Dewsbury: BNP Target Seat Number Six

Dewsbury, as many people know, is the parliamentary constituency of the repellent expenses abusing Labour Islamic supremacist Shahid Malik. Like many other seats, Dewsbury has seen boundary changes since 2005 which leaves Malik in the position of defending a reduced notional majority owing to the loss of traditionally Labour Heckmondwike and the acquisition of the traditionally Tory Denby Dale and Kirkburton wards.

The BNP polled very strongly here in 2005 with David Exley taking 13.1% with 5,066 votes, hot on the heels of the Liberal Democrats who secured 14.6%. However, the UK Polling Report blog notes that one of the strongest BNP areas has been lost to Batley and Spen owing to boundary changes. Still, we can expect the BNP to do very well here, as Dewsbury is home to a large colony of Deobandi Muslims concentrated in the Saville Town and Ravensthorpe areas. Over the past year there have been a series of attacks on the local white population by Muslim youths which is symptomatic of the long-term social dislocation in the town caused by the refusal of the Islamic incomers to acculturate to English social norms. They have instead adhered to their imported fundamentalist Deobandi interpretation of Islam.

This time around Roger Roberts, a BNP councillor for Heckmondwike since 2006, is the party’s Dewsbury candidate. Mr Roberts joined the BNP in 2004 after 45 years in the Conservative Party. It is probable that the Conservatives will take the seat from Labour, but the BNP should be battling it out with the Liberal Democrats to take third place. If they can achieve this and take 15% of the vote, this would be a solid achievement. However, it is difficult to tell what impact the Clegg surge will have on the Liberal Democrat vote here. The BNP took many votes from Labour in 2005, and I suspect that this time around they’ll take a few more, but the Liberal Democrats could also take a good chunk of Labour’s support. This may make it harder for the BNP to take third place, but then again, the local specificities within the constituency (i.e. the well-publicised attacks on the local indigenous population by Muslim youths) may play in their favour.

Unlike in 2005, Dewsbury electors will also be able to vote for another nationalist party, although of the civic nationalist variety and far smaller and less serious than the BNP – the English Democrats. It is a great pity that they have also chosen to run in this seat, as they could shave a percentage point or two off of the BNP total. The full list of candidates standing in Dewsbury is: Adrian Cruden (Green); Michael Felse (English Democrats); Andrew Hutcheson (Liberal Democrat); Khizar Iqbal (Independent); Shahid Malik (Labour); Simon Reevell (Conservative) and Roger Roberts (BNP). Hopefully part of Labour’s Islamic bloc vote will also sheer off and attach itself to Khizar Iqbal. Whoever wins this Thursday, I shall relish seeing Malik turfed out of his seat. Hopefully this will bring an end to his political career. Paddypower.com have odds of 28/1 on the BNP taking the seat.