Electoral performance of far-right parties in the UK Standard Note: SN/SG/1982 Last updated: 29 June 2004 Author: Jessica Yonwin Social and General Statistics Section This note provides data on the electoral performance of the UK’s British National Party and National Front in local and parliamentary elections. This note has been updated to include results from the local elections held in England on 10 June 2004. It also comments upon results from various ward by-elections in 2002 and 2003, as well as overall results from the 2002 and 2003 local elections.1 As at 24 June 2004, the BNP had 21 councillors in local government in England. Contents A. Background 2 B. Electoral performance 2 1. Local elections 2 2. European elections 5 3. 1997 General Election 5 4. 2001 General Election 5 5. Table 1: Election performance: General and by elections 7 6. Table 2: 2001 General Election 8 7. Table 3: Ward-by-ward electoral performance of BNP in the 2004 local elections in England and Scotland (see note on page 3). 9 1 See also Library Research Paper 04/49 Local Elections 2004 (23 June 2004), 03/44 Local Elections 2003 (12 May 2003), and 02/33 Local Elections in England: 2 May 2002 (9 May 2002) Standard Notes are compiled for the benefit of Members of Parliament and their personal staff. Authors are available to discuss the contents of these papers with Members and their staff but cannot advise others. A. Background The National Front (NF) was formed in 1967 by the merger of the British National Party (BNP) and the League of Empire Loyalists. Since then, the NF has fielded candidates at all general elections, except 1987. These results are summarised in Table 1. The NF fielded most candidates in the 1979 general election, when it stood in almost half the constituencies in Britain. The NF polled 191,719 votes. All lost their deposits, as have all NF candidates at every general election. In terms of the average votes cast for each candidate, the NF performed better in the previous 1974 elections. During the mid-1970s, the NF enjoyed relative success in parliamentary by-elections. The second part of Table 1 details the National Front's best by-election performances in each Parliament since 1970. More recently, its by-election appearances have been much more sporadic, and its votes quite low. Neither the NF nor the BNP have had candidates in the three parliamentary by-elections held so far in the 2001 Parliament. In 1995, the National Front relinquished its name and re-branded itself as the National Democrats. This caused a split in the NF membership as some activists continued to remain loyal to a ‘residual’ National Front. The NF and BNP fielded candidates in the 1997 and 2001 general elections, while the National Democrats fielded candidates only in 1997. The BNP was formed in 1992 by the former leader of the National Front, John Tyndall. It remains UK’s largest extreme-right political party. The BNP achieved early notoriety when, in September 1993, the party secured the election of Derek Beacon in a by-election for the Millwall ward of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Beacon lost his seat in the 1994 borough-wide elections. In 1997, the party fielded over 50 candidates in the general election and, to the disquiet of many, qualified for a televised party election broadcast. B. Electoral performance 1. Local elections The extreme-right has tended to concentrate its local campaigning activities in urban districts with relatively high minority ethnic populations. The BNP has often exploited the delicate balance of local community relations in order to consolidate its electoral support and activist base. Over time, the success of extreme-right candidates has tended to be confined to local ward by-elections where turnout has been low. In the 2000 local elections, the BNP obtained 23% of the vote in Tipton Green while the NF polled 10% in Great Bridge, both wards in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell. In Bexley in July 2000, the BNP secured 26% in the North End ward by-election. In the GLA elections in 2000, the BNP polled 7.1% in City and East for the London-wide top-up seats, although elsewhere its vote did not exceed 4.6% (Havering and Redbridge). 2 Overall, the BNP polled 2.9% of the votes, below the 5% threshold necessary to obtain GLA representation through the top-up list system. In the 2004 GLA elections the BNP polled 90,365 votes, 4.8% of the vote, an increase of 1.9 percentage points on 2000. The ballot for the Mayor of London was held simultaneously with the 2000 and 2004 GLA elections. The BNP’s candidate in 2000, Michael Newland, polled 2% of first-preference votes and 3.2% of second-round votes. Newland was placed 7th out of 11 candidates. Newland fared best in City and East (4.5% of first-preference votes) and worst in West Central (0.9%). In 2004 the BNP candidate, Julian Leppert, polled 3.1% of first preference votes and 4.4% of second-choice votes across London. The areas with highest support were Havering and Redbridge (6%), City and East (6%) and Bexley and Bromley (4%). Julian Leppert was placed joint 6th (along with the Green Party), out of 10 candidates. Following the race riots in summer 2001 in the Lancashire towns of Burnley and Oldham, the BNP secured relatively high shares of the vote in by-elections held in several key wards during November 2001 – Lowerhouse (23%), Trinity (19%) and Rose Hill (19%). Note: Calculation of Vote Shares in Multi-Member Wards The method by which party shares of the vote are calculated for multi-member wards (such as local district or borough elections where, for example, two or three councillors are to be elected), tends to inflate the vote share for those parties fielding just one candidate. By convention, in multi-member ward elections the vote of each party’s best-placed candidate is used to calculate total vote and, hence, overall party shares of the vote. For instance, in a ward where three Labour candidates each received 1,000 votes, three Conservative candidates each received 500 votes and one BNP candidate received 700 votes, the three Labour candidates would be duly elected and the corresponding shares of the vote would be calculated thus: Labour % share = (1,000/(1,000+500+700))*100 OR (1,000/2,200)*100 = 45% Conservative % share = (500/2,200)*100 = 23% BNP % share = (700/2,200)*100= 32% In reality, however, the BNP candidate secured the votes of only 700 electors out of a total of 5,200 different votes cast, or 13%. In using the conventional methodology, the BNP’s share of the vote could be seen as being inflated by 19 percentage points. In this Standard Note the conventional approach has been retained. But it should be noted that where the BNP fielded only one candidate (which is the case in most instances), the reported share of the vote could be seen as subject to inflation. In the local elections in England on 2 May 2002, sixty-seven BNP candidates polled 30,998 votes in 26 local authority districts. The average BNP share of the vote was 16%. The average turnout in these wards was 35%, compared with an estimated 34% nationally. Three BNP candidates were returned in Burnley. 3 Interestingly, these were not the wards where the BNP secured its highest shares of the vote. Elsewhere in Burnley, the BNP polled 31.2% (Brunshaw ward) and 27.9% (Queensgate). In nearby Oldham, the BNP polled its highest share of the vote (35%) in St. James ward, and 30% in the ward of Chadderton South. In the Sunderland ward of Townend Farm, the BNP secured 28%. The BNP also fielded a candidate in the direct mayoral election in the London Borough of Newham where their candidate, Michael Davidson, polled 2,881 votes (7.2%) on a 27.6% turnout. Robin Evans, the BNP candidate for the Mill Hill ward in the Borough of Blackburn and Darwen, took the seat from the Liberal Democrats at a by-election held on 21 November 2002. Following a recount, the BNP polled 578 votes (33%), Labour 562 votes (32%), Liberal Democrats 505 votes (29%) and Conservatives 154 votes (9%). Turnout was 39%. In the June 2004 elections, there were no BNP candidates elected in Blackburn and Darwen. Robin Evans stood as an Independent candidate and was not re-elected. On 23 January 2003, Adrian Marsden won Mixenden ward of Calderdale council for the BNP, taking the seat from Labour. The BNP polled 679 votes (29.2%), Liberal Democrats 651 votes (28.0%), Labour 641 votes (27.6%), Conservatives 214 votes (9.2%), while the Independent candidate polled 142 votes (6.1%). Turnout was 37.1%. In the June 2004 local elections Adrian Marsden, was elected for the Town ward of Calderdale council, and Geoffrey Wallace and Richard Mulhall won seats in the Illingworth and Mixenden ward. Overall, in the 2003 local elections, the BNP fielded a total of 217 candidates in 71 local authorities in England and Scotland. The BNP won a total of 13 council seats, polling over 100,000 votes, averaging 17% of the vote in those wards where they fielded candidates. The BNP scored a key by-election victory in the Heckmondwicke ward of Kirklees Council on 14 August 2003. The BNP candidate, David Exley, polled 1,607 votes (44%), and held the seat, polling 2,076 votes in 2004.