LONDON - The far-right British National Party (BNP) has made an electoral breakthrough by gaining its first seat on the London Assembly, according to official results released Saturday.
Richard Barnbrook was elected to the 25-member body after Thursday's vote via the proportional representation system, meaning he can now take up a seat at City Hall to scrutinise the mayor's decisions.
BNP deputy leader Simon Darby said: "I feel absolutely ecstatic. We've witnessed the first major politician elected not for telling lies but for telling the truth."
Barnbrook, who leads the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham Council in east London, also stood as the party's candidate for London mayor, elections for which were also held on Thursday.
The Royal Academy-trained former artist, 47, came fifth out of 10 candidates with 69,710 first preference votes -- just 7,664 less than the Green Party's candidate, who came fourth.
Boris Johnson, from the Conservative Party, beat incumbent Ken Livingstone, from the Labour Party, to become mayor.
Barnbrook's campaign tried to attract what he called "real Londoners" and attacked asylum seekers and illegal immigrants for "engulfing London".
His election website promised: "Enough is enough, I will make sure that the people who have paid into the system are housed before immigrants -- it's only fair."
The main mayoral candidates had urged people in the ethnically-diverse British capital not to vote BNP. Campaigners said that a BNP victory "means hatred, violence and stupidity".
Darby said he "couldn't care less" if political opponents felt uncomfortable about gains by the BNP, which styles itself as "the foremost patriotic political party in Great Britain".
The party has made gains on local municipal councils in recent years.
"We will do what the British people want," he said. "If they (other political parties) try to intimidate us, then they are picking on the wrong people."
phz/ach
05/03/2008 03:31 GMT