The BNP were out in force as they attempted to intimidate a local paper, Archant's Barking & Dagenham Recorder, into giving them a better press in the London elections.

Got myself down to a new bit of the redrawn Dagenham seat on Saturday for some leafleting and got a decent interview out of Jon Cruddas. He confirmed that he had been offered a ministerial post in the reshuffle but didn't want to be contained. Cruddas is genial, chummy on the doorstep and thoughtful. The following was conducted whilst he was driving from Elm Park to central London, having his lunch (pie and chips) and talking into my tape recorder all simultaneously - talk about multi-tasking!