Leaders urged to confront BNP

The warning follows a strong showing for the party in the recent

European elections. In the early hours of Monday morning it was
confirmed that BNP leader Nick Griffin had been elected as an MEP for
the North West region - the party's second seat of the night.

The results caused much hand-wringing across the media and political
spectrum. Tory leader David Cameron described the party as 'completely
beyond the pale', while Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg called the BNP a
'party of thugs and fascists'.

But a number of senior comms practitioners argued this week that the BNP
won votes not because it won the debate - but because no debate had ever
taken place.

Darren Murphy, MD of APCO and a former adviser to Tony Blair, said:
'Political parties can not avoid issues of race and immigration. They
have to communicate and have effective policies in place to deal with
people's concerns. They must tackle this below the radar politics and it
is a challenge for all the parties, not just Labour.'

Simon Francis, head of public sector at Band & Brown, said: 'Politicians
have refused to comment and give the BNP credence, but doing this has
created a vacuum that the BNP has filled by campaigning locally.'

Nick Lowles, editor of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said he was
exasperated with the response by mainstream politicians. Searchlight is
working with Barack Obama's online strategists Blue State Digital on a
campaign targeting the BNP.

Lowles said: 'Ignoring the BNP does not work. Politicians need to stop
talking banal nonsense and address the public policy issues.'

Blue State Digital director Matthew McGregor said: 'The campaign had a
big impact, but there are fundamental policy issues that need addressing
that no amount of effective campaigning can overcome.'

HOW I SEE IT

- Laurence Lee, Director of media, Porter Novelli

Simply saying you do not want to hear what the BNP has to say smacks of
a lack of confidence in your own message. If people were prepared to
vote BNP, they have to be persuaded that they may have made the wrong
choice - you have to take them on to win.

- Daljit Bhurji, MD, Diffusion PR

The approach of the main political parties should be to attempt to
provide the voice of reason whenever and wherever the BNP chooses to
spread its message. The strategy of hoping that if you ignore the BNP it
will simply go away has clearly failed. The best way to expose the
stupidity of the BNP is to tackle it head on.

6.2% - National share of the BNP vote in European elections

8% - Nick Griffin's share of the vote in the North West

£310k - Annual EU funding MEPs receive

3 - Number of local council seats won by BNP out of 2,000-plus

3.4m - Number of leaflets delivered by Hope Not Hate