Oldham election disaster
Posted by admin978 on January 16, 2011 · Leave a Comment
The numbers tell their own unspinnable story. On January 13th 2011 the British National Party candidate Derek Adams lost his deposit at the Oldham East & Saddleworth parliamentary by-election, the first such contest since last May’s general election. The BNP polled just 1,560 votes (4.5%), despite stories about Asian paedophile rape gangs making local and national newspaper headlines during the week of the by-election. Ten years ago in the same constituency (then with slightly less favourable boundaries) the party’s then Oldham organiser Mick Treacy polled 5,091 votes (11.2%). In just two of the constituency’s nine wards (St James’s and Alexandra) the BNP in 2002 amassed 1,717 votes – more than they managed in the entire constituency this year.
