AROUND 50 people gathered in Swanley today to protest against the British National Party (BNP).

The rally followed Paul Golding winning the Sevenoaks District Council Swanley St Mary's ward by-election for the far-right party last week.

People opposed to the BNP gathered in Swanley town centre this morning to speak out against the party and to hand out leaflets to passing shoppers.

Protestors included members of the newly formed Swanley Residents’ Group as well as people from the Socialist Party, the Public and Commercial Services Union and the Socialist Workers’ Party.

It is not thought anyone from the main Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat parties turned up. There was also no one from the BNP at the protest.

There was a large police presence at the rally, but the event passed off without any trouble.

Nadine Orpwood, aged 33, of Apple Orchard, Swanley, said: “I just do not think the BNP should have got in because of their racism.

“There should not be a divide. We are all one, like a big family.”

The mum of five, who works as a florist, added that some of her friends had voted BNP in the by-election and there was now friction between those who had voted for the party and those who had not.

Twenty-two-year-old youth worker Jodie Weeden, of Hart Dyke Road, said: “I am against the BNP because of the way they are getting young people involved.

“They came knocking on people’s doors saying what people wanted to hear to get them to vote for the BNP.”

Clifford Taylor, of Lime Road, Swanley, said: “They came round and brain-washed people.

“When the BNP came round to me I told them the BNP never saved my life, a South African doctor did."

The 45-year-old writer added: “No one is British through and through. Even Queen Victoria was German.

“The whole of England is made up of different parts of the world.”

Simon Byrne, of the United Against Fascism group, said: “Wherever the BNP goes, racist attacks go up sky-high.”

Mr Byrne, formerly of Swanley, now living in London, said today's protest was a success, despite being organised at short notice.