BRITAIN: Tony Blair's Labour Party has been given fresh warning of a revolt by white, working-class voters alongside new polling evidence of a surge in support for the far-right British National Party (BNP).
The latest YouGov poll suggests 7 per cent of voters are ready to support the party in England's upcoming local elections, with 24 per cent saying they have previously considered voting BNP or are thinking of doing so now. The poll comes hard on the heels of a warning by employment minister Margaret Hodge that as many as eight out of 10 people were considering or threatening to vote for the BNP in her Barking constituency in east London.
Mrs Hodge has been criticised in some quarters for giving the far right vital "oxygen of publicity" in the run-up to next month's elections, always likely to be characterised by a low turn-out and a tendency to "protest" voting.
Polls also suggest that any BNP advances are likely to be highly localised, and that other minorities like the Green Party can expect to fare better.
Yesterday's Daily Telegraph reported its poll findings with the accompanying conclusion that Mrs Hodge and others issuing similar warnings had probably "done the BNP a big favour" by reminding voters of its existence.
Labour MP Frank Field has warned the threatened revolt by disillusioned Labour supporters was "not about race" but "against the hostile social values" they "see imposed on their lives by the aloof metropolitan elite of both [ the major] parties . . . "
According to YouGov, however, it appears the BNP's possibly temporary advance is based on greater support from Conservative than from Labour voters, with the BNP also gaining ground at the expense of both the Liberal Democrats and the UK Independence Party.
And despite the apparent BNP gains, nationally Labour is currently just one point down - from 36 to 35 per cent - with the Conservatives falling from 36 to 33 per cent and seemingly faring no better under David Cameron than previously under the leadership of Michael Howard.