NEARLY a fifth of York people may vote for the BNP, an Evening Press poll can reveal today.

The Evening Press conducted a telephone poll of 100 York residents - and found 17 per cent of those questioned said they would consider voting for the BNP.

This follows the publication of a report by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, revealing a quarter of voters in the east London borough of Barking and Dagenham would consider casting a vote for the far right party. Only last year, the BNP said it was considering fielding a candidate in the 2007 local elections in York.

City of York Council leader Steve Galloway said: "I've been involved in politics in York for more than 35 years, and in that time the BNP - and their predecessors the National Front - have put candidates up.

"They have never done better than get five per cent of the vote, and have usually had a derisory showing.

"The fact that people consider voting for them is not entirely surprising.

"But when they realise what their policies are, see their manifesto, and hear alternative cases, they reject them.

"I don't believe they'll ever be serious contenders in York."

Coun Andy D'Agorne, the leader of the Green Party group on the city council, said: "I suppose it's reassuring that the majority of people wouldn't consider voting for them. They're a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"Their particular policies are not welcome in York.

"We don't want them playing on people's prejudices, because York's done a lot to encourage the integration of people from different backgrounds."

BNP spokesman Phill Edwards said the Rowntree report highlighted a sense of "powerlessness and frustration" among communities in Britain, which was leading to an increase in support for his party.

He said: "People in Britain for the last 40 years have seen the country transformed from a racially homogeneous society - and a society with indigenous British cultures - into one where the cultures are now quite alien, and the races are from different parts of the world.

"And most of them are not here naturally. That does add quite a lot of tensions and stresses."

Updated: 09:21 Tuesday, April 18, 2006