Politics

Glimmer of hope: Far-right parties and conspiracy theorists ‘roundly rejected’ at polls

Far-right parties and conspiracy theorists have been “roundly rejected” in the local elections, according to Independent analysis, with zero seats going to either type.

With 144 of 146 councils declared, extremist groups failed to get a look in anywhere in the UK, with some receiving only a handful of votes.

For Britain

The anti-Islam For Britain party, headed by former UKIP leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters, had targeted 14 seats from Exeter to the Wirrall.

Its national manifesto proposes policies including banning the burqa, scrapping hate crime legislation and stopping “anti-white discrimination”.

Ms Waters received the highest number of votes out of For Britain’s candidates – 203 – but still came third with only 14 per cent of the vote in Hartlepool.

Some representatives received as few as 11 votes and the party has not yet made any statement on the results.

“Disastrous”

Counter-extremist group Hope Not Hate called the results “disastrous”, adding: “The UK’s electoral far right have been roundly rejected at the polls.”

Elsewhere, Britain First saw none of its three candidates win a seat, while the British Democrats, who purport to “defend and preserve the distinctive identity of the British nation” and claim the “very existence of the indigenous population is under unprecedented threat”, lost in the four seats they contested.

The anti-lockdown Let London Live group, fronted by prominent activist Piers Corbyn, saw poor results in Southwark, Hillingdon and Camden.

Mr Corbyn, the brother of former Labour leader Jeremy, came 9th of 12 candidates in the seat he contested, with 200 votes.

Related: Lib Dems will seize ‘Blue Wall’ constituencies from Tories, says Sir Ed Davey

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Published by