Lessons from Swanley

Last Thursday the BNP defeated Labour in a by-election in Swanley on Sevenoaks District Council. I thought this comment, from a Labour activist who campaigned in the by-election, was interesting in explaining this result:

"I was there in Swanley defending the Labour voters, leafleting and canvassing(because I am a Labour councillor) and voters told me why they were going to vote BNP was because the Labour Government has done nothing for them except take away thier wefare benefits, not building anymore council housing,(not that we have any because the tories sold it all off) and they feel abandoned by labour, so unless Labour find a way of building more Social housing and does more for it's core supporters, then the BNP will get more votes, As rightly said in the media we are a small labour enclave in a tory district area and that same tory district council does nothing for Swanley, The Labour Town Council even got 50 new jobs here for people at the other end of the Town, most voters believed the BNP when they told them that Labour and the Tories were not going to stop immigration and soon they would be out of work and on this the BNP said British jobs for British workers and it worked! So now what must happen is that Gordon must do is build more social housing and stop the wefare reform bill until thing get better and people stop losing thier Jobs, if he don't then we could lose more elections later this year ie County council in June! I was there on the front line, so I know."