Hodge: BNP support growing

A senior minister has claimed white working class voters are being increasingly "tempted" to support the British National Party.

Welfare minister Margaret Hodge, who is MP for Barking in east London, said on Sunday that traditional Labour voters feel her party is no longer listening to their concerns over issues such as housing and immigration.

"They can't get a home for their children, they see black and ethnic minority communities moving in and they are angry," Hodge told the Sunday Telegraph.

As a result the extremist BNP could win council seats in her constituency in next month's local polls.

The BNP came third in Barking in last year's general election with 17 per cent of the vote.

And in an attempt to highlight the dangers of disillusionment to her party, Hodge said the result must act as a wake-up call.

"That's something we have never seen before, in all my years. Even when people voted BNP they used to be ashamed to vote BNP," she said.

However she warned that Labour must do more to engage with working class communities.

"The Labour Party hasn't talked to these people," she said.

"Part of the reason they switch to the BNP is they feel no-one else is listening to them."