Far Right Wins Seats in Britain

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labor Party suffered minor losses in local elections across England, while a right-wing extremist group won two city council seats for its first victories in nearly a decade.

The elections Thursday, just days after an impressive showing in France by right-wing candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, were Labor’s first ballot test since its landslide general election victory last year. Opposition parties had hoped to capitalize on dissatisfaction with the country’s rising crime and faltering public health and transportation systems.

David John Edwards and Carol Hughes, both running under the banner of the British National Party, won in Burnley, one of four cities in northwestern England hit by racial riots last year. Officials were recounting votes in a third district of Burnley where another BNP candidate was running.

Both victors thanked voters for the rightist BNP’s first electoral victory since 1993, but their success drew heavy criticism.

Overall, the election results were not as bad as Labor had feared, with the opposition Conservative Party making only modest gains. The governing party often loses some seats in local midterm elections.

The elections were held for almost 6,000 seats on 174 local councils across Britain. Two years ago, Blair’s government lost ground to the Conservative Party during a similar vote.