BNP 'only real opposition' claim

BNP spokesman Phil Edwards said Britain was being ruled by a "Lib-Lab-Con one party state", with all the other parties saying the same thing.

Only the BNP was "politically incorrect enough to address the problems of multi-culturalism and multi-racialism".

The other parties accuse the BNP of peddling hate and dividing communities.

'Smears'

The BNP currently holds about 20 of Britain's 22,000 council seats.

It says it is fielding 357 candidates on Thursday, focusing on parts of the North East, North West, West Midlands and London.

Some Labour candidates say the controversy over the release of foreign prisoners not considered for deportation has not helped them fight the BNP over issues like immigration.

Mr Edwards refused to make any predictions about the results.

He said the party had become more professional in its campaigning but still had to endure "media smears" and other parties urging people to vote for anybody except the BNP.

"We are the only true opposition party in this country," he said.

"People are fed up with national politicians - the established ones who claim to be the only ones who should be allowed to be politicians."

He accused the other parties of taking voters for granted and not bothering to speak to them about their concerns.

HIV issues

Mr Edwards said the BNP's canvassing suggested people's greatest fears, apart from the state of the NHS, were problems of multi-culturalism and multi-racialism.

He claimed second-generation black and Asian voters were saying they would vote BNP because of concerns about asylum seekers and migrant workers from the expanded European Union.

He asked who would pay for elderly people to have hip replacements if there were "thousands of Africans" wanting expensive HIV treatment on the NHS.

Conservative leader David Cameron said recently: "The BNP is a party that thrives on hatred, that wants to set one race against another."

Labour minister Margaret Hodge has said the BNP could win council seats in her Barking constituency because white working class voters were tempted to vote for it.

But Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said the party pose only a localised threat.

Liberal Democrat frontbencher Vince Cable argued that Mrs Hodge had been "stupid" to give the BNP publicity.

Singer and activist Billy Bragg is leading a Hope, Not Hate tour, backed by trade unions and anti-fascist organisations Searchlight, Unite Against Fascism, Love Music Hate Racism, to some of the areas targeted by the BNP.

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