News reaches me of the result of the Loughton Town Council by-election in Loughton Broadway, where the BNP were trying to defend a council seat following the resignation of one of their members:
- Loughton Residents’ Association – 257 votes (33%) ELECTED
- BNP – 234 (30%)
- Labour – 204 (26%)
- Con – 75 (10%)
- (No Lib Dem candidate this time)
Turnout: 22.2%
Loughton Residents’ Association gain from BNP
This is a significant reverse for the BNP in what was their strongest ward in Epping Forest. The defeat comes despite the reported involvement of their National Organiser Eddy Butler and the appearance on polling day of Richard Barnbrook (one of the BNP’s leading members in London).
It suggests to me that the BNP in Epping Forest probably peaked in 2006 when the party won all three Debden wards for the second time, giving them six district councillors. They lost two councillors in 2008 and will now face an uphill struggle to retain their seats when the next set of elections comes round in 2010. That could take them down to just one district councillor – equal with Labour. Clearly the BNP in Debden enjoyed a few years when they benefited from a protest vote, but the evidence is that residents have now seen through the party’s rhetoric and grown tired of their councillors’ failure to deliver.
It was an act of great political maturity that the LibDems decided not to stand a paper/paperless candidate in Broadway. I believe that if a party doesn’t seriously campaign for a seat, it is wrong to split the anti-fascist vote. The priority is to rid Debden of Nazis and that can be achieved within the next two-and-a-half years, with Pat Richardson being the last of the lot. The LibDems won’t lose anything from not contesting the Debden seats, but they could also win respect for putting principles before electoral politics.