JUST as in the case of the mayoral contests in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, it was the fringe candidates who stole the thunder in local elections across the country.

With final results coming in yesterday afternoon, the three main parties had few reasons to celebrate, but no real cause to lick their wounds.

As expected, Labour lost ground on their showing in 1998, but did not slip as badly as some commentators had forecast.

The Conservatives, facing their first national test under leader Iain Duncan-Smith, made only modest gains.

And there was a near-standstill performance from the Liberal Democrats, who consolidated their standing of four years ago.

Overall, Labour had 33 per cent of the vote, just behind the Tories with 34 per cent. The Liberal Democrats gained 27 per cent.

The Tories picked up 234 seats, but were well shy of the 500-plus seats most analysts suggested they needed to make a statement of intent.

Labour lost 320 seats and the Liberal Democrats gained 34.

But the main talking point was the success of the far-right British National Party (BNP), which won three seats in Burnley, Lancashire, exploiting tensions in the town still simmering from last summer's race riots.

BNP leader Nick Griffin denied the success was solely the result of a protest vote.

In a chilling message, he said his party's "ultimate aim" was to create an all-white society in Britain.

Labour Party chairman Charles Clarke said the BNP's success was disappointing and that the party's candidates were interested only in tearing apart the communities they targeted.

Thankfully, the Burnley results were the only high point for the BNP, which had hoped to reflect the success enjoyed by French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the recent French presidential elections.

But with just three seats out of 6,000 nationally in this country, the far-right British party's victory can be seen as a far cry from Le Pen's emergence into the French political mainstream.