Mr Dobson used to be health secretary

Branding the far-right party "vultures", the former health secretary said taken on properly, the BNP would be defeated.

He said recent successes by the party in places like Burnley could be reversed with a return to traditional local politics.

But a BNP spokesman rejected Mr Dobson's claims as a "tired old stereotype" and argued that voters were worried about seeing their neighbourhoods becoming multicultural.

Earlier this week, at the Labour conference in Bournemouth, Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt promised new laws which would make it easier for unions to expel BNP activists.

Mr Dobson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's a big deal for the country to have a right-wing party, some of whom think of Hitler as a hero, are out-rightly racist, some of whom have records of violence either as football hooligans or against people who live in the next street."

He said the fact that the BNP currently had "just the odd (council) seat" was not an excuse to ignore them - because they would not go away.

'Racism'

"What's quite clear is that when they are taken on and taken on properly they get defeated and that's what we want to see.

"And we've really got to put the work in - this isn't rocket science - it's good old fashioned local politics."

Ms Hewitt announced measure to tackle the BNP

Mr Dobson argued that Labour at a local level had to be seen to address the issues that local people were worried about.

"The BNP's approach has been a mixture of racism and, if you like, traditional Liberal Democrat focus groups going round locally finding out what it is people are bothered about.

"We've got to get down to this old fashioned politics... and come up with a Labour solution because these people they are not eagles, they are not hawks, they are vultures and they descend in areas where parties are dead or dying."

For the BNP Phill Edwards said his party were "doves not vultures".

"We want to preserve the traditional culture, the British culture, the British identity," he told BBC News Online

Ms Hewitt told Labour delegates that "infiltration" by the BNP was causing problems for unions and would be tackled as part of the employment rights review.

"We will take action to ensure that unions can deal with those who try to use trade unionism to peddle racism."