Luton locals express dismay at Kevin Carroll PCC result

Luton Today reports on the reaction of locals to the number of ballots cast in favour of English Defence League candidate, Kevin Carroll, in the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections last week. Carroll, a senior figure in the EDL stood as a candidate for the British Freedom Party.

According to Luton Today, he received 8,675 votes – more than 10% of the total 84,169 votes cast in the county.

The MP for Luton North, Kelvin Hopkins, described the turnout for the BFP as “very regrettable”, whilst the MP for Luton South, Gavin Shuker, said that it was “clear that some people didn’t realise who they were voting for”.

Labour candidate Oliver Martins came first place in the Bedfordshire constituency, where the turnout was 17.8%. In his victory speech, he stated that “People have not been taken in by this attempt to masquerade as a legitimate political party…the EDL should now crawl back into the dark hole from whence they came.”

Carroll himself described the 10% vote share as “a very respectable figure”.

Prior to the elections, fears had been expressed on low voter turnout favouring extremist parties. Despite overwhelmingly low turnout across the country, an outcome now being investigated by the Electoral Commission, these fears have not been realised.

Last month, it was reported that the EDL aims to become a political party in time to contest seats at the European Parliamentary elections in 2014.

A number of candidates responded to ENGAGE’s manifesto for the new PCCs, in which we listed a number of pledges including recording Islamophobia as a specific category of hate crime, and tackling far right hate groups.

You can see a full breakdown of the PCC election results on ENGAGE’s dedicated website, www.getoutandvote.info.