The BNP are a thoroughly disreputable party and I certainly wouldn't advocate anyone voting for them.
But it wasn't the BNP that went into Iraq. It wasn't the BNP that endangered citizens through the predictable blowback (the London bombings in 2005). It wasn't the BNP that implemented the 'surveillance society' in the UK. Just sayin'.
Who did they take the seat from, I can understand UKIP but it looks like Labor, that's a little incongruous.
If the EP elections in Britain were by Single Transferable Vote as in Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) then I think there is a good chance that the BNP would not have won one of the six seats in Yorkshire & Humber because they would have had the same problem that Sinn Fein has had in the Republic - the inability to get transfers.
However, I'm always a bit wary of making comparisons like this because a different voting system affects how people cast their vote, i.e. the first preference votes under an STV system (particularly after several elections when people had learnt how to use it more intelligent) would be different from how people vote under the de Hondt system now in use for British European Parliament elections.
This is what happens when 2.34 million people get dumped in england over a decade, locals get annoyed. This is why UKIP (in particular) and BNP are getting lots of votes.
Consider it a complete rejection of the policy of mass immigration brit Labour have pursued since 1997 by those most affected. Lessons for Irish parties in there.
"I don't think Martin McGuinness necessarily intended to kill anyone while in the IRA." factual