract some of the voters that fit broadly the BNP voter profile. And there is a reason for that, too: The BNP threatens New Labour in what were once safe Old Labour constituencies.

Since New Labour inherited the Labour party machinery, it's core constituency has evolved. It looks after bankers more than bootmakers and barmen. It looks after British Gas not green grocers. However, although the party no longer champions the array of social programs that attracted many of these dis-possessed working class voters in the first place, it still attracts sizeable traditional support from the working class for want of an articulate alternative amongst the major parties. On the other hand, this traditional working class vote continues to steadily erode. An ever larger percentage of that vote, however misguided, is creeping toward the BNP alternative. In an attempt to coax some of these voters back, New Labour has co-opted some of the more insidious right-wing policy brands. This may have won back some of those voters, but probably did more good for the BNP by legitimising their authoritarian approach.

In the 2001 general election, the BNP scored just under 50000 votes across 119 seats; in 2005, it scored just under 200,000 votes. In the 2007 local elections where the BNP secured 300,000 votes for 754 candidates. There are currently 55 BNP councillors, spread across 22 local councils. While the BNP’s overall share of the vote was small, at around 1 to 2 per cent, geographical concentrations of their vote in Labour areas have enabled the far right to establish unprecedented levels of representation in local government. As the far right has steadily made encroachments on New Labour's constituencies, New Labour, like Chamberlain, has appeased the wrong side. And due to this, the BNP has over the years been able more and more to portray itself as a centre-right alternative.