Friday, January 24, 2003

Calderdale today makes the national news following the bye-election win by the British National Party of a seat in Mixenden. This is the 5th council seat the BNP have won nationally, and very disturbing for local people as Calderdale is a hung council.

The new BNP councillor is Adrien Marsden aged 42 and a father of 7 and overturned a previous Labour majority.

The voting figures were as follows: BNP: 679, Lib-Dem, 651, Lab 641, Cons, 214 and Ind Lab 142. There was a surprisingly high turnout for a council bye-election: 37% but only one in ten of the electorate actually voted BNP.

Alice Mahon, Halifax Labour MP, spoke on Radio 4's Today programme this morning saying she was very disappointed. "The last thing we want is people coming into our communities spreading hatred. To vote in someone like this is going to do nothing for the people of Mixenden."

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