The British National Party is making a drive to capture seats in Stoke on Trent in this May's elections.

BBC reporter Gillian Hargreaves assesses the party's appeal, and the growing opposition to them.

I believe we should look after our own before we look after anybody else. I think we are actually ... overrun.

Ian Clegg, Stoke BNP

But by focussing on fears about asylum policy, they're gaining popularity.

Last autumn the party managed to get eighteen per cent of the vote in the mayoral elections, which was more than the Tories and the Liberal Democrats combined.

The BNP is expected to contest at least four out of the twenty seats here in May.... and possibly as many as one hundred and fifty nationwide.

Image
There's a new image too.
In are smart , plausible men like Ian Clegg (right), the BNP candidate in the city, and out are the bovver boots and skin heads.
Mr Clegg says he's former Labour voter wooed by the BNP's policies.
And Labour is deeply alarmed by the party's popularity in its former heartlands.

It's foolish to imagine that the BNP are stupid, because they're not, they're clever.
They've learnt from some of the other extreme right wing parties in Europe.
Instead of having what I call a policy of "fascist right" it is more like fascist lite - it's toned down.

Mayor opposes...
But if you think Stoke on Trent is full of poverty and bigots, think again.
Asylum seekers are in fact bringing a new cultural diversity to Stoke.
And last October, people voted for an independent, openly-gay mayor, Mike Wolfe.

Mr Wolfe has conducted his own report about asylum seekers and he thinks you've got to meet the BNP head on.

He has strong views, as he told me:
"Traditional political wisdom before the election in October was that you ignore the BNP.
You dont meet their questions, you just hope that they wither on the vine - and of course they did in the past.

"Trouble is that doesn't work anymore; and it feels that, if you ignore the BNP now, it feels to the people who were beguiled by their simple answers that you are ignoring their real concerns about poverty.

"I think the only place we can fight the BNP is on the facts. Thats why I published a report which talks about the facts. I think we have to be careful that the facts were are adressing are of real concern to real people."

Labour response
Meanwhile, the leader of the Stoke on Trent Labour group on the council, Mike Salih, wants the immigration minister to stop sending asylum seekers to Stoke.
He thinks that policy is a shambles, and plays into the hands of the BNP.
He says: "...If you don't make a strong case and government don't listen, the consequences are, we could end up with far right party councillors in the next May elections.

"The people of Stoke on Trent don't want that , and the Asian and ethnic minority communities don't want that either - because of all the tensions that will cause."

"...I think its about complacency. I think when you've been in power a long time you do get complacent. It happened to the Tories after eighteen years of power, but that election of the BNP sent a message to me, as a new group leader, that we need to do something about this - with news letters and campaigns and finding out what communities are about."

Electoral threat?
In fact, the BNP is riding on disaffection among Labour supporters. They do well where the Tory vote has collapsed, and they also mobilise people who don't normally vote.

The Labour Party has admitted that there is a very considerable threat from the BNP - but in very limited areas. After all they hold only five seats out of 22,000 council places across the country.
But Labour is worried about 20 or 30 wards up for re-election this May.

Across Britain the BNP has gained 5 seats, 3 in Burnley, 1 in Blackburn and 1 In Halifax.
In the last local elections, they also polled well in industrial Sandwell, Dudley and Sunderland.

They're now heading for doorsteps further afield canvassing in parts of west Yorkshire and may even contest seats as far afield as Kent and Somerset.

Nipping in the bud
Glyn Ford (left), one of the Labour MEPs in the Midlands says the BNP must be addressed head on: "One doesn't want to give them the oxygen of publicity... but it gets to the point where you have to go out and say what they really are.
"It is a problem it needs to be adressed, though one shouldn't exaggerate it; but nevertheless we could end up in a situation like we've seen in too many other European nations, where they become established on the political scene, with a significant vote."

Elections in May
Everywhere you go in Stoke people talk about Asylum policy.

Nine thousand people here voted for the BNP in the mayoral election six months ago, but then, thirty thousand voted for other politicans.

Come the local elections in May, we'll get a much clearer idea about whether the BNP will fizzle out - or be a long term political force.