Emma Colgate – The BNP’s Kingmaker in Thurrock
Chaos erupted at the Thurrock council meeting last night as Labour first proposed a motion of no confidence in local Tory leader Terry Hipsey and then withdrew it when he defected to that party, leaving the BNP’s Emma Colgate with the casting vote to determine the new administration.
The meeting started off with a motion of no confidence in the Tory leader proposed by Labour, followed by one of Mr Hipsey’s usual grandstanding motions criticising the Labour government on an issue outside the scope and power of a local authority. Mr Hipsey made a habit of making such motions in the same way that Labour councils used to declare themselves “nuclear free zones” and other such buffoonery. Needless to say, both motions were withdrawn when Mr Hipsey crossed the floor.
As a result, the Council was now hung, with twenty two Conservatives, twenty three Labourites, two independents and the BNP’s Ms Colgate. A new leader had to be chosen, presenting the BNP councillor with a dilemma. If she voted with Labour or abstained then they would be back in. If she voted with the Conservatives then they would be able to maintain control with the Mayor’s casting vote.
In the end, as the lesser of two evils, Ms Colgate chose to keep the Conservative regime in power on the promise that they would raise their game and improve their performance.
“One slip and they will be out so they had better watch what they do,” said Ms Colgate, who regularly runs both Tories and Labour ragged in the council chambers.
“The Conservatives are on notice. We will not tolerate anymore nonsense from them,” she said of that party’s councillors, many of whom secretly support the BNP but are so scared of Conservative Party central office that they must hide their allegiances.
Ms Colgate is number two on the BNP’s Eastern region Euro list and is an experienced politician, being the party’s Eastern Regional Elections Officer and National Councillor Representative on Party’s Advisory Council. She stood for Parliament in the Basildon constituency in the 2005 General Election and was elected as a councillor in Thurrock in May 2008.
