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Labour must “apologise and rebuild” in Scotland in the same way it did in Barking and Dagenham after the rise of the British National Party, the man who led its recovery said today.

The Right-wing BNP won 12 council seats in the London borough in 2006 and formed the official opposition after capturing the support of thousands of traditionally Labour voters. It prompted the local Labour party to apologise for “letting people down” and then start to “reconnect” with the community.

Darren Rodwell, who spearheaded the fightback and is now council leader, said Labour had to do the same north of the border after its disastrous general election performance. He does not compare the SNP and BNP but drew parallels between Labour’s demise in Scotland and the situation that needed fixing in his borough.

He said: “Scots didn’t think overnight, ‘The people in Westminster don’t give a hoot about us’. That has been over a long period. Everyone has to share the blame, to accept we got it wrong.

“Then we have to say, ‘Work with us’, and together ensure the Union’s strong. I don’t want Scotland to vanish from that. It’s important that together we’re strong. That’s the socialist principle.”

He still recalls crying on hearing that far-Right extremists had won 12 council seats in the area where he was born and bred, with 14 per cent of the vote.

He joined his local Labour branch in determination to fight them. “But the branch was full of people with all the same background,” he said. “It was all white, over 60, unions — very insular. And they only talked of process. There was very little aspiration there.

“I recall sitting there thinking, ‘No wonder the BNP beat us on the ground’. There was no ambition, no drive.”

He told the Standard how he and a handful of other activists started to recruit a newer, younger, more ethnic- ally diverse party membership.

Their goal, aided by the area’s Labour MP Margaret Hodge, was to rebuild the local party so it reflected its community. Mr Rodwell said: “Once we did that we had to apologise, first and foremost, because we’d let people down.

“We had to take the abuse on doorsteps and we took a lot. In a four-year period we reconnected with the community. We spoke to 67,000 people.”

The hard work paid off when in 2010 the BNP was wiped out, with leader Nick Griffin failing to secure a Commons seat and the party losing its entire slate of 12 council seats.