Washington and Sunderland West Result: BNP take 5.1%

This is a new seat that according to Wikipedia 'is provisionally ranked as the 28th safest Labour seat in the United Kingdom, and the 11th safest Labour seat in England.' Unsurprisingly therefore, this was a secure Labour hold. The results in full are:

Labour Sharon Hodgson             19,615    52.5%
Conservative Ian Cuthbert           8,157      21.8%
Liberal Democrat Peter Andras    6,382      17.1%
BNP Ian McDonald                     1,913      5.1%
UKIP Linda Hudson                    1,267      3.4%

Turnout was 54% which was a 7% increase on the notional result for the 'seat' in 2005. There was a swing to the Conservatives of 11.6%. This takes the average swing from Labour to the Conservatives of 9.9% for the first two seats. The BNP vote share of 5.1% is better than their position suggested in national opinion polls, and as in Houghton and Sunderland South, UKIP have come behind the BNP. Although these are early results, this underscores the need for a single united nationalist party in the UK.