What the media didn't tell you about the results in Sedgefield...

The British National Party came fourth in the Sedgefield by-election and took nearly 9% of the votes cast. Andrew Spence took 2,494 votes against 12,528 for Labour, 5,572 for the Liberal Democrats and 4,082 for the Conservatives.

Spence was one of the leaders of the Fuel Protests in 2000 and was a member of UKIP. He joined the BNP after hearing a speech by Nick Griffin and because he considers UKIP to be a single issue party (according to a local newspaper).

The BBC and the Guardian failed to report the fact while the Telegraph and the Independent devoted at least one sentence to the far right result. In spite of the media blackout on the BNP, Nick Griffin will gain confidence from this result and may well work towards pushing the Tories into fourth place come the next general election.

In Ealing Southall, the Respect Coalition were claiming "the implosion of main party enthusiasm" and that "Our leaflets, speaker-cars, stickers and window posters are everywhere because our message of peace, justice and equality chimes with voters’ mood." If this is the case, then why did the Respect candidate come in fifth place with just 1.61% of the vote (gaining 588 votes)? The reason is that Respect have ditched class-based politics in favour of identity politics - something which is not very likely to appeal to disaffected working class voters in Ealing Southall. Neither does the SWP's bad record for canvassing prior to elections put them in a good situation - even though voters like candidates and activists to make the effort to knock on their doors throughout the year "rather than just at election time".

The Labour Party are safe for the moment in Sedgefield and West London. However, it is time to re-engage with working class people on the doorstep and confront the disillusionment which makes people vote for the BNP.