Part of the explanation is the BNP’s effort at rebranding. Several people involved in it, including Mr Griffin, have criminal convictions, in his case for inciting racial hatred. Membership is open only to “indigenous” Britons. But in public the BNP now eschews the crassest racism and claims to disavow violence. Instead it peddles Islamophobia (a “wicked, vicious faith”, Mr Griffin has said), propagating tales of Muslim men “grooming” girls for sex. It is cannier at exploiting local grievances. Its platform includes a voluntary repatriation programme for immigrants, as well as withdrawal from the EU and the restoration of corporal and capital punishment.

But the BNP’s coup also points to broader, structural trends in British politics. Its support is largely from poorly educated, white, working-class men, concentrated in ex-industrial towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Mr Griffin says most BNP voters are former Labour supporters. Its appeal rests on the failure of Labour and the Conservatives, at least under David Cameron, to satisfy that constituency. That in turn is a function of a Westminster electoral system that requires parties to court swing voters in marginal seats and encourages the neglect of others. The resulting disenchantment and other factors — Celtic nationalism, the waning of class-based party loyalties — have fractured the main parties’ old hegemony. The BNP is one beneficiary.

Mr Griffin talks about seriously contesting “at least a dozen” seats at the next general election. That is laughably overblown, not least because Westminster’s first-past-the-post system makes it much harder for them to win even one. And judging by their local councillors, BNP politicians tend not to distinguish themselves in office. But its two MEPs will undoubtedly raise their party’s profile and funds. They will also change the way in which others deal with the BNP. Ignoring it is no longer a viable option; its specious policies will have to be openly challenged. The unspoken risk is that, rather than refuting the prejudices the BNP inflames, other parties will be panicked into pandering to them.

... contd.