BNP tries to polish image at Blackpool

· Bullish activists head for mainstream venue
· Rendezvous kept secret as protesters gather

Among the usual scrum of stag parties and day-trippers bracing themselves against the elements on Blackpool seafront today will be a group of largely unwanted guests. The town, which is used to staging big events for the major political parties, is preparing for the arrival of hundreds of the country's leading far right activists for a British National party conference.

BNP organisers, buoyed by the recent acquittal of leader Nick Griffin on race hate charges and the increasingly divisive debate surrounding the UK's Muslim communities, claim that more than 600 BNP members will attend the two-day event, which will include a training day and discussions on "a range of policies designed to drive the organisation forward".

However, there are rumblings of discontent within the party, with familiar rumours that some senior figures, unhappy with Mr Griffin's leadership, will form a breakaway group before the end of the weekend. Whatever the state of internal relations within the BNP, local councillors and MPs have already condemned this weekend's conference, claiming it is part of a cynical attempt by the party to portray itself as a mainstream political organisation.

The National Union of Students, which holds its annual conference in Blackpool, has warned that it may boycott the town in the future if the conference goes ahead. Gemma Tumelty, NUS president, said: "They are a fascist organisation that threaten the diversity of multiculturalism of this country ... [we will] have to seriously consider whether continuing to use Blackpool for our annual conference would be in the best interests of our members in the future."

Opponents of the far right see the conference as a another sign that the BNP is gaining momentum. They say the party has been energised in the last six months by the increasingly hostile national debate surrounding immigration, multiculturalism and the role of Britain's Muslim communities.

In recent weeks hundreds of BNP members have descended on Dagenham in east London, where the party won 12 of the 13 seats they contested in May's council elections, to take part in one of the biggest leafleting campaigns in the party's history. A briefing document sent to Labour politicians earlier this month warned MPs that the far right organisation was building towards further electoral success in east London, which could see it claim its first MP at the next general election.

Jon Cruddas, MP for for Barking and Dagenham, said: "They certainly feel they are on course for very big gains in the London elections, the council elections and even for their first parliamentary MP." Mr Cruddas, who is standing for the deputy leadership of the Labour party, added that recent attacks on the Muslim community by mainstream politicians, including the debate about whether women should wear the veil, had played into the BNP's hands: "I have been involved in monitoring and fighting the BNP for years and I have never seen them as energised and optimistic as they are now."

The BNP won 32 new council seats in May's local elections, bringing its total to 49. In Barking and Dagenham it polled 41% of the vote in the wards it contested, compared with a Labour vote of 34%. The venue for this weekend's Blackpool conference is being closely guarded, with BNP members meeting at a rendezvous point before being redirected to the conference site. Anti-fascist campaigners and opposition politicians are planning a counter-demonstration in the town centre today and say the BNP has exaggerated the scale of the event. Gordon Marsden, MP for Blackpool South, said: "It remains to be seen just how big this gathering - I will not glorify it with the term conference - is going to be. They have hyped this sort of thing in the past and it has not necessarily come to pass."

But others say it is dangerous to underestimate the threat posed by the BNP, warning that the UK could find itself in a similar position to other European countries where strong far right parties are a political reality.

Tom Watson, MP for West Bromwich East, said: "Three years ago it was enough to say this is an extremist party, with links to Nazism, and remind people that we fought exactly this in the second world war. But that has changed. Whether we like it or not they have entered the political mainstream, they are in the council chamber and on the doorstep." He said politicians had to engage with people's concerns, as well as exposing the true nature of the BNP. "If we have lost our credibility in white working class areas to lead communities we have got to redouble our energies and re-engage with the concerns and issues that people care about."

Four key figures

Nick Griffin Joined BNP in 1995 and became leader four years later. Was acquitted on race hate charges at Leeds crown court earlier this month. In 1998 he was found guilty of inciting racial hatred and was given a two-year suspended sentence.

Mark Collett The party's former youth leader and Griffin acolyte was also found not guilty at Leeds crown court. He had been secretly filmed calling asylum seekers "cockroaches" and urging cheering supporters to "show ethnics the door in 2004". He had previously been filmed praising Hitler and blaming the Jewish people for the Holocaust.

Simon Darby Deputy leader, most likely successor to Griffin. Former member of the National Democrats which split from the National Front in the 1980s.

Kevin Scott North-east regional organiser and founder of Civil Liberty, a fundraising organisation set up to help "UK nationalists". Convicted for assault in 1987 and for using threatening words and behaviour in 1993.

BNP milestones

2001

Griffin stands in Oldham in the general election following unrest in the area. He polls 16% of the vote

2002

In nearby Burnley the party makes its first big electoral breakthrough, gaining three councillors in local elections

2004

By May 2004 the BNP has 23 councillors, many of them in Yorkshire and the north-west

2006

The party wins 32 council seats, bringing its total to 49. It averaged 19.2% in the 363 wards it contested

The Guardian
Saturday 25 November 2006