Derek Beackon

Derek Beackon
Councillor of Millwall ward in Tower Hamlets Borough
In office 16 September 1993 – 5 May 1994
Preceded by	E. T. Johns
Succeeded by	Julia Mainwaring
Personal details
Nationality	British
Political party	British National Party (1986–2012) National Front (2012–present)
Profession	Politician

Derek William Beackon is a British National Front politician and former British National Party (BNP) member. In 1993, he became the party's first elected councillor, although he served for only eight months.

Beackon joined the BNP in 1986 as an associate member, and became a full member two years later. Known as 'Daddy', Beackon first stood as a candidate for the BNP in 1990 in the Redcoat ward of London Borough of Tower Hamlets where he gained 3% of the vote, a typically low total for the party at the time.

Although Beackon's personal result had been a disappointment in Tower Hamlets, the area had slowly been growing as a centre of support for the BNP. The BNP still lagged behind the National Front (NF) in terms of public profile (even though that movement had fallen into severe decline). The BNP had respectable results in the area in a series of council by-elections in 1990. The area had also been one of the centres of support for John Tyndall during the 1992 general election; Tyndall had stood in Bow and Poplar, which included much of Tower Hamlets.

Under the directorship of local organizer Eddy Butler, the party had instigated a 'Rights for Whites' campaign in the area, bringing back a slogan that had been employed by Martin Webster and the NF during the 1970s. Focusing on the perceived negative impact of immigration on the area of employment and housing, the campaign operated as if it was simply a local pressure group before gradually introducing the BNP name into Rights for Whites literature.

The initiative first produced results in the Millwall ward in October 1992 when a strong canvassing effort by local activists helped BNP candidate Barry Osborne capture 20% of the vote in a by-election. Millwall had long been a seat of unemployment associated with the declining docklands area. Most of the population had been descended from the 19th century workers who had built and operated the docks. With the building of the Limehouse Link Road, predominantly Bangladeshi families from a run-down Council estate in Limehouse (the St Vincent Estate) were rehoused in properties in Millwall. These properties had been marketed as 'luxury', but had failed to sell after a downturn in the property market. This was presented as favourable treatment on grounds of race by the "Liberal Focus Team" seeking to capitalise on the issue. However, in a close three-way contest, the BNP gained from this campaign more than its authors.

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