Fringe benefits: how the election went outside the major parties

A TRIUMPHANT George Galloway was yesterday celebrating his shock victory over Labour after capturing the seat of Bethnal Green and Bow.

The new Respect MP defeated Oona King after a bitter campaign fought on his opposition to the Gulf war.

When the rebel politician took the stand as the count was declared, he called for Tony Blair to be sacked and condemned Tower Hamlets over alleged electoral fraud in the ward.

"This defeat is for Iraq ...All the people you have killed, all the lies you have told have come back to haunt you," he told the Prime Minister.

The former Labour MP accused Tower Hamlets' council electoral office of publishing an electoral roll which he said was "so shot through with errors and anomalies ... as to be almost meaningless."

A spokesman for the council admitted the system was open to abuse throughout the country, but insisted claims of electoral malpractice would be properly investigated.

The 50-year-old's defeat of Ms King in a supposedly safe Labour seat will send shock waves through Mr Blair's party.

Peter Law

PETER Law was celebrating a spectacular win in Bleanau Gwent last night after overturning a massive 19,000 Labour majority.

The independent ex-Labour Welsh Assembly Member stood against Labour's Maggie Jones in protest after she was selected from an all-women list.

Mr Law was diagnosed with a brain tumour the day before he was due to announce his candidature last month and has since undergone a successful operation.

Before the result last night he had described the decision to select candidates from an all women list as "undemocratic."

By polling 20,505 votes, and winning a majority of 9,121, he caused one of the biggest upsets of the election.

Mr Law told BBC Radio Wales today: "This is what you get when you don't listen to people. That is the point of the results here tonight."

British National Party

THE BNP failed to win any seats but attracted tens of thousands of votes across the UK.

Although immigration was one of the top election issues, the far-right party secured only a marginal increase in its share of the overall vote, up 0.55% on 2001.

But it did win significant shares of the vote in some of the 120 constituencies where it put up a candidate.

These were concentrated in areas with high immigration.

The BNP's best result came in Barking in east London, where Richard Barnbrook won 16.89% of the vote, coming a close third behind the Tories and Labour.

Nick Griffin, the party's leader, stood in Keighley, West Yorkshire, and attracted 4,240 votes more than 9% just behind the Liberal Democrats at nearly 12%.

The result comes despite 45-year-old Mr Griffin facing race hate charges following an undercover TV exposé.

Overall though, with most results in, the party has failed to reach its touted 2-3% of the overall vote, at about 0.74%.

UKIP

THE UK Independence Party failed to win a single seat and lost £225,500 (€332,490) in the process.

The anti-EU party had hoped to secure its first MP after mounting its biggest-ever parliamentary campaign.

But without the publicity-winning presence of Robert Kilroy-Silk, it lost deposits in at least 451 seats.

The party saw its share of the vote increase by just 0.85% and even leader Roger Knapman could only poll 3,914 in his Totnes contest, trailing a long way behind the main parties.

UKIP's performance fell well short of the 16.1% of the vote it won at least year's European elections, when it took 12 seats.

Robert Kilroy-Silk

VERITAS leader Robert Kilroy-Silk failed in his bid to get back into Parliament but vowed to keep on fighting.

Mr Kilroy-Silk contested the Derbyshire constituency of Erewash, which was retained by Labour's Elizabeth Blackman.

He took nearly 3,000 votes, a 5.85% share, coming fourth. Conservative David Simmonds was second and the Liberal Democrat Martin Garnett third.

Earlier, Mr Kilroy-Silk said he had never really expected to win the seat, but wanted to offer the public "some honesty" in politics.

Asked if he planned to call it a day, he replied: "No, not at all. We'll be fighting the Staffordshire by-election, regrettable though the causes are of that."

Greens

THE Greens failed to make their much hoped for breakthrough to win their first Parliamentary seat despite fielding candidates in 200 seats, more than a third more than in the last General Election and targeting five key constituencies.

The Green Party does not have a leader but is led by two Principal Speakers, MEP for the South East Caroline Lucas and one of the party's high hopes, Councillor Keith Taylor, who came third behind the Conservatives at Brighton Pavilion, a Labour stronghold held by David Lepper.

One of six Greens holding the balance of power on Brighton City Council, Taylor said: "This is a fantastic result for the Greens and a fantastic result for Brighton."