Contemporary Fascism in the Local Arena: The British National Party and ‘Rights for Whites’

Abstract

In September 1993 the British National Party (BNP) made its mark on British politics when its ‘Rights for Whites’ candidate was elected local councillor in the Millwall ward of Tower Hamlets in East London. The result of this local by-election immediately impressed on the national political scene precipitating a rather animated media response resonant with disapproving comment from leading politicians and public figures. The British Prime Minister, John Major, found it necessary to interrupt a Downing Street summit meeting with the Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating, to express his displeasure. On the face of it, it seems unusual that an isolated victory by a fringe political party in a minor local borough election should produce such a heated response. Yet on closer reflection, it is easy to account for the resulting disquiet that the BNP’s by-election victory engendered. Understandably the BNP’s success was variously associated in the media with the rise of right-extremist organizations in Continental Europe (e.g. Daily Mirror, 18 September 1993, p. 6) where the BNP was seen to comply with a general European trend. Not surprisingly this tie-up with the BNP’s European counterparts generated rather alarmist predictions of a fascist resurgence in Britain, especially considering that this was the first electoral victory for the extreme right in Britain since the 1970s.