Far-right BNP wins seat in council by-election shock

The far-right British National Party made a shock by-election gain at Blackburn winning a seat on Darwen Borough Council, Lancashire.

The party came from nowhere last night to take a Liberal Democrat seat at Mill Hill ward in the constituency of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw by 16 votes on a turnout of 39 per cent.

The BNP polled 578 votes to 562 for Labour, 505 for Liberal Democrats and 154 for Tories.

The BNP candidate, local builder Robin Evans, was forced to wait for two recounts before learning he had won by just 16 votes.

He refused to give interviews after his win but, reading from a prepared statement, said he would not be "handicapped by political correctness" in fighting for the town's needs.

He added: "With this major success, Blackburn's BNP can now look forward to and build for the 2004 council elections where we will be able to offer other seats like Mill Hill hope."

Outside the count, crowds of protesters from the Anti-Nazi League gathered to jeer at BNP supporters and wave banners with messages such as "Smash the BNP".

The result rekindles mainstream party fears of a far-right advance in the North West, where the party took three seats in May's main polls at Burnley.

Earlier this year, the party won three seats on Burnley Borough Council when every seat was up for re-election and each voter could cast three votes for their preferred candidates.

At the time, party leader Nick Griffin said: "White people in Burnley and towns like this have been discriminated against by the council through funding and by the police by not taking notice when they are the victims of racist attacks."

• Tories lost their overall majority at Dacorum Borough, Hertfordshire when Labour gained a Woodhall seat.
• Labour narrowly kept its overall majority at Bolton Borough, Greater Manchester when it won at Daubhill.