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UK: Fascist election farce

01 May 1997

As widely predicted, the racist and fascist organisations that contested the UK general election, on 1 May, failed to emulate their counterparts elsewhere in Europe, and made no significant inroads. Four parties - the Third Way, National Front, National Democrats and the British National Party - stood eighty-four candidates of whom all but four lost their deposits. The vast majority of these, fifty-six, belonged to the BNP who got an average vote of 1.4%.

Of the four candidates who got above 5%, thereby retaining their deposit, three belonged to the BNP - Dave King (7.5%) and John Tyndall (7.2%) in east London and Frances Taylor (5.2%) in Dewsbury - and one - Stephen Edwards (11.4%) in West Bromwich - to the National Democrats. Edwards vote for the National Democrats was massively inflated by the fact that he contested the seat held by the Speaker of the House of Commons who is traditionally unopposed.

The largest UK party, the BNP, is expected to attract some new and urgently needed members to fill their depleted ranks courtesy of a free television broadcast and mailed publicity that they acquired for standing over 50 candidates. Nonetheless, it is inevitable that their abysmal performance will only encourage the ongoing disaffection over the leadership of John Tyndall. At the moment, two quasi-official BNP magazines, produced by the main contenders for Tyndall's crown, Tony Lecomber and Nick Griffin, have been putting the BNP's official journal, Spearhead, to shame. A recent television "sting" revealed Griffin's ambition to oust Tyndall and assume the leadership of a united far-right; whether the disclosures will delay or precipitate his next move remains to be seen.

In contrast to the BNP the French fascist party, the Front National (FN), obtained 15% of the vote - some 4 million votes - in the French parliamentary election. They won one seat, the southern town of Toulon where they already run the council. During the run in to the campaign the fascist leader, Jean Marie Le Pen, was filmed threatening a Socialist Party candidate, before pushing her into a wall.