New-Labour and neo-fascism

opendemocracy: On Thursday 4 May 2006 the local elections across Britain delivered a political shock to the New Labour government and the political establishment as a whole: the far-right British National Party (BNP) doubled the number of its councillors (from twenty to forty-four), and in the east London area of Barking & Dagenham it won eleven of the thirteen seats contested, making it the second-largest party on the council.

A survey conducted before the election had revealed that as many as 25% of people would consider voting for the racist, xenophobic and anti-immigrant party. In the wake of this revelation, Margaret Hodge - member of parliament for the Barking & Dagenham constituency as well as being minister for employment and welfare reform and a close ally of prime minister Tony Blair - made some extraordinary remarks in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph in which she appeared to be endorsing the BNP's racist rhetoric and policies.

In this Hodge joined a chorus of fellow New Labour ministers who, far from challenging the prejudices of sections of the electorate worried about perceived levels of immigration to Britain, have cynically exploited their disaffected, white working-class voters by adopting a chummy, phoney, populism. The 4 May election results show that their approach of indulging rather than confronting the BNP has seriously backfired and rendered a disservice to democracy itself. Read more