FEAR of the British National Party has reached such a level that trade unionists in the region are urging voters to back Tory hopefuls rather than allow a racist candidate to sneak in.
The BNP, buoyed by the success of the French National Front and hopeful of gains in the North-West of England, are fielding six candidates in Sunderland and three in Gateshead, where turnout is expected to be double that of the 2000 election.
Paul Nowak, regional secretary of the Northern TUC, said disciplinary action would be taken against any trade unionists standing for the BNP or campaigning on its behalf.
He said: "We are taking this threat from the BNP seriously and would encourage people to vote for any democratic political party, including the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, ahead of racists and fascists."
Leader of the BNP Nick Griffin said: "If the TUC is asking people to vote for the party of Margaret Thatcher it must be something to do with Labour's record of losing a manufacturing job every eight seconds."
Voting in tomorrow's council elections in Gateshead is entirely by post to increase turnout, which had reached 44 per cent on Monday, compared with 29.6 per cent in 2000.
On North Tyneside, the Labour Party is understood to fear an embarrassing win for the Conservatives in the race to become the borough's first directly-elected mayor.
Conservative Chris Morgan is taking on Labour's Eddie Darke in an election which covers part of the area represented by Government minister Stephen Byers.
South Tyneside is one of only four councils experimenting with a fully postal voting system complete with electronic counting, which could produce a full result for all council seats within two hours of the polls closing.
But last night it emerged that there had been teething problems with the new system and hundreds of voting slips did not arrive in yesterday's post - only two days before polling day.
North Tyneside
Mike Elliott (Soc Alliance)
Eddie Darke (Lab)
Michael Huscroft (Lib Dem)
Chris Morgan (Con)
Allan Pond (People First)
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