Mainstream failures ‘fuelling’ BNP rise
The failure of mainstream UK politicians is allowing far-right groups such as the British National party (BNP) to gain grass root support, Hazel Blears claimed today.
In a speech for the government’s ethnic minority action group in Leicester, the Labour party chairwoman admitted that recent advances in local elections by the BNP in the north were benefiting from a “democratic vacuum”.
“Extremist politics flourishes where mainstream politics leaves a vacuum. All parties must take the responsibility for this,” she said.
Ms Blears explained that in many isolated and deprived areas of the country, the BNP was attractive to voters because it gave the impression of caring about the electorate’s concerns.
She said: “On streets and estates where people feel no one is on their side, that their views are ignored, where traditional parties take their votes for granted, then the BNP can step into the gap.
“They can pose as community champions. They can promise to make a difference to people who feel let down.”
Ms Blears, who was also in London today to talk at the Compass conference about the future direction of the Labour party, went on to say that the challenge facing mainstream politicians was to “remove the conditions in which they [the far-right] can thrive”.
She urged the leading parties to redevelop “democratic institutions” to foster “a lively community spirit on every street and estate”.
“Only where mainstream democratic politics fails, can fascism take hold. So we must not fail,” Ms Blears concluded.
In local elections last month the BNP won 33 council seats to take its total number to 53, although its overall proportion of the country’s 20,000 plus councillors remains low.
