| The election for the Mayor of London has captured the imagination. Ken Livingstone faces a genuine challenge from his colourful Conservative opponent, Boris Johnson. Among the other candidates are Brian Paddick, the former policeman turned Liberal Democrat politician, and, intriguingly, Alan Craig, of Christian Choice, who is standing on a platform of family values and opposition to a large-scale mosque in east London.
The contest has already seen some faith communities lining up behind candidates. There is a concerted “Muslims4Ken” campaign. And Mr Johnson is likely to do well with parts of the Jewish community that have been upset by some of Mr Livingstone’s insensitive comments, such as comparing an Evening Standard reporter to a concentration-camp guard. But Johnson supporters will be less pleased by the advice from the British National Party (BNP) to voters to pick him as the second candidate.
There is another side to the elections that is preoccupying the faith communities: the threat posed by the far Right. The BNP has offered its own candidate for Mayor, Richard Barnbrook (News, 18 April).
There are also local elections all over the UK on 1 May, including those for the London Assembly. The BNP has been campaigning in 23 areas, but it is particularly targeting London. In the elections there in 2000 and 2004, the BNP did not field any candidates, but this time it has ten, and there are also two for the National Front. It hopes to gain a seat through the proportional-voting system, for which it requires a swing of just 0.3 per cent.
The BNP is making a concerted push in other areas, too, such as the south-east, where it is fielding 150 candidates. In the 2006 local elections, it doubled its council seats from 20 to 44. In Thurrock, Essex, for instance, it has candidates in all 18 wards, and is promoting an extremist, minority-bashing agenda.
The candidate in Aveley and Uplands, Dave Strickson, was quoted as saying in an interview in 2000 that he had gone “Paki- and queer-bashing”. Another candidate, Derek Beackon, had his moment of notoriety back in 1993 in Milwall, when he gave a Nazi salute on becoming the first BNP candidate to win a council seat.
The far Right in Britain has been particularly successful in those parts of the country that have been most affected by immigration, or which have considerable ethnic-minority populations. The BNP has played on anti-immigrant sentiment to whip up support, and gained ground in areas where racial tensions are high — for example, winning three seats on Burnley Council in 2002.
There is some evidence of links between the BNP and a small group who describe themselves as Christians. Two BNP members helped set up the “Christian Council of Britain” in 2006. As a BNP spokesman, Phil Hall, said: “People are worried at the political correctness of the Church of England and the Islamification of Britain.”
The Jewish community has been in the vanguard of efforts to combat the extreme Right. After its history of persecution at the hands of Fascists and Nazis, the community is obviously sensitive to the threat that they pose. The BNP’s current material is particularly anti-Semitic and Islamophobic.
Its leader, Nick Griffin, was convicted in 1998 of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred — material that denied the Holocaust. More recently, a BBC documentary showed BNP members boasting about attacks on Asians. A BNP leaflet describes the current elections as a “referendum” on Islam.
The Jewish community’s representative body, the Board of Deputies, has worked with other organisations to launch the campaign “Your voice or theirs”. Among other activities, it has taken adverts in the Jewish press, encouraging people to vote for one of the mainstream parties.
The Union of Jewish Students has been informing its members of their voting rights. As its campaigns director, Yair Zivan, said: “Low turnout favours extreme fringe groups like the BNP. The prospect of the BNP being on the London Assembly, getting part of the budget, with portfolios assigned to them, in a major city, is frightening.”
Jewish people have joined other community and faith groups in this work, such as Operation Black Vote, the Muslim Council of Britain, and various Christian organisations.
A wider movement, spearheaded by the anti-Fascist group Searchlight, also hopes to raise awareness of the threat posed by the BNP. Like the Jewish efforts, its campaign, “Hope not hate”, aims to increase the turnout on polling day. As the anti-Fascist activist Gerry Gable put it: “Our advice is to get out and vote for any of the democratic parties.”
Searchlight has already had some success in reducing the influence of the BNP, notably in areas such as Oldham and Bradford. It co-ordinates “community campaigning”, working to form partnerships between groups to reassert “values of fairness, equality, democracy, and tolerance”. It addresses issues such as immigration and fear of terrorism, which can move voters towards the BNP.
Of all the issues that can bind faith and minority communities, few are as important as opposing the far Right. Fascist politics in the UK did not die with Mosley’s Blackshirts in the 1930s. The Jewish, Muslim, and Black communities have a particular interest, but every decent citizen should be concerned about the rise of parties with such a destructive message.
Zaki Cooper is a consultant to the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, and is Director of Business for New Europe.
www.hopenothate.co.uk
www.fight-racism.co.uk
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