1993 Millwall by-election

April 2022 16 September 1993 1993 Millwall by-election File:Coat of arms of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.svg legislative 1992 Millwall by-election 1992(by-election) 1994 Tower Hamlets London Borough Council election 1994 British National Party 1,480 33.8% grey New Labour Party (UK) James Hunt Derek Beackon 11.4pp David Chapman Labour Party (UK) Derek Beackon British National Party Liberal Democrats (UK) Jennifer Mills 10.6pp 1,284 29.4% 1,473 33.7% Councillor 1 of 3 seats in Millwall ward Derek b.png 240 120 160 45 67 Lab LD Timothy Dickenson Con 134 3.1% 4.4pp Conservative Party (UK) yes yes center 320 320 Millwall ward boundary in 1993 The 1993 Millwall by-election was a local government by-election in the Millwall ward of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets on 16 September 1993. The result became widely publicised due to the first ever electoral success for the far-right British National Party by Derek Beackon. Prelude Millwall is located on the Isle of Dogs in London, England. Historically, it had been an area of working class residents mainly employed in the many docks on the Isle of Dogs but the closure of the docks in the 1960s had led to high unemployment and deprivation in the area.http://www.millwall.com/ Home millwall.com The former Metropolitan Borough of Poplar and wider London Borough of Tower Hamlets had a long history of activity by the far-right, including previous organisations such as the British Brothers' League, the British Union of Fascists, the British League of Ex-Servicemen and the British Movement.Copsey 2004 52 Race tensions in the area became heightened when a boy named John Stoner was involved in an incident at Morpeth School in Bethnal Green in the East End of London with a group of Asian students. On 24 February 1990, 300 White residents participated in a protest led by John's grandfather, John Happe. Although Happe expressly condemned the BNP, around 50 BNP members attended and began to become better-known in the area.Copsey 2004 57-58 The BNP used the slogan "Rights for Whites", a slogan that had been in use since at least the protests against the Notting Hill Carnival in the 1970s.Copsey 2004 57-58 This slogan proved successful. In one occasion, a group of mothers protesting against the closure of a nursery in the Park ward began to chant "Rights for Whites" on the prompting of some BNP members at the protest.Copsey 2004 59 Eventually, the BNP registered on the 1993 ballot paper as "Rights for Whites - British National Party".Copsey 2004 61 In the years 1990-3, the BNP concentrated on door-to-door canvassing rather than on mass demonstrations, to avoid the potential for violent clashes with other protesters.Copsey 2004 60 The majority of housing in the borough of Tower Hamlets was owned by the council at the time, so housing was a major issue in local politics.Copsey 2004 62 At the time, the Liberal Democrats had a "bottom-up" strategy for local elections, where the local party determined its own strategy with little direction from headquarters.Copsey 2004 61-62 As most of the Asian residents in Tower Hamlets supported the Labour Party, the local Liberal Democrats increasingly became the party of local White residents.Copsey 2004 62 Roger Eatwell has used the phrase "syncretic legitimation" to the favouring of "local people" by the Liberal Democrats that led to greater acceptance of the BNP's racism.Copsey 2004 63 For example, the Liberal Democrats' leaflets in Millwall had said that Labour's policies for positive discrimination meant "NO to Island Homes for Island People" (the Isle of Dogs is known locally as "the Island") and implying that the Liberal Democrats favoured the White community.Copsey 2004 63 In November 1981, a local Liberal Democrat councillor had travelled to Bangladesh and was quoted as telling local people that there was "no room left for immigrants".Copsey 2004 63 Another councillor hung a Union flag in a proscribed place from his office in Bethnal Green and made a stance of refusing to take it down.Copsey 2004 63 The BNP themselves said that the local Liberal Democrats had "transformed themselves from being composed of a small group of early yuppie outsiders, to being the party of the local frustrated housewife".Copsey 2004 62 In time, the Labour Party felt obliged to defend themselves against perceptions of favouring Bangladeshis and also began to use similar language about favouring locals.Copsey 2004 63-4 As the governing party on the council, the Liberal Democrats had instituted a "Sons and Daughters" scheme that, by prioritising housing applications for those whose parents were already in social housing nearby, favoured White residents. Only 8% of applicants were Bangladeshi, whereas 69% of homeless people in the borough were Bangladeshi.Copsey 2004 62 However, the BNP criticised this scheme. In both the 1992 and 1993 local by-elections, the BNP's leaflets stated, "The Liberals' Sons and Daughters scheme is just a con - Bangladeshis are still put first in housing in Liberal Neighbourhoods like Bethnal Green and Poplar."Copsey 2004 64 Between the 1992 and 1993 by-elections, a new housing development on Masthouse Terrace in the Millwall ward was opened, and there was local anger that 28% of places were given to Bangladeshis.Copsey 2004 64 After their 1993 victory, the BNP said in a statement, "The Liberals repeated last year's shabby trick of playing the 'race card', by trying to pretend that they were against immigration. The trick failed, as local whites had heard it all before, and this time were not taken in."Copsey 2004 64 1990 council elections In the previous full council elections in 1990, Millwall elected three Labour councillors in a marginal contest between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats retained control of the overall council, having gained control in 1986 as the Liberal-SDP Alliance.http://www.election.demon.co.uk/thbc/mlw.html Millwall Ward 1978- 2019-09-07 election.demon.co.uk 2016-08-12 https://web.archive.org/web/20160812211312/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/thbc/mlw.html dead No BNP candidate stood for election in Millwall in 1990, although the party contested some other wards in the borough including Beackon who stood in Redcoat ward where he attracted just 3.6% of the vote.http://www.election.demon.co.uk/thbc/red.html Redcoat Ward 1964- 2019-09-07 election.demon.co.uk 2016-03-03 https://web.archive.org/web/20160303172644/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/thbc/red.html dead Polling took place on 3 May 1990.Minors Michael Grenham Dennis London Borough Council Elections: 3 May 1990 https://data.london.gov.uk/download/2db834ff-edbe-4433-9a9f-438bd585e3c6/afda4d3b-5211-4410-886a-16af9d569c8c/LBCE_1990-5-3.pdf London Datastore London Research Centre 29 September 2025 1990 live 29 September 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250929033821/https://data.london.gov.uk/download/2db834ff-edbe-4433-9a9f-438bd585e3c6/afda4d3b-5211-4410-886a-16af9d569c8c/LBCE_1990-5-3.pdf 1990 Tower Hamlets London Borough Council election: Millwall Labour Party (UK) David Chapman 1,755 45.1 +5.3 Labour Party (UK) Yvonne Amor 1,689 Labour Party (UK) Ivan Walker 1,551 Liberal Democrats (UK) Rita Bensley 1,507 39.9 +12.7 Liberal Democrats (UK) Jonathan Matthews 1,471 Liberal Democrats (UK) George Pye 1,449 Conservative Party (UK) David Hughes 294 7.5 –0.0 Conservative Party (UK) Paul Ingham 284 Green Party (UK) Stephen James 279 7.5 N/A Conservative Party (UK) David Hoile 249 44 1.2 Labour Party (UK) Labour Party (UK) Labour Party (UK) 41.3 +7.5 1992 general election and council by-election In the 1992 general election, BNP leader John Tyndall stood in the Bow and Poplar constituency (which covered Millwall as well as other areas), gaining only 3% of the vote. Party activists in the general election believed that much of his vote had come from the Millwall area and began to focus on the area in their canvassing. The BNP candidate in the election for Bethnal Green and Stepney, Richard Edmonds, was nicknamed "The Commander" for his use of local knowledge to target Millwall as an area sympathetic to the BNP Later in the same year, a by-election took place in Millwall, due to the resignation of Ivan Walker. A British National Party candidate stood for the council ward for the first time. They received their highest vote share of any election at the time, taking 20% of the vote.N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, pp. 52-53 Polling took place on 1 October 1992. 1992 Millwall by-election Labour Party (UK) Edwin Johns 1,275 38.7 –6.3 Liberal Democrats (UK) Jonathan Matthews 1,178 35.8 –4.1 British National Party Barry Osborne 657 20.0 N/A Conservative Party (UK) Jeremy Fage 182 5.5 –1.9 97 2.9 Labour Party (UK) Campaign The next year David Chapman resigned, leading to another by-election in the same ward. The British National Party's campaign emphasised 'Rights for Whites' through canvassing and leafleting, while the Labour Party campaign focussed on preventing the election of the first BNP councillor.N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, pp. 53-54 After a recount, Beackon was declared the winner with a majority of just 7 votes. Election result Polling took place on 16 September 1993.Minors Michael Grenham Dennis Vaid Lovedeep London Borough Council By-elections: May 1990 to May 1994 https://data.london.gov.uk/download/24r9z/47aeedac-ebee-44f6-a0e8-c8a4cb6023ff/LBCBE_1990-5_TO_1994-5.pdf London Datastore London Research Centre 27 February 2026 1994 19 December 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20251219045652/https://data.london.gov.uk/download/24r9z/47aeedac-ebee-44f6-a0e8-c8a4cb6023ff/LBCBE_1990-5_TO_1994-5.pdf live 1993 Millwall by-election British National Party Derek Beackon 1,480 33.8 N/A Labour Party (UK) James Hunt 1,473 33.7 –11.4 Liberal Democrats (UK) Jennifer Mills 1,284 29.4 –10.6 Conservative Party (UK) Timothy Dickenson 134 3.1 –4.4 7 0.1 British National Party Labour Party (UK) Reaction Party leader John Tyndall said that the result was the BNP's "moment in history" and claimed that 800 new members were recruited immediately afterwards. He later denied "hyping up" the victory.Copsey 2004 55-56 There was widespread condemnation from politicians, religious leaders and the media of the result. Many explanations were offered to explain why the residents of Millwall would vote for a neo-Nazi party, including the manipulation of the racial issue by other local parties, the parochialism of the Isle of Dogs and the changes that the area was experiencing as many residents were in poverty but also close to the prosperity of the new Canary Wharf development. The Home Secretary at the time, Michael Howard, said that he "deplored" the outcome, with the Environment Secretary John Gummer describing the BNP as a "thoroughly nasty party".Robinson Eugene BRITON ESPOUSING RACISM WINS LONDON VOTE https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/09/18/briton-espousing-racism-wins-london-vote/8fff1f62-20ab-4f3e-82e3-08e612622744/ 30 August 2022 Washington Post 18 September 1993 One journalist in Time Out referred to voters in the Millwall ward as "a peculiar breed: insular, proud of their docklands heritage and identity as a community, and notoriously suspicious of 'outsiders'."Time Out, 29 September 1993 Copsey has argued that these analyses appear "naïve" given subsequent victories by the BNP in Blackburn, Burnley, Stoke-on-Trent and Barking and Dagenham.Copsey 2004 55-56 Roger Eatwell included the result in an analysis of far-right successes across Europe, and formulated a three-dimensional "efficacy-legitimacy-trust" model. The model gives three main reasons why voters choose the far-right: they see an extreme force as having an efficacy for making changes; they gain legitimacy from the use of racial politics by other parties, as occurred in the prelude to the Millwall result; and they have lost trust in the established parties.Copsey 2004 64-65 Coswell criticises this model as not explaining why there was such a big increase in the BNP vote between 1992 and 1993. He points out that, despite a lack of "efficacy" from Beackon after his election, his vote still increased between 1993 and 1994, and he was only defeated because mobilisation by the Labour Party led to an exceptionally high turnout.Copsey 2004 65 Aftermath Beackon gained a reputation as a poor representative after his election, often expressing ignorance about the council's debates or how the bureaucracy operated.Copsey 2004 65 Beackon lost his seat in the next election after a large increase in turnout increased the actual BNP vote, but increased the Labour vote further to retake the seat. The British National Party performed strongly in 1994 in general, but subsequently became divided over the behaviour of its military wing, Combat 18 - a body that Beackon was responsible for and which made up much of the local party membership in Millwall.Copsey 2004 66 Combat 18 began to use violence against members of the BNP who were perceived as not genuine supporters of the neo-Nazi movement, such as Eddy Butler and Tony Lecomber.Copsey 2004 67 The BNP would not win any elected seats again until they won three in Burnley in 2002.https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/1965535.stm 3 May 2002 Witnessing the BNP success BBC News Beackon did not re-stand for election until 2008 when he took 17.8% of the vote in Orsett ward on Thurrock council.http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/democracy/content.php?page=wrds&ID=12 Thurrock Council | Direct Democracy | Thurrock's Wards and Elections | Orsett 2008-11-12 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20090330143718/http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/democracy/content.php?page=wrds&ID=12 2009-03-30 1994 Tower Hamlets London Borough Council election: Millwall Labour Party (UK) Julia Mainwaring 3,547 Labour Party (UK) Martin Young 3,447 Labour Party (UK) Stephen Molyneaux 3,446 British National Party Derek Beackon 2,041 British National Party Gordon Callow 1,775 British National Party Alan Smith 1,713 Liberal Democrats (UK) Jonathan Mathews 874 Liberal Democrats (UK) Jennifer Mills 861 Liberal Democrats (UK) George Pye 754 Island Independent James Hunt 386 Conservative Party (UK) Timothy Dickenson 322 Conservative Party (UK) Jeremy Fage 217 Conservative Party (UK) Crispin Hayhoe 210 Independent (politician) O.C. Osmond 124 10,532 66.4 Labour Party (UK) British National Party Labour Party (UK) Labour Party (UK) References Bibliography Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and its Quest for Legitimacy Copsey Nigel 2004 Palgrave Macmillan 978-1-4039-0214-6 Category:1993 English local elections Millwall Millwall Category:Council by-elections in England