Prepare for a shock BNP victory

I cannot claim to have been to Redwell in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, although on paper it would seem a pretty pleasant place, rather more prosperous than average. I have been through Yapton, in Arun, West Sussex, and that is distinctly desirable territory. I think I have cut across Lawford and New Bilton, in Warwickshire, too and while it was not quite the Cotswolds it was hardly a centre of deprivation or tense race relations either.

All of which makes a recent pattern in local council by-elections more unexpected. A by-election was held in Redwell West last Thursday. The Conservatives easily retained the seat but there in second place, eight votes ahead of Labour and with four times the strength of the Liberal Democrats was the British National Party candidate. At Yapton, seven days beforehand, the BNP had come third, a mere seven votes behind the Liberal Democrats, and with almost a fifth of the vote. A fortnight earlier Lawford and New Bilton had witnessed a cracking contest with Labour hanging on by a single vote over the Tories and with the BNP securely third on 15 per cent, well ahead of Nick Clegg’s contender.

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Prepare for a shock BNP victory
Timesonline