BNP suffers council seat losses

The BNP launched its English election campaign in Stoke-on-Trent where it lost all five of its seats

The British National Party looks set to lose many of the seats it holds on local councils in England.

After 168 council election results, the anti-immigration party had won one seat with a net loss of nine councillors.

The BNP lost all five of its seats in Stoke-on-Trent, where it launched its election campaign in England, and one of its two councillors in Burnley.

The party, which has two MEPs elected in 2009, lost almost half its council seats in last year’s local elections.

As well as elections in England, the BNP fielded candidates for the Scottish Parliament and the assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland.

However, the party had to rein back on its campaign spending with debts of more than £500,000, which it has said it expects to pay off by the end of the year.

The BNP was facing doubts over its future after costly court cases brought against it including one by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The party has said it will not be incurring any more debts as a result of Thursday’s elections.

The BNP contested 338 seats in the 2010 general election and lost its deposit in 266 of them.

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