2006 WORSBROUGH BY-ELECTION

We present this brief report on the by-election held in the Barnsley ward of Worsbrough on Thursday 16th November 2006. The by-election was called due to the untimely death (only 47) of a popular Labour councillor, so from the start we knew that Labour would receive a significant sympathy vote. Also this ward has not yet been particularly affected by the problems due to mass immigration facing much of the rest of the country, so basically this by-election was un-winnable for us. We decided to stand though because we had an excellent local candidate, and we had to show Labour that we are here to stay in Barnsley.Other parties standing in the by-election were the Barnsley Independent Group, Lib Dems, and Respect, standing for the first time in Barnsley. Worsbrough not being our target ward for next May we were not going to commit to a full scale canvassing campaign, however our candidate, Malcolm Jennings put in a tremendous effort in distributing over 5500 election address leaflets around the ward in only 10 days. At the count it was noticeable how we were treated with considerable respect by members of the other parties, who seemed keen to engage us in conversation. They have now realised that Barnsley BNP are going to be present in all future elections and cannot be dismissed lightly.The result of the by-election was as follows.

Labour – 615
Independent – 510
BNP – 310
Lib Dems – 137
Respect – 91

Our vote represents 18.6% of the total and is a solid improvement on the 16% that Malcolm received in May, the first time we stood in this ward. Also we are well pleased with our comprehensive defeat of the Lib Dems as last May we beat them by only 25 votes. Particularly satisfying is our crushing defeat of Respect as these are the people that claimed that the BNP are not wanted in Barnsley. The figures speak for themselves.