I would like to say thank you to the 238 residents of the Norton electoral division who placed their confidence in both me (the local candidate) and the British National Party (BNP) in the county council election.

This amounted to 10.27 per cent of the vote share, which saw me come third, ahead of the Labour Party.

The number of votes that I received was remarkable, considering that the BNP had never set foot in Ryedale before our day of action in January. We’ve made our mark and we are now here to stay. Ryedale residents can be assured that they will have BNP candidates to vote for in future elections.

I pass my congratulations to the winning Conservative candidate, Stephen Shaw, and wish him the best of luck in his term in office.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank the 882 Ryedale residents who voted for the BNP in the European Parliament elections. They helped to secure a historic BNP victory in the Yorkshire & the Humber constituency and elected the hard-working former college lecturer Andrew Brons to be one of the region’s MEPs.

Jeff Kelly, British National Party candidate for Norton