Labour hold off BNP's by-election challenge (From The Northern Echo)

Sedgefield British National Party last night scored an impressive 28.2% in the Simpasture ward in Newton Aycliffe. The BNP had never contested this ward before.
What makes the result all the more credible is that Newton Aycliffe is Labour party central - The town which kept Tony Blair in a safe seat for several years.
The Simpasture ward was keenly fought by all involved because both the Independents & Labour hold a seat each. Independent getting the most votes last time the ward was contested in 2007 with 315 votes, New Labour scoring 279 & 185. So there was a very real possibility that our candidate would get squeezed and poll an embarassing amount in a tightly fought battle between the two controlling parties.

Quite the opposite in fact happened. BNP candidate "Honest" John Hilton pushed the Aycliffe Independents into last place and came within 96 votes of victory. This was also in the face of an extremely dirty Zimbabwe politics style campaign by New Labour which saw 3 nasty smear leaflets put out which makes the BNP result all the more spectacular.

A clearly worried local MP, prospective MEP, councillors, a mayor and a Labour internet blogger bigmouth from Darlington were seen desperately trying to keep the BNP vote down. They are now all too aware about how well organised the BNP is becoming in County Durham under the superb leadership of Adam Walker and his team.
This all chiefs and no Indians outfit highlights that New Labour are short of activists in the citadel of Tony Blair. In contrast the BNP picked up 4 enquiries who want to become active in Aycliffe.

Newton Aycliffe is a new area for the BNP and is just starting to find its feet so the new activists will be much appreciated. Prior to this election our party lagged behind other parts of Sedgefield. This was reflected by the fact that in the all out May 2008 elections Sedgefield BNP were only four candidates (two wards) short of a full slate. All the uncontested seats were in Aycliffe. Simpasture was seen as such a low priority that it wasn't even contested yet last night not too far short of one in three voters chose BNP.
The whole campaign has helped normalise the BNP in Aycliffe. Our immaculately dressed and well mannered team of canvassers were the first contact many voters had had with the British National Party with many commenting that they were surprised that we were nothing like what they imagined a BNP supporter to be.

Congratulations to Candidate Honest John for his fantastic result. A real Gentleman with not a bad bone in his body.

Labour lost Glasgow East plunging their party into panic, in fighting and disarray. It is good to know that the British National Party stretched New Labours vital resources so far that they lost by such an achievable few votes. If their Simpasture team of talent had have been out in Glasgow instead then they would have surely been able to secure the 150-200 votes needed to have won Glasgow East. Gordon Brown must be **** a hoop about Labours Simpasture victory.
Talk about losing a pound and finding a penny!

The presence of paid officials of New Labour desperately swarming the estate was viewed with cynasism and suspicion by Simpasture residents. We were told they aren't usually interested in this area. They must be after something. I think that excercise did New Labour more harm than good. I bet they were told as much too on the doorstep.