Revealed: How BNP is exploiting war for political gain

The British National Party is exploiting the war with Iraq by campaigning in areas that are home to families of the first British casualties of the fighting.

By playing on local feelings of patriotism and nationalism the BNP hopes to capitalise on the conflict at May's local elections, in which they plan to field 200 candidates.

One of the party's key targets is Bradford, West Yorkshire, where race relations are still sensitive after the violent street riots of two years ago. It is also the home of the first British soldier killed in combat in Iraq. Sgt Steven Roberts was shot on Sunday while trying to calm civilian rioting near the city of Basra.

BNP campaigners have been out in force in Bradford districts where there are high proportions of white residents living close to Asian communities. Two areas being focused on by the far-right party are the Bradford districts of Queensbury and Shipley, which are expected to feature on a list of council wards to be contested by the BNP published on Tuesday.

The longer the war goes on the more concerned local Asians are that white extremists will use it to exploit racial tensions. Nasreen Karim, a 30-year-old solicitor from Bradford, said the BNP was using "more subtle tactics" this time by urging people to "support our troops. They are boosted by recent successes in the Halifax area and hope to repeat this nearer Bradford. But I don't think anyone wants them here."

The BNP is opposed to the war, which it says does not serve British interests and will lead to more terrorism.

But in a statement last week its leaders said many members were in the armed forces and would have played a significant role in the May elections had they not been called up or out on stand-by.

The party's campaign literature plays heavily on the war and defence issues. In one reference the statement says: "... morale is high despite the criminal failings in kit and equipment. Our troops are being sent into the heat of battle by the same former mealy mouthed pacifists who have imposed the cutbacks that have left them depending on boots that melt, in the wrong camouflage, with rifles that jam, radios that don't work and tanks that break down."

Race relations in Bradford have improved greatly since the riots of two years ago.

The police and community representatives have been meeting for the past few months to deal with increased tensions leading up to the war.

Chief Superintendent Phil Read, commander of one of the Bradford police districts that was at the centre of the 2001 riots, says there is a great deal of sensitivity over the war. "West Yorkshire Police recognises that tensions have increased for everybody and we also recognise that the first Allied deaths are soldiers who come from Shipley and Skipton." He confirmed that BNP canvassers were working in the community but declined to comment on the impact this had had because it is a political, and not a police issue. West Yorkshire Police has been working closely with organisers of peace protests.

He said: "Before the forthcoming crisis we have been working with the Muslim community and the Council of Mosques so that when the hostilities broke out we had a key plan with key people in the communities with a view to monitoring the situation."

At the heart of his beat is the Manningham area of Bradford, scene of the worst rioting. Here, opinion is overwhelmingly opposed to the war.

Semima Abbas, 21, a student at Bradford University, is a British Muslim whose parents fled Saddam Hussein's Iraq 20 years ago. Some of her family are in Karbala, Iraq, where there has been fierce fighting.

"We spoke to my uncle and auntie on the telephone last night and they are very scared. They just asked us to pray for them because they are caught between the fires of Saddam and the American bombs. They are in an impossible position."

Danyl Naqvi, 30, has become sickened by the pictures of Iraqi civilians being killed. "This is not a war about Saddam – it's a war about capitalism and creating a new world order of the West. North Korea is much more of a threat to world peace. Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are made-up propaganda."

A mile away in Shipley, which has a proportionately higher white population and was the home of Sgt Roberts, the overwhelming view is supportive of the war. Michael Smith, 47, a florist, believes "we have to finish the job so it doesn't ever happen again".

Down the road, Taimoor Mian, 30, a newsagent, takes a different view. "Without a second United Nations resolution this war is wrong and we should not be following the United States."

A spokesman for the BNP said yesterday: "It's pure coincidence that our candidates happen to be standing in wards in which British servicemen have died.

"We are not cynically exploiting the war. If anything it is the white ethnic people who are being exploited for their views about sending asylum-seekers home."