A COALITION of trade unions, religious groups and political parties have joined forces to defeat a far- right party's by-election bid.

Groups have put aside their differences to try to keep the British National Party (BNP) off Chester-le-Street District Council.

British National Party candidate Scott Morrison, 36, will run for election in a forthcoming postal by-election for the Chester north seat. It became vacant following the death of Councillor Keith Lambert on holiday in Cyprus in June.

Mr Morrison, who lives in the town, is a married former soldier who now works as an IT specialist.

But the Trades Union Congress (TUC) called a meeting this week in Chester-le-Street, to which it invited various organisations in the town, to launch a campaign against the far right party's election bid.

Kevin Rowan, secretary of the Northern region TUC said: "As an organisation who strongly promote equality, it would be a travesty if the BNP were to be elected in the northern region."

Postal voting papers have now been sent to houses in the ward, which must be returned by election day on October 2.

But a spokesman for the BNP, who did not wish to be named, claimed the description of the party as 'far right' and 'extremist' was wrong. He said: "I would say we're not extremist, we're a more modern organisation and that is an old image that is trotted out again and again."

The three other people standing for the seat are Conservative candidate Beatrice Bainbridge, Labour's Paul Ellis and Liberal Democrat George Gardner. At the full election for Chester-le-Street District Council, in May, there were no BNP candidates and nearly half of the Labour-controlled council's seats were uncontested.

But the BNP put forward unprecedented numbers of candidates elsewhere in the region, fielding 54 candidates in the North-East.

At the time, leading figures, including the Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Michael Turnbull, film producer Lord David Puttnam, and Sunderland Football Club chairman Bob Murray, all put their names to a statement urging a boycott of the BNP.

A senior Chester-le-Street Labour councillor, who did not wish to be named, said they were confident their own candidate would win the election. He said: "The former councillor for that ward was a very respected councillor for 20-odd years and we have another candidate to stand for that seat. It doesn't matter who stands against us."