HOME Office minister Andy Burnham wants voters to avoid what he calls the BNP "message of hate" at next month's local elections.

The BNP's Richard James Moreton is standing in the Leigh South ward in the Wigan Council election, the only candidate the party is putting up in the area.

Mr Burnham, MP for Leigh, said he was confident people in Leigh would dismiss the extreme right-wing BNP in favour of the mainstream parties.

He said: "When people hear what they stand for, I really don't think they'll be a threat. They claim to be standing for Christian values, but that's clearly wrong and I think most people in Bolton and Leigh would respond in the way they always do when they are confronted with hate and reject it."

The MP spoke out after Employment Minister Margaret Hodge said the Government's failure to deal with race and immigration could prompt white, working-class voters to consider backing the BNP.

And a survey by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust released yesterday found that as many as a quarter of voters in London and nearly one in six across Britain would consider voting for the BNP, with the party possibly having a "strong showing" at next month's polls.

The BNP's press officer Dr Phil Edwards said: "Andy Burnham is really grasping at straws. He is in a political party which is responsible for the terrible situation in this country where multi-cultural societies are rampant and a lack of freedom of speech and political correctness has gone mad.

"He is trying to pretend we aren't coherent and that's his mistake because he's patronising the British electorate."

No BNP candidates are standing in Bolton.