BNP gains first seat

03/05/2008 14:46

The British National Party (BNP) has gained its first seat on the London Assembly.

The far-right party passed the 5% voter threshold ensuring that it took up a position at City Hall.

But the win for Richard Barnbrook was attacked as a victory for "hatred, violence and stupidity" by opponents.

BNP spokesman Simon Darby said: "I feel absolutely ecstatic. "We've witnessed the first major politician elected not for telling lies but for telling the truth."

Aside from choosing a new mayor, London voters had also been choosing the 25-member London Assembly, with 14 members elected directly from constituencies, each made up of two London boroughs, and the remaining 11 divided between the parties in proportion to London-wide votes.

Mr Barnbrook, leader of the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham Council, also ran as the party's mayoral candidate.

His campaign tried to attract what he called "real Londoners" and attacked asylum seekers and illegal immigrants for "engulfing London".

His election website promised "Enough is enough, I will make sure that the people who have paid into the system are housed before immigrants - it's only fair."

Earlier in the campaign the main candidates in the mayoral elections united to urge .....continued below

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voters not to vote BNP.

Campaign group Hope Not Hate launched a huge operation across the capital to dissuade Londoners from voting for the BNP.

© 2012 The Press Association Limited