BLOCKED: BNP MAN BARRED FROM POLL

COUNCIL WORKER CAN’T BE CANDIDATE

A BNP candidate has been barred from standing for Kirklees because he works for the council.

Leaders of the far-Right party hit out at the decision, saying that Allan Milton had been a candidate before.

BNP Huddersfield organiser Robert Walker said: “He was allowed to stand then, so why not now? “The fact is that the BNP is getting somewhere, so they have decided to pull the carpet from under us.”

Mr Milton is a fitter at the cleansing depot in Vine Street, Hillhouse. He had been due to stand for the BNP in Newsome at the May 3 vote. Now the party will have no candidate because it is too late to nominate anyone else.

Mr Milton was the candidate in Newsome in 2004 when he polled 709 votes. Mr Walker said: “We’re fuming that they have suddenly brought this into play “They’ve told us this has been the law since 1972. But in that case why haven’t they applied it before?”

Mr Walker said council workers who had stood in the past had signed forms promising to give up their job if they were elected. He said there had been Labour councillors who were elected while working for the council. And he said he believed there was at least one other council employee who was a candidate in this year’s elections.

Mr Walker went on: “This is a very serious issue and we are demanding to know why they have made this sudden move now “They waited until the last minute, when it was too late for us to do anything about it. “We need to have a decent explanation as to why things have suddenly changed.”

A council spokesman could not explain why Mr Milton had been allowed to stand in 2004 but not now.
He added: “All nomination papers include a statement that any person holding office or employment with the local authority will be disqualified from being elected.”
Huddersfield Examiner Sat April 7th