Photo by Alex MacNaughton/ Alamy Why break a habit of a lifetime, I wondered as I headed to Dagenham to campaign on what would turn out to be a day the tectonic plates of British politics shifted. It was clear my time would be best spent in my old stomping ground of Barking and Dagenham, where my friends were fighting hard to stop a populist, hard-right party taking control of the borough. Having grown up and lived in nearby Ilford most of my life, I moved to Barking in 2005 and witnessed the surge of support for the BNP that led to 12 of their candidates becoming councillors in the following year’s local elections. This sent a shockwave through the political system. It led me to quit my job and to go to work for Searchlight , which later became Hope not Hate. There, I worked with Nick Lowles, running the campaign that saw off the fascists in Barking and Dagenham and across the country, where it won more than 100 councillors. In 2010 the BNP was smashed in Dagenham by Labour, which won all 51 council seats.…