UK diplomats shun BNP officials in Europe

Glenys Kinnock

The government is to single out Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, the British National party's two newly elected representatives in the European parliament, for special treatment, denying them some of the access and information afforded to all the other 70 UK MEPs.

Under new guidelines drafted in Whitehall and in the Foreign Office following the June elections to the European parliament, the two BNP leaders will be kept at arm's length from the kind of routine contacts and socialising that take place between British civil servants and MEPs in Brussels and Strasbourg.

When the new parliament convenes next week in Strasbourg, Glenys Kinnock, the new Europe minister, is to host a reception for all British MEPs. Only Griffin and Brons have not been invited.

"Officials will not engage in any other contact with elected representatives of any nationality who represent extremist or racist views, unless specific permission has been granted to do so on a particular occasion from the FCO permanent under-secretary and the minister for Europe," a government spokesperson said.

The official said that the BNP duo would be subject to the "same general principles governing official impartiality" and they would receive "standard written briefings as appropriate from time to time".

But British diplomats made plain that they would not be "proactive" in dealing with the BNP MEPs and that any requests for policy briefings from Griffin or Brons would be treated differently and on a discretionary basis. A Brussels-based civil servant said it was acceptable for him to meet MEPs across the party spectrum for a drink, but that any such meetings with Griffin or Brons would be frowned upon.

The MEPs of the anti-EU UK Independence Party have been invited to next week's government reception. Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, said he was satisfied that he was treated equally by the 155 diplomats and civil servants working at the British mission to the EU, known as Ukrep, in Brussels.

"During the British [EU] presidency in 2005, I remember Jack Straw telling me that we'll be treated the same as all the others," said Farage. "If we ring Ukrep, we would expect to be treated fairly by them. If we contact them, they help us even though they're almost certainly closer to the other parties. We've not found them to withhold stuff from us if we ask."

Chris Davies, the Liberal Democrat MEP, said that the BNP represented a special case and that the government was entitled to differentiate in its dealings with elected representatives.

"A line has been crossed [with the BNP]. It's a difference of degree. It's not surprising that the government has to draw up guidelines to deal with a different situation."

Following the European elections, the civil service and government officials considered a range of options for dealing with the BNP, from an inclusive non-discriminatory approach to total quarantine, effectively ostracising them. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, is said to have signed off a decision that would bar the BNP people from government and embassy events in Brussels, while providing the extremists with some policy information.

"I don't think the policy of isolating them, of a cordon sanitaire, will work at all," Farage said. "It's a mistake. They're elected representatives, whether we like it or not."

The isolation has been compounded by Griffin's failure over the past week to cobble together an alliance of extremists in the parliament in order to qualify for official caucus status and thus benefit from better funding, speaking time, and committee positions. To qualify, a parliamentary fraction needs to muster 25 MEPs from at least seven EU countries. Griffin's signature failure was not persuading Italy's anti-immigration party, Liga Nord, to join him. Instead the Italians linked up with Farage's Ukip.

Guardian

Bum's rush in Brussels for BNP boat-sinkers

BNP struggling to make friends in Brussels

The British National Party's first two Euro-MPs are finding it increasingly hard to win friends and influence people in Europe.

BNP leader Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons both won seats in the euro-elections - and so far they have chalked up three notable rebuffs.

First, they were unable to muster enough allies to form an official political grouping in the European Parliament, which begins work next week. Second, they were asked to leave one of the main drinking haunts of European Parliament staff and MEPs in Brussels. And now they find they are not on the Government's guest list for a formal drinks party for British MEPs in Strasbourg next week.

The pair are still trying to form workable political alliances with other right-wing MEPs, but they seem unlikely to muster the necessary minimum of 25 MEPs from at least seven member states which would trigger substantial funding for staff, as well as improve prospects of influential committee seats and speaking time in the European Parliament chamber.

After one recent visit to the European Parliament's Brussels headquarters searching for political bedfellows, Mr Griffin, MEP for the North West region, repaired to nearby O'Farrell's bar, where he sat at a table outside to be served. Soon afterwards he was asked to leave. According to another drinker on the premises at the time: "He was sitting quietly outside, and then he was recognised and he was told he wasn't welcome."

The same bar is one of the regular watering holes of UK Independence Party leader (Ukip) and MEP Nigel Farage, who is trying to put as much political distance between his party and the BNP as possible.

The third and latest snub for the democratically-elected BNP duo has come from the Government, which has left Mr Griffin and Mr Brons off the invitation list for a cocktail reception in Strasbourg next Wednesday.

A Government spokesman explained the decision was part of established policy towards elected extremists, even though they are accorded the same basic government facilities as other elected individuals.

"The same general principles governing official impartiality apply in the European Parliament as they do for Westminster groups and MPs. UK Government officials will provide all MEPs with standard written briefings as appropriate from time to time, for example on the MEPs' Statute, with no differentiation. British and other MEPs can also be provided with factual written briefing on specific policy issues upon request, again with no differentiation."

The spokesman went on: "However, the long-standing policy of the Government is that officials will not engage in any other contact with elected representatives of any nationality who represent extremist or racist views, unless specific permission has been granted to do so on a particular occasion from the FCO Permanent Under-Secretary and the Minister for Europe. On the basis of this policy, MEPs representing the BNP are not invited to the reception on Wednesday. UKIP MEPs have been invited."

Andrew Brons (Yorkshire and Humber) was not far off when he predicted after the election that his victory would not be "universally popular".

Independent

BNP threat in pub fracas

Blackpool Magistrates Court

AN engineer threatened to knock out a doorman and shouted at him: "I'm part of the BNP".

The fracas took place during the weekend the BNP was holding its conference in Blackpool.

Lee Kelly, 33, pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour.

He was fined £300 with £60 costs and ordered to pay the £15 victims' surcharge by Blackpool magistrates.

Martine Connah, prosecuting, said Kelly was among a group causing a fracas outside Yates's Wine Lodge on June 20 at 6.30pm.

Kelly, of Easton Road, Droylsden, shouted at a doorman and pushed a police sergeant in the chest, shouting "don't touch me" and struggled violently when arrested.

Kathryn Edwards, defending, said her client, who had no previous convictions, had come to the resort on a stag party.

She added Kelly denied being with the BNP.

Blackpool Gazette

Croydon BNP candidate leaves offensive messages on web

Charlotte Lewis

A British National Party candidate who claims she is not racist left discriminatory comments on a social networking site, the Croydon Guardian can reveal.

Charlotte Lewis, who stood as a BNP candidate in the recent Waddon byelection, left the disasteful comments on stories relating to ethnic minorities.

On the website Digg.com Miss Lewis wrote “Bloody Pakis” beneath a story entitled New shock figures reveal how UK student visa scheme is abuse.

On another story headlined Schoolboy’s killers facing life she wrote, “No surprise that they’re black........”

Her actions were condemned by Croydon Council’s Labour leader Tony Newman who said: “With general and local elections looming we are starting to see the real face of the BNP and the nasty individuals involved with them.

"I hope people think long and hard before they consider putting a cross against their name.”

People’s Party candidate Mark Samuel, who stood against Miss Lewis, said: “The party is banging a drum but are beating themselves to death with it.

“I don’t care what a person’s past is but if they are standing they have to be able to represent everyone not just their own views.

"I find the BNP to be offensive and I don’t like the way they treat other people.”

Miss Lewis, who served a prison sentence after sending death threats to a drugs company involved in animal testing, defended her comments.

Miss Lewis said: “I am not a racist, I am a racial survivalist and anyone who calls me a racist is a genocideist (sic).

"I think you have your priorities all wrong.”

Croydon Guardian

Jail death threats to killer of Baby P over Nazi tattoo

The stepdad killer of Baby P has received death threats after he showed off a neo-Nazi tattoo in jail.

The 32-year-old, who cannot be named, outraged fellow inmates by brazenly displaying the tribute to Combat 18 - said to be the "armed wing" of the racist Blood & Honour group.

One black inmate was so outraged he threatened to kill him. And as word spread, others said they would attack him, forcing prison chiefs to move him for his safety.

The man has now been placed in an extra-secure wing of Wakefield jail, West Yorks, in a cell next to serial killer Colin Ireland, who butchered five gay men.

A jail source said: "He isn't exactly the brightest prisoner and he made no effort to hide his tattoo.

"When a black inmate saw it he went mad. In minutes others heard about it and he was being threatened by several prisoners."

The stepfather was jailed for life for the rape of a twoyear-old and for allowing or causing the death of Baby P.

The Mirror

Wirral BNP supporter admits threatening female shopworkers during far-right march

Liam Pinkham

A BNP sympathiser has admitted threatening staff at a bookshop during a far-right march. Liam Pinkham, 21, was taking part in a BNP march through Liverpool city centre when he burst into the News from Nowhere community bookshop on Bold Street.

Liverpool crown court was told the skinhead was dressed in stereotypical far-right clothing, including a bomber jacket and jack boots and was abusive to the two women workers inside. They claimed he threatened to “burn down the shop”.

Pinkham yesterday admitted intentionally causing harassment, although his barrister Philip Astbury insisted he had only threatened to “shut down the shop”.

Pinkham, of Leeswood Road, Woodchurch, Wirral, had originally been charged with criminal damage and racially aggravated intentional harassment, but he pleaded to the lesser charge on the day his trial was due to start.

Geoffrey Greenwood, prosecuting, told the court Pinkham’s victims were extremely frightened of giving evidence and his pleas were acceptable.

Mr Astbury said Pinkham had now moved away from supporting the party. He said: “This was a fairly radical establishment which was obviously anti the organisation with which the defendant sympathised with.” He added: “He has tried to take himself away from that sphere of interest.”

The court heard Pinkham had been subject to a community order at the time of the incident on November 29 last year. Judge Bryn Holloway said: “On any view this was an extremely unpleasant incident.”

He adjourned sentencing until July 31.

Liverpool Echo

Kirklees Unity Note:

This is the same Liam Pinkham who posts as Pino88 on Stormfront and was arrested with "Wigan Mike" Heaton outside the Kimberley Hotel in Blackpool the other day.

The same Pinkham who is involved with the BFF and attended the NF remembrance Sunday march to the cenotaph last year.

2 pints of lager and a packet of BNP leaflets

The BNP website reports:

The British National Party in the West Midlands is expanding once again, reports new regional organiser Alwyn Deacon.

Speaking to BNP News after his first regional council meeting held after the European elections, Mr Deacon said he had already appointed four new organisers, one new fund holder and three new contacts for up and coming areas.

Along with the report, we find a cheery picture of West Midlands BNP activists standing outside a pub:

Take note of the logo in the background. We've seen that somewhere before. Back in April of this year, I noted the activities of the British Freedom Fighters, a gang of openly Nazi skinhead thugs, who had posted photos of themselves out and about, stomping around the streets of an unspecified location and enjoying a beer and sieg heiling session at a pub:

So, where might this pub be, a pub visited by both the jolly West Midlands BNP brigade and the BFF boneheads?

A bit of digging based on street signs and shop names in BFF pictures turned up a bar in Nuneaton called 'Eliotts Bistro'. According to the pub's listing on nuneatonpages.co.uk, Eliott's Bistro offers a 'welcoming and friendly atmosphere' and the contact is given as 'A. Deacon'. Note the logo:

What are the chances of that? The West Midlands BNP regional organiser is one Alwyn Deacon, and his crew are pictured outside a pub run by an A. Deacon. According to a May 2008 Coventry Telegraph report, 'BNP leader Alwyn Deacon, a Nuneaton pub landlord, failed by just 16 votes to oust Labour stalwart Bill Hancox in Bede ward'. This same Alwyn Deacon also stood for the BNP in the recent local election there.

Now either there are two pub landlords in Nuneaton called A. Deacon - one BNP and one non-BNP - and the BNP A. Deacon likes taking his BNP buddies for drinks at the pub of the non-BNP A. Deacon, or BNP organiser Alwyn Deacon is indeed the landlord of Eliotts Bistro. I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and go with the latter.

Given this, it is interesting that of all the pubs in Nuneaton that the BFF could have chosen for their boozy stiff arm session it just happened to be the pub of BNP activist and landlord Alwyn Deacon. An odd coincidence, no doubt...

Still, for anyone planning a night out in Nuneaton who doesn't relish the thought of spending time at a pub run by a BNP activist, you might like to give Eliotts Bistro a miss.

Edmund Standing at Harry's Place

Sink immigrants' boats - Griffin

*The EU should sink boats carrying illegal immigrants to prevent them entering Europe, British National Party leader Nick Griffin has told the BBC.*

The MEP for the North-West of England said the EU had to get "very tough" with migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

Pressed on what should happen to those on board, he said: "Throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya".

Libya has long been a staging post for migrants from Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa wanting to reach Europe.

Nearly 37,000 immigrants landed on Italian shores last year, an increase of about 75% on the year before.

But with the prospect of a new immigration and asylum policy being voted on this autumn by MEPs, Mr Griffin is advocating measures to destroy boats used by illegal immigrants to reach the EU's southern coastline.

*'Combating the flow'*

In an interview with this week's edition of BBC Parliament's The Record Europe, he said: "If there's measures to set up some kind of force or to help, say the Italians, set up a force which actually blocks the Mediterranean then we'd support that.


*Europe has sooner or later to close its borders or its simply going to be swamped by the Third World*
Nick Griffin MEP

"But the only measure, sooner or later, which is going to stop immigration and stop large numbers of sub-Saharan Africans dying on the way to get over here is to get very tough with those coming over.

"Frankly, they need to sink several of those boats.

"Anyone coming up with measures like that we'll support but anything which is there as a 'oh, we need to do something about it' but in the end doing something about it means bringing them into Europe' we will oppose."

The interviewer, BBC Correspondent Shirin Wheeler, said: "I don't think the EU is in the business of murdering people at sea."

Mr Griffin replied: "I didn't say anyone should be murdered at sea - I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya.

"But Europe has sooner or later to close its borders or its simply going to be swamped by the Third World."

In May, the Italian government gave Libya three patrol boats as part of a deal aimed at combating the flow of illegal migrants making the crossing to Italy.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a member of the anti-immigration Lega Nord party, hailed the first 200 migrants picked up by the boats and returned to Libya as an "historic" moment.

But human rights groups have raised concerns about Italy sending migrants back to Libya without first screening them for asylum claims or to discover whether they are sick, injured, unaccompanied children or victims of human trafficking.

Libya has no functioning asylum system and is not a party to the 1951 UN convention relating to the status of refugees.

*'Influence'*

Separately Mr Griffin, who will next week formally take up his seat in Brussels, has admitted that the BNP has failed to convince other like-minded parties to form an alliance in the new European Parliament.

Talks with France's Front National, Lega Nord, and other groups fell apart, with Lega Nord now joining the new Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, led by Britain's UK Independence Party.

Mr Griffin told The Parliament.com: "We needed at least 25 members from seven different member states to form a group. There is no doubt that we would have been able to wield a lot more influence if we could have formed a group.

"No one was prepared to commit themselves knowing that we had not got Lega Nord on board.

"Even so, we will continue to work together with these other groups and share ideas. We will have less access to things like speaking time and committee votes but it's too bad."

The BNP advocates British withdrawal from the European Union and an end to all immigration to the UK and last month won its first two seats in the European Parliament.

Mr Griffin and the party's other recently-elected MEP Andrew Brons will sit in the "non-attached" section of the Parliament, which means they will be entitled to less administrative and financial support.

*You can watch the full interview with Nick Griffin on The Record Europe on BBC Parliament, BBC World and the BBC News Channel on Saturday and on the programme's website.*

BBC

BNP Link to English Defence League Website

Paul Ray

Various sites have noted that the “English Defence League” – which I have blogged on a couple of times lately – has as its web designer a certain Chris Renton, who has been listed as a BNP member. According to the Stirrer:

In an interview with Stirrer editor Adrian Goldberg on Talksport last night, spokesman Paul Ray also admitted their links with the BNP…When EDL spokesman Ray was quizzed about this, he acknowledged Renton’s involvement, but insisted, “people’s political views are their own affair.”

This has been reposted on Ray’s Lionheart blog, and he does not dispute the quote. A screenshot of the BNP website also appeared in a video montage Ray created as an advert for last Saturday’s protest in Birmingham (see here at 2:45).

Ray has expressed qualified enthusiasm for the BNP a number of times on his blog, and this was the main reason why American conservatives ditched him last year after initially offering support over his arrest for incitement. Ray takes the view that, under guidance from God, the party will move beyond its racism:

I did see Nick Griffins Easter message and thought it was very very good and inspirational.

It seems that they are the only ones willing to defend and uphold Christianity in this country, as for me i will trust in God to bring about the changes within them to make them the people He wants them to be. As you know there is nothing impossible with Him, and you should not judge these people who God is doing a work with and through.

Perhaps he actually believes this – he wouldn’t be the first person to think that the BNP can be redirected to some other purpose, and various right-libertarians have attempted the same thing over the years (alas, UK libel law prevents free discussion on this point). However, Ray also rails against “Paki Muslims” on American radio, which is not an adjective he chooses to uses on his blog. And BNP Christianity – as represented by the Rev Robert West – specifically teaches that the “mixing of races” is sinful because God has ordained different “physical, intellectual and character” traits to various groups.

Meanwhile, a group such as EDL certainly fits with the BNP’s long-term strategy - in 2000 Nick Griffin was invited by KKK leader David Duke to speak to some American racists, and he advised that

…Perhaps one day, once by being rather more subtle we’ve got ourselves in a position where we control the British broadcasting media, then perhaps one day the British people might change their mind and say, “Yes, every last one must go.” Perhaps they will one day, but if you offer that as your sole aim to start with, you’re gonna get absolutely nowhere. So, instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity.

Griffin has also explained his move away from anti-Jewish conspiracy-mongering to attacking Muslims as being because:

The proper enemy to any political movement isn’t necessarily the most evil and the worst. The proper enemy is the one we can most easily defeat.

(Hat tip to a reader)

Bartholemew's notes on religion

Far-Right extremists 'are plotting spectacular terrorist attack in UK', police warn

Masked men calling themselves March for England protested against an Islamic march in Luton in April

Neo-Nazis are plotting a 'spectacular' terrorist attack on Britain to fuel racial tension, Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism officers fear.

Senior officers have increased their surveillance of suspects to monitor their ability to carry out a deadly attack aimed at causing a 'breakdown in community cohesion'.

The chilling warning comes after last month's startling gains by the BNP in the local and European elections which many fear may 'embolden' violent Far-Right extremists.

Commander Shaun Sawyer, from the Met's specialist operations wing told a meeting of British Muslims last night: 'I fear that they will have a spectacular ...

'They will carry out an attack that will lead to a loss of life or injury to a community somewhere. They're not choosy about which community.'

His comments came after Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson asked officers to examine what effect the recession could have on far-right violence.

And the news mirrors similar warnings of the threat from far-right sympathisers issued in America in recent months.

While countering a threat from Islamic extremists remains the priority many officers now believe that funds need to be funnelled towards preventing a possible strike by the Far-Right.

Despite the warning, Assistant Commissioner John Yates today warned that counter terrorism police face budget cuts.

He admitted savings must be made in two years time despite the risks posed by the looming London 2012 Olympic Games.

The senior officer, who took control of Scotland Yard's specialist operations wing three months ago, said it would be "naive" to think counter terrorism work would escape the recession.

Last weekend it was revealed that a network of suspected extremists with access to 300 weapons and 80 bombs has been uncovered by counter- terrorism detectives.

Thirty-two people were questioned by police and 22 properties were raided over an alleged plot to bomb mosques.

It was the biggest terrorist arms haul since the IRA mainland bombings in the 1990s.

Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire, said: 'The big bad wolf is still the Al-Qaeda threat.

'But my people are knocking over right-wing extremists quite regularly. We are interdicting it so that it doesn't first emerge into the public eye out of a critical incident like an explosion.'

It is more than 10 years since neo-Nazi nail bomber David Copeland attacked three targets in London in 1999.

Three people died at the Admiral Duncan gay pub in Soho.

The scene in London after the 1999 neo-Nazi attack on the Admiral Duncan pub, which killed two people and injured at least 50 more

Copeland also targeted the Muslim community in Brick Lane, east London, and a supermarket in Brixton, south London.

Abdurahman Jafar of the Muslim Safety Forum, where the concerns were raised, said:

'Muslims are the first line of victims in the extreme right's campaign of hate and division and they make no secret about that.

'Statistics show a strong correlation between the rise of racist and Islamophobic hate crime and the ascendancy of the BNP.'

Neo-Nazi Martyn Gilleard, who was convicted of terrorism offences, idolised Hitler

Mark Gardner, of the Community Security Trust, which monitors violence against Jews, said there has been a surge in right-wing incidents.

He said: 'Ten years after the Nazi nail bombings in London, we are seeing increasing numbers of neo-Nazis being arrested in their attempts to start some kind of so-called race war.

'It is the Muslim community that appears to be most targeted, but all of society is at risk, and we are in regular discussion with police about the problem.

'Worse still, the recent electoral successes for the BNP may cause some would-be terrorists to be further emboldened in their actions.'

Last year neo-Nazi Martyn Gilleard, 31, was convicted of three terrorism offences and jailed for 16 years.

Gilleard idolised Adolf Hitler and urged sympathisers to act to preserve the 'purity of the white race'.

When police raided his flat they found bullets, swords, knives and four nail bombs under a bed used by his five-year-old child.

Officers also found DIY bomb manuals, a guide on making a sub-machine gun and internet instructions on carrying out assassinations by poison.

A speech he had recorded in a notebook mentioned 'killing Muslims, blowing up mosques and fighting back'.

No one at the Muslim Safety Forum was available for comment. The Metropolitan Police declined to comment.

Last month a white supremacist with links to the BNP shot dead a security guard at Washington's Holocaust Museum in a racially-motivated killing.

Before launching the attack, 88-year-old James von Brunn sent out an email claiming: 'It's time to kill all the Jews.'

Von Brunn was shot and wounded by museum security officers after he walked into the packed tourist attraction and began firing indiscriminately.

The Daily Mail

Family's fear of Huyton BNP race hate gun thug

A FAMILY told of their shock and fear after a neighbour racially abused them before pointing a gun at their father.

The Adedoyin family watched in horror as Ian Maitland, 44, “erupted like a raging bull” before waving the gun and unleashing a torrent of racist abuse.

They had never spoken to the cabbie across the street before he screamed at the children aged five, 10 and 15-year-old twins and told Jeff Adedoyin to “get home to Africa”.

He boasted about being a *BNP* member before declaring he “would kill them all”.

Maitland was jailed for nine months yesterday after telling Liverpool crown court the children awoke him by playing outside around 9pm.

The court heard IT consultant Mr Adedoyin went to see Maitland at his home in St Christopher’s Drive, Huyton, after hearing a volley of abusive shouting and finding his children in tears.

The 37-year-old, who is originally from Nigeria, stood outside the house as his terrified mother-in-law dialled 999 and Maitland appeared with the gun and a baton.

He screamed and waved the gun towards them.

Maitland’s wife Julie appeared and spat at Mr Adedoyin’s mother-in-law, Julie Durkin.

The 52-year-old told the ECHO: “I just felt this shock and disbelief that this was happening.

“He was like a raging bull. You wouldn’t think it could happen. I’ve never heard language like it.

“The whole thing has been horrendous. It’s had an affect on all of us.”

Restaurant worker Lindsey Adedoyin, 33, said she had struggled to sleep and was unable to work for months after her children and partner were threatened.

She said: “I keep having panic attacks and it took me almost a year to get back to work.

“I kept thinking I saw him in the street – even though he moved away – and I worried about the children playing outside. I had nightmares about it for ages. I still feel shaken.”

She said she noticed a change in her children, particularly her son, now 11.

“He always used to be really outgoing but now he holds everything in.

“I’ve seen a difference in him; the way he is with his friends.”

Maitland admitted possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear and causing racially aggravated fear of violence during the incident on August 10 last year.

Prosecutor David Watson said when police arrived he told them: “I am BNP, that’s my choice,” but later denied being a member of the right wing party in interview.

Michael Maher, defending, said Maitland was “essentially all mouth” with “no bite.”

He said he had since lost his house, his Hackney taxi licence and feared being separated from his children.

Julie Maitland, who admitted common assault, received a community order with 12 months supervision and was ordered to attend a human dignity probation programme.

She wept and shouted “I love you” as her husband was led away.

Mrs Durking said her family were upset by the sentences.

She said: “We can’t help thinking if this had been an 18-year-old lad waving a gun and shouting racial abuse he would have gone away for a lot longer.”

Victims of racial abuse can call the Knowsley Ethnic Minority Support Group on 07890 948 912.

Liverpool Echo

Bomb seizures spark far-right terror plot fear

Sir Norman Bettison

A network of suspected far-right extremists with access to 300 weapons and 80 bombs has been uncovered by counter-terrorism detectives.

Thirty-two people have been questioned in a police operation that raises the prospect of a right-wing bombing campaign against mosques. Police are said to have recovered a British National party membership card and other right-wing literature during a raid on the home of one suspect charged under the Terrorism Act.

In England’s largest seizure of a suspected terrorist arsenal since the IRA mainland bombings of the early 1990s, rocket launchers, grenades, pipe bombs and dozens of firearms have been recovered in the past six weeks during raids on more than 20 properties. Several people have been charged and more arrests are imminent. Current police activity is linked to arrests in Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

Police are examining allegations that many of the guns were manufactured or reactivated, then sold over the internet to viewers of a right-wing website. Details of the previously secret operation were disclosed by Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire, to security officials.

Police sources say that in a recent case not linked to the current arrests, detectives seized maps and plans of mosques from the homes of suspected far-right supporters. A senior Whitehall official said MI5 was monitoring the police investigation. While the security agency did not have a brief to probe right-wing terrorism, that position was constantly under review, said the official.

Fears have been heightened by the discovery of an alleged plot involving ricin, a lethal poison; two men have been been charged with offences under the Terrorism Act.

Concerns that this might be part of a global trend have been reinforced by the case of James Von Brunn, the 88-year-old white supremacist charged with shooting dead a security guard at the Holocaust museum in America last month.

Bettison said 32 people had been arrested in the investigation, although the counter-terrorism unit in Leeds said this figure was in fact the number of people questioned. At least 22 properties have been searched.

The operation had thrown up evidence that suspects were communicating online.

“The internet gives it reach and scope,” said Bettison. “The big bad wolf is still the Al- Qaeda threat. But my people are knocking over right-wing extremists quite regularly. We are interdicting it so that it doesn’t first emerge into the public eye out of a critical incident like an explosion.”

Several alleged right-wing extremists have been charged with terrorism offences in the UK in the past year. In one case, a jury convicted Martyn Gilleard, 31, a neo-Nazi forklift truck driver, who wanted to “secure a future for white children” and kept explosives at his flat in Goole, East Yorkshire. He built small hand-held bombs, and among the material seized were membership cards for the National Front, the British People’s party and the White Nationalist party. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

In 1999, David Copeland, the so-called London nail bomber, carried out a campaign against black, Asian and gay communities. His home-made devices each included up to 1,500 4in nails. In his final attack Copeland killed three people, including a pregnant woman, after nail bombing a Soho pub. He got a life sentence for murder.

Far-right parties across Europe are growing in popularity. In last month’s European elections, the BNP won two seats for the first time in Yorkshire and the northwest and took 6.2% of the national vote.

Sunday Times

EURO FASCISTS TO BACK BNP

FASCISTS from across Europe are gearing up to attend the British National Party’s ­annual summer bash.

The far-right group will hold its Red, White and Blue festival for a third year this August.And this time they hope to attract the support of Nazi groups from overseas after their recent gains in the European elections.

Anti-Nazi groups say a motley crew of racists and fascists may appear as “guest speakers” at the event in Denby, Derbyshire.They could include Zoltan Fuzessy, the British-based vice-president of Hungary’s ultra right-wing Jobbik party.

BNP leader Nick Griffin and fellow MEP Andrew Brons have been lobbying other far-right factions in the European Parliament in a bid to increase their ­collective voting power.

Last night Gerry Gable of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight said: “Recently Griffin and Brons were in Brussels ­trying to form a partnership with other far-right parties.

“Put it this way, they will be looking to invite lots of unsavoury people to their event.”

The Star

Le Pen's daughter scents victory for resurgent far right

The Front National's leader-in-waiting is confident of winning a municipal election today in the classic heartland of French socialism, and pollsters agree with her. Jason Burke in Hénin-Beaumont reports on a campaign which may provide a model for hijacking a disgruntled working class eager for change

Veteran FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is due to retire next year, kisses his daughter, Marine, at a rally in Nice. Photograph: Eric Gaillard/Reuters

With a cheery "OK, let's go," Marine Le Pen leads her troop of activists down the steps of their campaign headquarters, through the narrow streets and into Hénin-Beaumont's weekend market. Bottle-blond hair, white stilettoes clicking on the pavement, white jeans a sharp contrast to the tracksuits around her, the 40-year-old former lawyer and far-right politician offers handshakes, leaflets, smiles and encouragement in her smoker's rasp.

By her side is Steeve Briois, the local boy and Front National (FN) candidate who she hopes will be the mayor of this depressed former mining town in northern France when the final count from the second round of Hénin-Beaumont's municipal election is known at around nine o'clock tonight .

It is rare that a minor election in a small town in the Pas-de-Calais provokes so much interest. But the story was all over French newspapers and TV last week. Today sees its climax - and perhaps an indication of what may face France in the months to come as the economic crisis bites harder. "It is a poll that will be written in history, whatever happens," commented the local La Voix du Nord newspaper.

For the Front National and Le Pen herself, a victory in Hénin-Beaumont would be "the start of a new era". The FN would be running a municipal authority again for the first time in several years and for the first time in the blighted post-industrial political landscape of northern France.

Also, a first critical step will have been taken to reverse the steady decline since the heady days of 2002 when Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie, the former paratrooper who founded the FN in 1972, made it to the second round run-off in national presidential elections with a countrywide vote of 18%. And finally, Le Pen fille will be established as the unchallenged "leader in waiting" of the party once her father, now 80, retires as promised next year. Le Pen and her team are confident. In the first round of voting a week ago the FN scored well above 40%, twice as many as the nearest challenger. "Everywhere we see that there is a deep desire for a change," said former salesman Briois, 36. "I was born and bred here. I know every inch of the land. I know what people are thinking and feeling."

Hénin-Beaumont is one of the poorest parts of France, a wasteland of red-brick terrace homes, crumbling blocks of public housing, half-deserted industrial estates and vast fields of wheat bisected by six-lane motorways taking holidaymakers elsewhere. The recent hit film Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis may have made the locals temporary comic heroes in the rest of France but it did nothing for unemployment rate which is, at 19%, almost three times the national average. Then there is the alcoholism, drug abuse and domestic violence, as well as some of the lowest levels of education and technical skill in the country.

But though these are reasons to be unhappy, say locals, they are not the main reason for the surge of the FN. The region around Hénin-Beaumont is the fief of the French Parti Socialiste (PS) and suffers all the problems that go with decades of one-party rule. "There has been a classic pattern of elected politicians treating their positions as a sinecure, patronage, factions, cronyism, no fresh blood at all and little in the way of ideology either," said Jean-Yves Camus, an expert in rightwing extremism at the Paris Institute of International Relations and Strategy thinktank.

In Hénin-Beaumont, run by the Socialists since 1953, things could not be much worse. This weekend's poll follows the imprisonment of the serving mayor on wide-ranging charges of systematic corruption and the resignation of virtually all his colleagues. The fraud is reported to have cost the town colossal sums, leading to local taxes rising steeply while schools' grants are cut. To make up the losses, taxes will have to rise even further or deep cuts be made in the municipal budget or both. To make things even easier for Briois and the FN, the local Socialists have split.

"It's a set of circumstances perfectly suited to the Front National," said Frédéric Dabi of the pollsters Ifop. "They can justly claim to have been the only ones to denounce the local corruption scandal while nobody listened, and that plays into their core claim to be the representatives of those who are marginalised by France's elites."

Then there are the national factors. Victor Roget, 63, who makes a thin living selling cheap clothes from his market stall, had set up his display of fluorescent T-shirts and tracksuits outside the local cafe where, though it was still not 10.30am, beer had replaced coffee as the drink of choice. Roget will be voting for Briois and Le Pen today, he said.

Apart from the corruption locally, his complaints were typical of those heard in bars and bistros, in workplaces, in the mainstream media all around France.

First, Roget said, came unemployment and the crisis of the welfare state. "The kids in France have got no jobs at all and we are all being asked to work longer and have our pensions and benefits cut." Then came the politicians and the Paris elite who "don't give a stuff about ordinary people" and simply spend money on "fast trains or big planes". They never listened to any "ordinary people".

Third, there was globalisation and, specifically, the Chinese. "We had jobs in Hénin," Roget said. "But now everything is made in China. We can't compete with them. They have factories where it is slave labour. What are we going to do? Work like slaves ourselves?

Finally, there was the maverick rightwing president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his hyperactive style. "You see him everywhere and he makes a lot of noise and spouts a lot of hot air but the result is pretty thin. It's just to keep us all quiet," he spat. "At least I can trust Steeve. He's a local boy. He's honest."

Back at FN headquarters, amid the posters calling for a halt to "robbery by the European Union" and for "France for the French first", Le Pen claimed that she and her party were the natural inheritors of the tradition of working-class, leftwing politics in northern France.

"The Socialists have broken all their links with the popular vote," she said. "The French Socialist party defends wealthy bureaucrats, it defends the BoBos [Bourgeois Bohemians]. These are towns that are leftwing, not leftie. Here politicians have always defended the interests of the workers. Well, they haven't recently and will pay the price."

The strategy of hunting for votes on the left as well as the right has split the FN and the debates have mirrored those in the British National party. Three years ago Marine Le Pen persuaded her father to ditch the hardline anti-immigration language and tone down the borderline racism and implicit antisemitism. Instead, she argued, the FN could break the barriers placed in its way by traditional parties by becoming "respectable" and gain support by adapting its key message. "We have put the economy, the preoccupations of ordinary people, in the foreground. I'm happy to see that my strategy has worked." The extremism of her father, who dismissed the Holocaust as a "detail of history" and called the Nazi occupation of France "relatively humane", was part of the past, she said.

"It's true that we have sometimes given our opponents a stick to beat us with but ... as regards immigration ... my father was a visionary, far ahead of his time, and was attacked because of the truths he told. Immigration - economic, humanitarian, of relatives, because of global warming - is going to be the number one issue in the 21st century." She broke off to greet a veteran supporter. "I'm 70 years old and have had enough of all these old farts," he told her. "We need young people to get things moving again."

Stacking leaflets nearby is Stéphanie, 19, a law student from Paris who has come up to campaign. "I'm here because the FN are the only party who defend the values I learned when I was young... like the love of your country," she said. "I'm sure we will win on Sunday."

Briois, the candidate, is half-proud, half-apologetic when explaining that, unlike France's elite, he did not attend an exclusive school. "I'm just an ordinary guy from the town," he said. "If we win or lose, we will still have achieved a lot."

The question worrying many is whether the success of the FN in Hénin-Beaumont can be reproduced elsewhere. The party suffered badly in the 2007 presidential elections, reduced to a fraction of its 2002 score, and did not make any real progress in the European parliamentary elections this year. Its finances are in a parlous state. One reason for its weakness was the success of Sarkozy, who positioned his conservative UMP party about as far to the right as he could go in the 2007 campaign and who remains relatively popular for a midterm leader in the middle of economic crisis. "All the main rallying points for the FN - the flag, national identity, the security agenda, immigration - have been appropriated by Sarkozy," said Dabi. "There is no sign that those voters who switched to vote for Sarkozy are drifting back."

For Brice Teinturier, director of the pollsters TNS Sofres, Marine Le Pen will struggle to follow in her father's footsteps. "Marine has the name and so inherits some of the appeal of her father and some legitimacy as leader," he said. "But she hasn't his political skill, his charisma, his ability to rouse an audience and take them with him."

Experienced watchers of extremists counsel against "hasty judgments" about a sudden turn of fortunes for the FN. "The situation in Hénin-Beaumont is exceptional," Camus said. "People have been talking a lot about a new wave of support for the radical right wing, but in fact in much of Europe they are in trouble and, apart from in the UK and in the Netherlands, have struggled to make any kind of breakthrough."

To fight the FN in Hénin-Beaumont, the parties opposing Briois and Le Pen, including Sarkozy's UMP, have called on voters to go for the main leftwing candidate. But this so-called Republican Front risks backfiring by playing to the FN's message that it is being blocked from power by the "elite" and their media backers. "It is a disgrace. We are not in Iran," said Sylvie Régnier, a bar owner and activist. "We have the right to be heard and to make our own decisions."

In the marketplace, Fatima Boughriot, 43, a specialist in vocational education for school leavers, gamely tried to distribute her "Open your eyes" leaflets. "We have to fight. We can't have our community become the only FN town in France," she said. Shoppers were not receptive to her message, she admitted. "Sometimes they just tell me to go back to whichever country I came from, though actually I was born 10 miles away," she said. "But most of them just say they have already made up their minds. They are not very keen on a discussion."

The dynasty

When Jean-Marie finally retires from active politics next year, another chapter in the Le Pen family saga will have closed and - his daughter Marine hopes - a new one will be opening.

It is definitely a saga. The twists and turns of Le Pen's political and personal life have been covered in the French press. Scores of books about him have been released as well as dozens of films.

Part of the fascination is the Dallas side of the clan. The veteran politician, his second wife, two of his daughters - including Marine - and their children share a mansion and five-hectare estate in western Paris. His daughter Marie-Caroline was ostracised from the party and the family when the FN split in the 1990s and she sided with her father's rival. Now she has returned to the fold.

Relations between Marine and her father have not always been straightforward either. "Like any family we have had our difficulties, but we sort them out," she told the Observer two years ago. "The attacks against us have made us very close. As a child, at school, I was the daughter of the devil for many. But we are a tribe and we stick together."

The end of Le Pen's career after more than three decades dominating the French far right leaves a gaping hole in the national political landscape. "If I become leader, it will be up to me to write on the blank pages," said Marine.

The Guardian

Croydon Council looks to take action over BNP member's sick boast

Croydon Council is looking to see whether it can take a BNP member to court after she boasted about mounting a hate campaign against a family of immigrants living in the flat above her.

Charlotte Lewis, who earlier this year stood as a candidate in the Waddon by-election, told a meeting of British National Party members she played loud music late into the night - which may have contributed to the Afghan family moving out. The comments were made at a meeting in east London to celebrate the party's showing in the recent European elections.

Addressing party members at a pub in Dagenham, she said: "I don't think they could take any more of my penchant for playing heavy metal at 1am."

When the Advertiser asked the 36-year-old, who lives in Bensham Lane, Thornton Heath, to explain the comments, Ms Lewis said she had "embellished" the story for the sake of her audience. But she added: "I'm of the opinion that none of them should be in this country anyway. It would be in the best interests of this country if they moved back to Afghanistan. If British people were to move in upstairs I would keep the noise down."

Asked if she had made any efforts to get to know her neighbours, Ms Lewis added: "That would be hypocritical, and I'm not hypocritical. What on earth would we speak about, even if they could speak English? They're immigrants in my country and I'm a member of the BNP."

Croydon North MP Malcolm Wicks - a patron of the West Croydon Refugee Centre - said he was appalled at her remarks. He said: "If she admits that she made the comments, it's a really extraordinary thing. It's clearly anti-social behaviour and the idea that someone could be considered for elected public service after admitting this kind of anti-social behaviour is bizarre. It shows the good sense of the people of Waddon for not voting for her."

Councillor Alison Butler, who represents the Bensham Manor ward where Ms Lewis lives, was equally disgusted by her bragging. She said: "I'm going to see if there's any action we (Croydon Council) can take. I'm just horrified at her despicable remarks, I just wish we'd heard about it sooner."

Gavin Barwell, the council's cabinet member for safety and cohesion, has asked officers to investigate what steps they can take against her under anti-social behaviour laws. He said: "I share Councillor Butler's concerns and will be looking into it. I view it very seriously, and I'm taking advice from officers about whether there is any legal action we can take."


This is Croydon

Man 'on cusp' of bombing campaign

A racist arrested by chance at a railway station was "on the cusp" of waging a terror campaign using tennis balls and weedkiller, a jury has heard.

Neil Lewington, 43, had a bomb factory at his parents' home in Reading, Berks, and wanted to target those he thought "non-British", prosecutors alleged.

The Old Bailey heard he was carrying bomb parts when arrested at Lowestoft, Suffolk, for abusing a train conductor.

He denies eight charges related to terrorism or explosives.

Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said Mr Lewington was found to be carrying the component parts of two "viable, improvised incendiary devices".

His holdall had been searched after his arrest, when he was also held for drinking and smoking on the train and urinating in public, the court heard.

This man who had strong if not fanatical right-wing leanings and opinions was on the cusp of embarking on a campaign of terrorism
Brian Altman QC, prosecuting

Later searches of Mr Lewington's home revealed a notebook entitled "Waffen SS UK members' handbook" which contained drawings of electronics and chemical mixtures, jurors were told.

"In addition to all of that, the police discovered evidence that the defendant sympathised with and quite clearly adhered to white supremacist and racist views," said Mr Altman.

Mr Lewington had an "unhealthy interest" in the London nail bomber David Copeland, America's Unabomber and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the court heard.

Mr Altman said: "The effect of these finds is to prove that this man, who had strong if not fanatical right-wing leanings and opinions, was on the cusp of embarking on a campaign of terrorism against those he considered non-British."

He said Mr Lewington had two video compilations of news and documentary footage about bombers and bombings both in Britain and the US.

'No qualifications'

This interest had gone "far beyond the mere intellectual or academic levels", Mr Altman said.

"In the privacy of his own bedroom and far from the gaze of his parents with whom he lived, this defendant had amassed the component parts of and had begun the manufacture of improvised explosive or incendiary devices," he said.

Mr Altman said Mr Lewington left school at 16 without qualifications but had worked in a number of electronics jobs.

He had been unemployed for 10 years after being sacked from his last job for being drunk and, though he lived with his parents, had not spoken to his father for 10 years.

His mother said he had placed Plasticine in the keyhole of his bedroom door so no-one could see inside, the court heard.

It was alleged that Mr Lewington, described as "a loner", had met a number of girlfriends through mobile phone chatlines.

One said she was put off when he made racist remarks, while another - an army cadet sergeant - said he asked if she had dealings with the Nazi group Combat 18, the court heard.

Mr Lewington had taken some weedkiller from her and later told her he had bought a child's chemistry set to use for making explosives, Mr Altman said.

Mr Lewington is accused of preparing for terrorism by having the bomb parts in a public place.

He also faces two charges of having articles for terrorism - including the weedkiller, firelighters and three tennis balls - two of having documents for terrorism and another of collecting information for terrorism.

Two further counts allege he possessed an explosive device "with intent to endanger life" and that he had explosives, namely weedkiller.

The trial continues.

BBC News

The Way Forward

With the BNP winning two seats in the European Parliament Nick Lowles looks at where the anti-BNP campaign goes from here

There are three clear facts that need to be remembered at the outset of this article. The first is that the British National Party has won two seats in the European Parliament. This provides it with the platform, financial clout and semi-respectability from which it hopes to build future success at a local and even parliamentary level over the coming year. Secondly, their election is a game changer. Debates around no platform, access to the media and political representation will change whether we like it or not and we will need to adapt accordingly. Finally, and in terms of this article probably most importantly, anti-fascism can be successful particularly if it becomes more organised. While I will argue that only by addressing the public policy issues that give rise to the BNP and challenging the racism at the core of its support can the far right be properly defeated, anti-fascism, particularly at a local level, can halt and even reverse its growth.

It is also important to dispel two widely (though separately) held assumptions. Firstly, this is not the protest vote against mainstream parties and useless locally elected representatives that many politicians would like us to believe. It is an increasingly hard and loyal vote which is based on political and economic insecurities and moulded by deep-rooted racial prejudice. This in turn is linked with a second myth, that the way to beat the BNP is simply to tack left and offer more socialistic policies. While this might peel off some BNP supporters who feel economically marginalised, it will not in itself address the strongly held racist views of many BNP voters.

As the YouGov poll (see below) clearly shows, the racism of many BNP voters goes well beyond simple opposition to current immigration and eastern European migrant workers which one might expect if their support for the BNP was prompted simply by economic insecurity. Belief in the intellectual superiority of white people over non-whites, the view of nearly half of BNP voters that black and Asian people can never be British, the almost universal dislike of even moderate Islam and the contempt and suspicion many of their voters have towards a liberal and multicultural society show how hardline much of the BNP support is and how it will take more than a more progressive economic policy to win them back fully.

More importantly, and regularly overlooked by politicians, activists and commentators alike, are issues around identity. As I have discussed before, the BNP is emerging as the voice of a forgotten working class, which increasingly feels left behind and ignored by mainstream society. As the YouGov research confirms, the majority of BNP voters feel that the Labour Party, for many their traditional political home, has moved away from them and is now dominated by a middle-class London elite who care more for Middle England and the interests of minority groups than for them.

Class politics exists but not as we once knew it. The Labour Party, in line with many other centre-left parties across western European and Scandinavia, draws the bulk of its support from the middle class, public sector workers and minority communities, especially in the big cities. The BNP, on the other hand, is the voice of a section of the white working class, particularly in those areas of traditional industry that have experienced the greatest economic and social upheaval over the past twenty years.

Most of the local authorities with the biggest BNP vote are in areas once dominated by the car, steel, coal or ceramic industries. All have gone, and those people able to leave have left. While some new jobs have replaced those lost, the work is generally lower skilled, short-term and further away from their home. In addition to economic difficulties the identity of the areas has collapsed, leaving behind a confused, resentful and alienated minority. This is the cultural war that the BNP has cleverly exploited, particularly by tapping in to people’s paranoia that outside forces are deliberately conspiring against them and giving preferential treatment to others (viewed by most BNP voters as undeserving).

However, all is not lost. While the BNP vote edged up it did not make the sweeping gains it and others predicted. The vast majority of voters still reject the BNP and many of those equally disillusioned with the political process did not vote BNP but stayed at home.

Addressing the widespread economic insecurities, solving the democratic deficit and forging new progressive identities requires public policy changes that are beyond the remit of the HOPE not hate campaign and anti-fascism generally. We can mobilise the anti-BNP vote and even sometimes suppress the pro-BNP vote but we cannot build houses and reduce waiting lists; we cannot prevent undercutting of wages and the abuse of migrant workers. Local anti-fascist movements cannot get resources into communities, often the poorest, dealing with extraordinary levels of migration.

That is the job of politicians and political parties. It is their failure currently to do so that is resulting in the increasing tribalism of local politics along racial and religious lines.

Making a difference

What we can do, however, is make a difference on the ground. And we do. Results in several local authority areas in the European elections showed the BNP vote (both actual and share of the vote) down compared to 2004. Among these areas were Burnley, Pendle and Oldham in the North West, Bradford and Kirklees in West Yorkshire, and Sandwell and Dudley in the West Midlands.

A common factor in all these areas has been the intensity of local anti-BNP campaigns, which has been all year round and not just a leaflet at an election.

And this sets the model for the year ahead. We will go into the 2010 local elections with an emboldened and financially secure BNP and we believe the number of council wards at risk is now over 150 across the country. The BNP’s main target will be Barking and Dagenham where it will be looking to take control of the council.

To fight the BNP effectively we must move away from city and town centre events to focusing on the very communities where the BNP is drawing its support. We need to return to localised leaflets and newsletters, tapping into the local identities of neighbourhoods and addressing local issues to undermine the BNP’s message of hate.

Smaller, local events are more important than one-off larger ones. The recent anti-racist carnival in Stoke-on-Trent might have been attended by 15,000 people but was it really the best use of £300,000? Even the carnival the year before, in Hackney, might have been attracted 60,000, but what impact does it have on the London hotspots such as Barking and Dagenham and Havering?

The effort required to put on and build such an event drains and diverts activism away from local campaigning, which will be the priority in 2010. Of course in the ideal world we would like both big national events and smaller local events, but where funds and activism are limited this is not possible.

A proper local strategy requires us to localise our campaigning. What works in one area will not work in another. Talking to principally Conservative voters requires a quite different leaflet to what would be put out in a traditionally Labour area. Localising our approach allows us to deal with local issues and also to target our message depending on what we are trying to achieve. And mobilising the anti-BNP vote is sometimes quite different from trying to suppress the BNP vote.

That is why the HOPE not hate campaign will be encouraging and supporting local groups to begin their own local anti-BNP newsletters. We hope that by starting this summer and focusing on the key wards for 2010 the newsletters will become a crucial tool to defeating the BNP at the ballot box.

To begin to undermine local BNP support we also have to build alliances within the community. Local anti-BNP groups need to be accepted and even respected. Every community has key movers and shakers and spending a bit of time cultivating relationships with these people will open new opportunities, allow our message to be widened considerably, potentially increase our activist base and give us a regular flow of information to rebut BNP myths and lies.

We also need to be cleverer in how we present our arguments. The YouGov survey shows the complete lack of respect BNP voters have towards authority – way beyond those of other parties. That means dogmatic or one dimensional arguments on anti-fascist leaflets are likely to fail.

We have to recognise that we might not always be the best messenger to get over an argument. One of the most successful leaflets we have ever produced was in Halifax where we got quotes from local doctors and pensioners to dismiss BNP claims that asylum seekers were forcing old people off GP lists and causing hospital operations to be cancelled. The strength of getting other people to speak up for us, particularly those respected by local people, is also evident from the survey. Local GPs, at 82%, came out as the most trusted professionals among BNP voters.

A new reality

We also have to accept that the political landscape has shifted. Searchlight comes from a proud tradition of No Platform, a belief that fascism should not be allowed to air its politics of hate publicly. We have always opposed legitimising fascism through public debate and where fascists try to incite hatred within communities through provocative marches and actions, we have backed mobilisations against them.

While I still adhere to this in principle I also believe that we have to accept a new reality. Firstly the BNP has MEPs and whether we like it or not Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons will appear more regularly on television. No platform agreements between political parties were already breaking down before the election, with only Labour holding to them, and this process is likely to quicken now.

Likewise, we also have to change our tactics on the streets. The hammer attack on a BNP activist in Leigh, Greater Manchester, in March was an unmitigated disaster. When we learnt about the BNP’s intention to hold a fundraising event in a local nightclub we got almost 5,000 people, including 400 from the local area, to sign an open letter from a local vicar calling for the event to be cancelled. Our pressure proved successful but what should have been a great media story, showing the strength of people power against the BNP, became three days of appallingly negative local headlines after an anti-fascist struck a BNP member in the head with a hammer.

Our response to any BNP activity is a tactical issue. Just as we always consider what is possible, so we have to think about the possible outcomes. With large chunks of local people supporting the BNP something that gives the party media sympathy is often counter-productive. In a 24-hour-communica-tions world every small event that in the past would have gone unreported can be headline news on television, the radio and on the internet within minutes.

With the BNP leaders far more politically savvy than in the past it is not difficult for them to spin a story to their advantage.

There is also a need for an honest debate about the use of rallies, marches and pickets. While one could argue that it is important continually to oppose the BNP gaining any legitimacy, such protests are increasingly ineffective and, probably more importantly, a distraction from the real work required in the communities.

The reality is that most people other than a few highly motivated activists will not come out on a regular basis. Continually chasing the BNP uses up their time when there is more serious but perhaps less glamorous work to be done in local communities. Again, people might say that we should do both. That may be the ideal but it is not the reality and choices have to be made. We have to prioritise our agenda rather than continually react to the BNP’s. Obviously there will be times when mobilisations are important but this cannot be a distraction from the real work at hand.

Moving forward

Over the next few months our priority is to build anti-fascist groups in every community in the country. Over 115,000 people have engaged in some activity for the HOPE not hate campaign. That’s an incredible one in 470 adults in Britain. Over 80,000 people have signed our “Not in my name” petition since the election, of which over 60,000 were completely new to us.

This shows the level of anger at the BNP success, but now we need to harness it in a positive and constructive way that helps us build the necessary networks that can defeat the BNP in the community.

Our initial job is to turn our online supporters into activists on the ground. Hopefully some will emerge as local organisers, committed to the localised strategy ahead. Old hands must be encouraged to support new organisers and we will be providing an organising and leadership programme in every region of the country.

A series of one-day training events will be held to give key activists from local groups the basics in running a local campaign group, working in a target ward and building alliances within the community.

From there a handful of the most enthusiastic local organisers will be invited to a three-day residential programme, to be held in the late autumn, where they will develop leadership and organisational skills.

Developing a pool of local organisers is the way to ensure good quality campaigns. Whatever the enthusiasm of local activists a lack of organising skills and the ability to localise campaigns effectively will result in continued reliance on national help, which in turn reduces the effectiveness of a local campaign.

To support local groups, particularly in the run-up to next year’s local and probable general election, the HOPE not hate campaign will be seeking to put trained organisers on the ground in each region of the country.

The work of local groups will be further supported by an even bigger online effort than we achieved this year. Through online telephone canvassing, supporters across the country will be able to help in our key battlegrounds from their front rooms. Matching groups and activists in one part of country where there is no BNP threat to an area where there is one can help us raise money for local material.

Remaining focused

The BNP success has led some to argue that we need to politicise anti-fascism, even to offer a political alternative to the BNP. While there are clearly public policy failings and a democratic deficit, it is not our job to fill this void. We must leave that to the political parties, old or new.

We are about defeating the BNP, both by turning out those voters totally opposed to their racist politics and by dispelling myths and challenging the assumptions and ignorance that give rise to BNP support.

We have a big job to do but it can be done. The work on anti-BNP campaigns in East Lancashire, Oldham, the Black Country and West Yorkshire is testament to that.

However, for us to defeat the BNP over the coming year requires hard work, building local broad-based coalitions, adapting to the new realities and being a little bit smarter than we have been before. Get these components right and we can hold the BNP at bay.

A hard and alienated vote

Who votes BNP and why

A new survey into the attitudes of BNP voters has produced some startling revelations. Unsurprisingly BNP voters are overwhelmingly opposed to immigration and asylum seekers but a sizeable number also share the BNP’s hardline attitudes about citizenship and racial superiority.

It shows that BNP voters are predominantly working class, drawn from former Labour-voting households and feel more insecure about their economic prospects.

Conducted by YouGov from 29 May to 4 June, the survey questioned 985 BNP voters as part of a much bigger study of the political views of 32,268 people.

The study tells us that men are twice as likely to support the BNP as women, 44% of BNP voters are aged 35 to 54 and 61% are drawn from the social groups C2DE. One third of BNP voters read The Sun or the Daily Star, whereas only 13% read the Daily Mirror and those reading The Guardian and The Independent are statistically insignificant. One fifth claim to be members of trade unions or trade associations and 36% identify themselves as skilled or semi-skilled manual workers.

On one level the report tells us little new. More BNP supporters regard immigration as one of the key issues facing the country at the moment – 87% compared to 49% among all voters. Again unsurprisingly, 94% of BNP supporters believed that all further immigration should be halted. This compares with 87% of UK Independence Party voters, 68% of Conservative voters, 46% of Labour voters, 43% of Lib Dem voters and even 37% of Green voters.

Only 4% of BNP voters believed that recent immigration had benefited the country.

What is more startling is the strength of the racial attitudes of many BNP voters. In a result that gives the lie to the BNP vote simply being a protest, 44% (compared to 12% of all voters) disagreed with the statement: “non-white British citizens who were born in this country are just as ‘British’ as white citizens born in this country”.

Among BNP voters 21% strongly disagreed with the statement compared to just 1% of Greens and Lib Dems and 2% of Labour and 3% of Conservative voters.

More disturbingly, 31% of BNP voters believed there was a difference in intelligence between the average black Briton and the average white Briton.

Although only 2% of BNP voters deny that six million Jews, Gypsies and others died in the Holocaust, a further 18% accept that the Holocaust occurred but believe it has been exaggerated.

It is clear that the BNP receives support primarily on issues of race, immigration and identity but there is also a clear link with economic insecurity. Several of the questions probed respondents’ views on their current and future economic prospects. BNP voters repeatedly had the most gloomy outlook.

When asked whether they were satisfied that they had enough money to live on comfortably, 74% of BNP voters said no, compared to just 43% of Labour and 50% of Conservative voters.

On whether they were confident that their family would have the opportunities to prosper in the years ahead, 75% of BNP voters said no compared to just 35% of Labour voters.

Over half of BNP voters felt the financial situation of their house- hold would worsen over the next 12 months. In contrast only 29% of Labour voters agreed and 27% thought it would get better.

Again, more BNP voters thought someone in their family would lose their job in the current recession than supporters of other parties.

One of the most startling results was the response to the statement that “there is a major international conspiracy led by Jews and Communists to undermine traditional Christian values in Britain and other western countries”. Amazingly one third of BNP voters completely or partially agreed.

However, the significance of this response actually lies in the feeling of victimisation felt by many BNP supporters and cleverly exploited by the BNP itself. The view that they are losing out because of the conscious action of others is widespread among BNP supporters and it comes out clearly in this survey. Over three quarters of BNP voters believed that white people suffered unfair discrimination whereas only 3% thought Muslims did. Nine out of ten BNP supporters felt that councils allowed immigrant families to jump housing queues.

This feeling of victimisation coupled with a widespread belief that the Labour Party, which most once supported, at best no longer cares about them and at worst conspires against them makes these voters susceptible to the BNP’s big lie. It is hardly a surprise then that so many people in Barking and Dagenham were happy to believe the Africans for Essex myth.

Think of the balance of forces. On one side you have the Labour Party (which 57% of BNP voters think no longer cares about them), politicians (who 78% of BNP voters think are corrupt), senior officers in the council (who only 1% of BNP voters trust a great deal) and immigrants (who 87% of BNP supporters think are a problem and only 4% believe contribute anything positive). Then you have the BNP, the anti-establishment party speaking up for the forgotten white working class.

This survey is both predictable and disturbing. While immigration remains the dominant issue for BNP voters it is clear that they more than any other group feel economically insecure and politically abandoned. What is shocking is the depth of their racism and the alienation from mainstream politics. Support for the BNP goes far beyond being a protest, as some politicians would have us believe, and the racist attitudes will not disappear simply by improving economic conditions.

We should be under no illusion that a long and hard struggle lies ahead.

What do you think?

We are opening up the August issue of Searchlight to find out your views on the way forward. Please restrict articles to 500 words and get them to me nick@stopthebnp.org.uk by 10 July. (Please note that space is limited and we cannot guarantee to publish every article.)

Nick Lowles, Searchlight

Doubts over BNP man's title claims

There was confusion last night over whether Norwich North's British National Party (BNP) candidate has the credentials to call himself “reverend”.

The Rev Robert West is at the centre of a row over his ministerial moniker, which he claimed was genuine - even though he admitted he had no current connection to any Christian denomination.

When questioned, Mr West, who lives in Holbeach in Lincolnshire, said: “It's been dealt with once and I don't have to justify myself.”

He said he had explained himself and shown his ordination certificate on a TV show in recent months, and said he had been advised “not to go through it all again”.

He said he had been “ordained as an elder” of the Apostolic Church of Wales some years ago. He claimed the word “elder” in the New Testament came from a Greek word meaning “priest”.

Mr West, who will be bidding to win the vacant Norwich North seat once the by-election date has been announced, said: “Ordination means recognition. It's simply recognition of what you are. It recognises your gifts.”

Meanwhile, UKIP leader Nigel Farrage was in Norwich yesterday outlining how his party planned to reach out to traditional Labour voters and Tories disenchanted with David Cameron's Conservative Party.

Norwich Evening News

Hate crimes soar in BNP areas

Hate crimes have soared in nearly every part of the country over the last decade.

Ugly incidents have increased by up to 27 times in regions with higher numbers of British National Party members.

Racist and religiously motivated offences totalled 39,643 in 2007 to 2008, the last year for which UK statistics are available. Ten years ago, there were 21,750.

The near doubling of the national average hides alarming hotspots.

Yorkshire and Essex, where the racist BNP have spread, are among the worst hit. The number of offences across Yorkshire shot up from 338 to 3,592. North Yorks had a 2,767% rise. Essex saw a 949% increase - to 913 from only 87.

The BNP, which stops non-whites joining, has 1,600 members in Yorkshire and 670 in Essex, according to a recent leaked list.

London bucked the trend sharply. The Met police still handle the most hate crimes but they almost halved from 13,850 to 7,353. The Lib Dems' Chris Huhne, who unearthed the figures, said: "Ministers must examine what the Met are doing and ensure best practice is spread nationally.

"The alarming rise in these crimes will be of huge concern to anyone who values this country's proud record as a tolerant and diverse nation."

The Mirror

Now who lives in a house like this?

From some of our Welsh friends.

Ever wonder why the intellectual dwarf that is Green Arrow, is so extremely vile, more so than most BNP bloggers?

Well, it could be that Paul Morris, who is the “man” behind the Green Arrow blog site thought he lived in such an impenetrable community and a remote village that nobody would bother come looking for him.

Unfortunately for Morris, having broken every boundary of good taste, including suggesting that young gay people were not trying hard enough to commit suicide, we thought we’d remind Mr Morris that there ain’t no mountain high enough and ain’t no valley low enough to expose Morris, the man who begs £35 per month to write his shite blog insulting and telling lies about decent people.

Race watchdog threatens BNP with injunction

The British National party is facing the threat of an injunction from the official body on race discrimination in the first such action taken against a political party.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission wrote to the far-right party today saying that it believes the BNP is in breach of the Race Relations Act on three counts.

"The legal advice we have received indicates that the British National party's constitution and membership criteria, employment practices and provision of services to constituents and the public may breach discrimination laws which all political parties are legally obliged to uphold," said the commission's legal director, John Wadham.

The letter gives the BNP until 20 July to provide written undertakings in response to the allegations, including a statement that it will not discriminate in party recruitment.

"This letter is the first stage in the beginning of a legal action", said Wadham. "We have concerns that the BNP have acted illegally … and it's for the courts to make the decision as to whether they think our assessment is correct."

Anti-racism campaigners welcomed the move but questioned why the authorities had waited until now to act.

"I am astonished that successive governments have allowed the BNP to get away with the exclusion of non-white people," said the human rights activist Peter Tatchell. "Many people who voted for them as a protest may not have done so if they had known."

BNP recruitment is open to members of the party who, according to its constitution, are of "'indigenous Caucasian' and defined 'ethnic groups' emanating from that race".

The commission said the policy was "contrary to the Race Relations Act, which outlaws the refusal or deliberate omission to offer employment on the basis of non-membership of an organisation. The commission is therefore concerned that the BNP may … be acting, illegally."

The statement also said the party's website asked job applicants to supply a membership number, which appeared to be in breach of legislation banning the "refusal or deliberate omission to offer employment on the basis of non-membership of an organisation". Other potential breaches of the law raised in the letter include concerns that the BNP's elected representatives may not intend to offer or provide services on an equal basis to all their constituents irrespective of race.

The BNP won two seats in the European parliament earlier this month when its leader, Nick Griffin, was elected in the north-west and a former National Front chairman, Andrew Brons, was elected in Yorkshire and the Humber.

After the election lawyers said there were numerous grounds for legal challenge against the party.

A number of BNP members already have criminal convictions for race-related offences, including Griffin, who was given a two-year suspended sentence for incitement to racial hatred after publishing material denying the Holocaust in 1998.

In 2006 Griffin and a party activist, Mark Collett, were cleared of race-hate charges relating to speeches the BNP leader made describing Islam as a "wicked, vicious faith", but last month he told party members in an online broadcast that he had no problem breaking race laws.

"As you know, we don't break the law. We never have … you know, on financial things. Don't mind breaking the odd race law, or being accused of it," he said.

A spokesman for the BNP said it had passed the letter on to its legal team. "We were expecting something like this but we are not too bothered," he said.

The commission said it had received around 50 calls from members of the public about the BNP's membership policy in recent weeks.

The allegations

Membership criteria

The party's constitution says membership is "within the terms of … 'indigenous Caucasian' and defined ethnic groups emanating from that Race"

Employment and recruitment

Its website says that membership is required to apply for jobs. This could amount to discrimination in recruitment

Provision of services

The Race Relations Act and the local authority model code of conduct require elected representatives to provide services on an equal basis

The Guardian

Row over BNP man's taxi contract

Council chiefs have admitted that they would make the parents of a black or Asian child with special needs to travel to school in a taxi driven by a firm run by BNP supporters.

In a move anti-fascist campaigners described as 'outrageous', council chiefs said they had awarded the family taxi firm run by Corsham town councillor Mick Simpkins a renewed school run contract, and said that they would not fund an alternative if a black or ethnic minority parent objected to their child being transported to school.

Other white parents who have already objected to their children being transported to school by the firm were refused council funding for an alternative, and the council said it would be no different for an ethnic minority family.

Cllr Simpkins said he would treat all children transported by his firm, be they 'black, Asian or anything in between' exactly the same, and said parents who protested were attempting 'to put us out of business'.

The row blew up after the Simpkins family, who all work for the firm, stood as candidates for the British National Party in and around Corsham earlier this month. Cllr Simpkins is also standing as the party's parliamentary candidate at the next general election.

The firm was awarded a council contract to ferry children with special needs to school in nearby Chippenham, often without chaperones. Some 18 months ago, one parent, Cheryl Walker, objected to her daughter, who has special needs, being taken to school by the firm.

"I was told that it was a BNP taxi or nothing, basically. I asked if they could just give me the money they would pay them but they said no to that, or to providing a different taxi firm.

"I'm not the only one who won't put their child in those taxis. It's not just the racist thing, it's the BNP's policies towards children with special needs as well. There aren't any children from ethnic minorities that need this transport at the moment, but it could happen. I really don't think the council would say the same to a black parent as they said to me, but there's no way we'd no unless it happened," she added.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Council said there was no problem with the firm transporting children, and that their membership of the BNP was not an issue. "We have a duty to the people of Wiltshire to get the best value services across the whole of the council. We have a rigorous process to ensure all drivers who transport children on behalf of Wiltshire council have satisfactorily completed all the relevant checks," he said.

"Our strict, open tendering process allows all contracts to be carefully chosen based on a number of criteria.

"These criteria include value for money and quality, but take no account of race, religion, gender or political leaning. Should we have any complaints about the delivery of any of our services, we would of course investigate them fully."

Cllr Simpkins said his firm provided a valuable service to special needs children, and was a service provided regardless of ethnic background.

He described the objections by Cheryl Walker and others last year as 'an attempt to put us out of business'. "Well, mum now has to take her child to school herself while we still have our council contracts for the other school children," he said.

"The fact is the council, the school and we are only concerned with getting the children to and from school safely and because they all have different special needs, each one is treated specially. There is no room for playing politics with the children.

"I'm surprised no one has asked the obvious. Yes, they are all white but would be treated exactly the same if they were black, Asian or anything in between," he added.

A spokesman for Unite Against Fascism, which organised a demonstration after Cllr Simpkins was elected unopposed to Corsham Town Council two years ago, said the situation was 'outrageous'.

"This is quite shocking."

This is Bath

BNP supporters cheer Nazi military medal winner

Charlotte Lewis

British National Party supporters cheered for one of their candidates to be awarded a Nazi military medal at a Euro election after-party.

A member of the crowd made the call after learning that Charlotte Lewis had travelled to Calais to lead a protest against the refugee camp there, taking placards reading "Britain's full up" and "Asylum seekers don't unpack, you're going back".

The ex-jailbird was telling the meeting about her exploits when a supporter shouted she should be given an Iron Cross - strongly associated with the Nazis and an emblem of the German army during World War Two.

Undercover Sunday Mirror investigators infiltrated the event on Thursday night in the back room of a pub in Dagenham, East London.

London Assembly member and local councillor Richard Barnbrook appeared briefly at the event, billed as a celebration of the party's "success" in the Euro election where they won two seats.

But the evening turned into nothing more than another opportunity for activists to express racist views. Bob Bailey, 43, a BNP councillor in Barking and Dagenham, gave two talks at the event, with Lewis - a candidate for Waddon, South London - giving a third.

Although the BNP, led by new Euro MP Nick Griffin, have tried to reinvent themselves as a serious political party, it soon became clear that many party members still harbour extremely offensive views. Lewis - who was jailed for six months in 2001 for making death threats against workers at a drugs company - made no effort to hide her contempt for immigrants.

Talking about her trip to Calais, she said: "The invaders are dangerous and they are not people we want in England or Europe or anywhere in the civilised world." She claimed they "swaggered" around Calais before recounting a story about her Afghan neighbour. She said: "The Afghan who lives in the flat above me... well, I say that, he hasn't been seen for two weeks, so I'm hoping him, Fatima and the brat have moved out." After a pause, and to raucous laughter, she added: "I don't think they could take any more of my penchant for playing heavy metal music at 1am. It's wishful thinking that they have gone back to Afghanistan, but it's more than likely they have been allocated one of numerous brand-new housing association flats in the area."

Lewis then described people who work in soup kitchens to provide food for refugees as "idiotic dim-witted liberals". It was after this that Bailey made his ridiculous pledge to give Lewis a medal if the BNP get into government.

Sipping a pint, he said: "Under the BNP people like Charlotte would get a medal... there is no doubt." Someone in the crowd then shouted out "the Iron Cross". The German medal is closely associated with the Nazis - Hitler reintroduced it and added a swastika.

Bailey then went into an antiMuslim rant. He said: "We do not need Islam in Europe and we do not need it in the UK. In London we know the stark realities of Islam more than anywhere else. They bomb buses, they bomb trains, they have created terror here."

Bnp spokesman Simon Darby said yesterday: "It was a joke. People in this country are famous for their sense of humour. We are quite open that we don't regard the mass importation of Afghans and replacement of the native population as a good thing."

Sunday Mirror

FAMILY SECRETS OF BNP LEADER NICK GRIFFIN

BNP leader Nick Griffin, who last week branded gypsies “anti social and criminal”, can trace his roots to travellers hawking cheap goods from a horse and cart.

The controversial MEP’s great-grandfather George Griffin roamed from town to town in a horse-drawn caravan with his wife Esther and their children, selling china and crockery.

Census reports show he spent years living the gypsy life, never settling in one place because as an impoverished traveller he was on the margins of society and never fully accepted anywhere.

Last week Griffin, 50, who condemned attacks on Romanian gypsies in Northern Ireland, said: “We have to bear in mind that the gypsy community is notorious for its extremely high rate of criminality and antisocial behaviour.

“Everyone in Romania and eastern Europe knows this and it is one reason why their governments are so keen to encourage them to come over here.”

Yet between 1868 and 1874 records show his great-grandfather represented just such a minority. He travelled in one caravan with his family while his business partner, Mary Ann Hollis, travelled in another.

George habitually lied about his age, describing himself as 25 in the 1871 Census, 41 a decade later, 47 in the 1891 Census and 58 in 1901. He plied his precarious trade in Devon and Cornwall and could often be found parked outside the London Inn pub in Liskeard.

The 1871 Census shows the caravans were parked next to the Cornish pub, noting: “Six persons not in houses”. In the column marked “Houses” it reports them as living in vans.

While George lived with Esther, 22, and his 10-month-old son George Junior in one, Mary Ann Hollis, 37, was in the second with George’s three-year-old daughter Mary Ann Griffi n and a William Huxham, 16.

He is described as a servant but probably earned his keep selling wares. In the Census column marked “Rank, profession or occupation” George is a “licensed hawker dealing in china and crockery ware”.

His lifestyle would not have fitted with the intolerant views of Mr Griffi n and the British National Party which does not accept black people as members.

"Griffin has called for an immediate halt to immigration, and voluntary resettlement of immigrants legally living in Britain.

When told this week of Mr Griffin’s heritage, shocked BNP deputy leader Simon Darby said: “That will please him.” Genealogy expert Nick Barratt added: “George Griffin travelled around, scratching a living. His group will have roamed from street to street like ragtag travellers trying to survive on their wits and selling their wares.

“And it is highly likely he spent many more years living the life of a traveller before he married.

“Today we would call his group travellers and just like today they would have been marginalised on the edge of society and seen as outsiders.

“They will have been treated with a degree of suspicion and as a minority.”

Sunday Express

Hodge accused over Barking selection battle

Barking MP Margaret Hodge was accused this week of involvement in alleged dirty tricks over selections to her local council. The row threatens to tear Labour apart locally and help the British National Party take over the council in next year’s elections.

Speaking to Tribune, Labour activists, councillors and community representatives have accused Ms Hodge of being a “control freak” who has engineered the deselection of Labour members of Barking and Dagenham Council in a bid to exercise personal control over her constituency Labour party. For personal family reasons, Ms Hodge was unable to respond before Tribune went to press.

Eight Labour councillors have been struck off the candidate list since March this year, including Val Rush, cabinet member for the environment, and planning chair John Denyer. A ninth, deputy mayor Fred Barns, was also deselected but reinstated on appeal. Barking and Dagenham has 12 BNP councillors, more than any other borough in Britain.

Asked what linked the councillors together, one activist said: “They’re all people who didn’t like Margaret”. Another declared: “She is a control freak and she wants total control… I can see the BNP controlling the council”.

Barking Labour Party has been riven with factionalism since 2006, when Ms Hodge was attacked over her remark that eight out of ten white households were tempted to vote BNP in the local elections.

One deselected councillor said of the events: “I felt it gave the BNP the oxygen it needed and I wasn’t alone in speaking out. I think that I’m now paying for that”. They had suffered “bullying and intimidation” including silent phone calls, they added.

Some deselected councillors were discriminated against for their disabilities, a well-placed source said: “John Denyer can’t walk the streets, but there was always something for him to do… Fred Barnes has a disability but he would drive everybody around, pick leaflets up, but he had a hip replacement. That was given as one of the reasons.”

Various sources complained that the selection panels had been fed misleading information about councillors. At least three councillors heard of their deselection before being officially told, and one said: “The BNP seems to know a lot more about what’s going on in Barking Labour Party… They told me before I even had my interview”.

Ms Hodge is said to have announced the deselection of two councillors in Barking’s Thames ward at a coffee morning on 13 March – the same day one of them, Cllr Barnes, received the letter informing him.

The MP is also blamed for alleged misconduct at Barking CLP’s annual general meeting of 2007, branded a “shambles” by two separate sources. They say that non-Labour Party members were allowed into the meeting but other Labour members were barred and that Ms Hodge’s staff instructed delegates how to vote. Delegates complained to London Labour Party.

A London Labour Party spokesperson said its selections had been “fair” and denied any impropriety, including any contact with the BNP over deselections. It was “totally spurious” that disability had been used against councillors, they added. Laila Butt, Ms Hodge’s CLP secretary, said Ms Hodge had no involvement in selections.

Tribune

Kirklees Unity is a friend of Val Rush. She fights fascism. Margaret Hodge helps it.