Low Pay for Migrant Workers Helped the BNP, Claims MP
The London Echo
Tuesday, 09 June 2009 21:30
Low wages paid to immigrant workers have encouraged the rise of the BNP, according to a left-wing politician.
Jon Cruddas (Lab Dagenham) said some of Britain's poorest communities were coping with “extraordinary levels of migration”.
And he said “abuse of migrant workers” meant they undercut others in the jobs market.
He also warned that poverty, poor health services and long housing lists had led voters to turn to the far-right party.
The MP made the comments jointly with Nick Lowles, editor of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, in an article written by the pair for The Guardian.
It followed the election of two BNP MEPs, including party leader Nick Griffin, in the European elections.
It was wrong to describe the result as a “protest”, Mr Cruddas and Mr Lowles said. Instead, it reflected genuine public concerns among sections of the public.
Only a concerted anti-BNP campaign involving unions, churches, trade unions, students and local branches of political parties had stopped the BNP gaining even more votes, they said.
But they warned: “The campaign cannot build houses and reduce waiting lists; it cannot prevent undercutting and the abuse of migrant workers.
“Local anti-fascist movements cannot get resources into communities, often the poorest, dealing with extraordinary levels of migration.
“Without such resources access to public services is racialised and politics becomes more tribal.”
The anti-fascist campaign, called “Hope not Hate”, could not reduce poverty, they added.
“It cannot overcome political disenfranchisement and alienation from interchangeable Westminster politicians.
“In short, it cannot substitute for what a radical Labour government should be doing and a language that it should be using that could inspire hope.”
BNP leader Nick Griffin was forced to abandon a press conference near the House of Commons to celebrate the victories, after protester pelted him with eggs.
Mr Griffin called it “a sad day for democracy”.
His party received 86,420 votes in London, 4.9 per cent of the total and not enough to win a seat.
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paul said: []
Or maybe, just maybe people are fed up of are culture being destroyed. Not all BNP voters are working class. and they are not rasists, they just want to stop the country becoming a third world dumping ground, I never ever thought my pro British stance would be thought of as being a boot marching NAZI, but this is how this country has become, a place where if you love your country you will be hated for it and labled as scum, who needs brainwashing this has been done on a masive scale with one word “RASIST”
