"They can't get a home for their children, they see black and ethnic minority communities moving in and they are angry," said Mrs Hodge, the employment minister. "When I knock on doors I say to people, 'are you tempted to vote BNP?' and many, many, many - eight out of 10 of the white families - say 'yes'. That's something we have never seen before, in all my years. Even when people voted BNP, they used to be ashamed to vote BNP. Now they are not." Mrs Hodge said the pace of ethnic change in her area had frightened people. "What has happened in Barking and Dagenham is the most rapid transformation of a community we have ever witnessed.
Margaret Hodge isn't the only one who's worried. Jon Cruddas, Dagenham's Labour MP, outlined the scale of the problem in the current issue of Renewal.
Many working class people feel disenfranchised by the Labour government: disproportionately they don’t vote; and many are developing a relationship with the BNP. It is possible that the BNP is on the verge of a political breakthrough. Over the last couple of years its support and membership has risen dramatically. It has 21 councillors, it polled 808,000 votes in the European elections and would have secured several MEPs and London Assembly members were it not for UKIP. At the last general election the BNP saved its deposit in 34 constituencies and has made inroads within some of Labour’s traditional working class communities. In London the BNP polled 4.9 per cent in the Assembly elections (Joseph Rowntree Trust, 2005). In seven wards in the Borough of Barking and Dagenham they polled over 20 per cent. Five council by-elections have taken place over the last 18 months – the BNP has won one and come second in the other four – with an average vote of 35 per cent. At the general election in the Barking constituency they collected 4,916 votes – 16.9 per cent; in Dagenham the figure was 2,870 votes – 9.3 per cent.Those are worrying numbers and it's not just Labour MPs who should be concerned.
