BNP leader routed in party's main target seat of Barking.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

The British National Party failed to secure its first MP after far-right leader Nick Griffin was resoundingly beaten by 18,000 votes in its key target ward of Barking in east London.

Amid jubilant scenes at the count, Labour's victorious candidate, Magaret Hodge, increased her majority and said the fight against the far-right party was the most important and moral of her life.

"We turned a threat into an opportunity to really smash this wave of fascism," she said.

Hodge added that Griffin, who had claimed he would create a "political earthquake", and his "vile politics" had been humiliatingly rejected by the people of …