Current polls say 6-7% of the voters will now vote BNP for local elections. For the rise in BNP support, see: the following graph in Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/21/npoll21.xml Note also that all other parties combined have 8% support when this poll was taken.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/24/nelec24.xml
Cameron calls on voters to back anyone but the BNP By George Jones, Political Editor (Filed: 24/04/2006)
Local elections factfile
David Cameron called yesterday on voters in next month's English local elections to support any party other than the far-Right British National Party.
David Cameron Mr Cameron: reaching out to voters in the inner-city
The Conservative leader accused the BNP of "thriving on hatred" and wanting to set one race against another.
"I hope nobody votes for the BNP. I would rather people voted for any other party," Mr Cameron told Sky News.
His remarks reflect growing alarm among mainstream parties that the BNP is poised to make gains on May 4 when almost 23 million voters in London and in borough and metropolitan councils go to the polls.
A YouGov survey for The Daily Telegraph today suggests that millions of voters are not enamoured of any of the main parties.
Fewer than one voter in five wants the Conservatives to control their local council. The same small proportion wants to see Labour in power locally. Still fewer fancy the Liberal Democrats.
A substantial fraction of the electorate would rather see no one party in power but a two-party or more coalition.
Widespread disenchantment with the main parties suggests thousands of those who do bother to vote on May 4 will cast their ballots for Green, BNP and other minor-party candidates.
A YouGov poll on Friday suggested that seven per cent of voters might back the BNP in an early general election. The proportion of those saying they would like to see the BNP in power locally is almost identical: six per cent.
YouGov poll Click to enlarge
A Sunday Mirror poll suggested that 45.5 per cent of those certain to vote in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham would vote BNP and seven per cent of those planning to vote in Bradford would do so.
Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, denied that his party was seeking to capitalise on racial prejudice.
He said that Barking and Dagenham were being "swamped" by immigrants, many of whom he claimed were asylum seekers while others he alleged had been given financial assistance by other councils to move into the area.
"There is no prejudice or misunderstanding about what's happening in Barking and Dagenham," Mr Griffin told BBC1's Politics Show.
"This is a place which, even according to its own MP, five or six years ago was almost entirely white working-class and it is being swamped by a wave of non-white African immigration."
Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley, in West Yorkshire, blamed mainstream parties for the apparent rising popularity of the BNP, accusing them of failing to reflect people's concerns over immigration and race relations.
He said that people were so afraid of expressing their opinions, the only way to do it was to "put a cross in a secret ballot for the BNP".
Although he made no direct mention of Mr Cameron, Mr Davies's remarks will be seen as an implicit criticism of the new leader's decision to take the Conservatives towards the centre-ground by focusing on issues such as the environment rather than traditional Conservative concerns like immigration.
Mr Cameron insisted that he was reaching out to voters in the inner-city seats targeted by the BNP and making a determined effort to increase the Tory presence in urban areas.
He criticised Labour for "going negative" and depicting him as a cartoon chameleon riding a bicycle as part of their efforts to accuse him of changing his message to suit his audience.
He said it was "desperately sad" for British politics that Labour had chosen to attack him rather than promote its own policies. Mr Cameron revealed that his two-year-old daughter Nancy now refers to the chameleon as the "nice frog on the telly".
John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, interviewed on BBC 1's Politics Show, described the "chameleon" attack as a "bit of fun" and urged voters to ignore national issues.
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