Nick Griffin: Ejection shows BNP not gone 'soft'

BNP leader Nick Griffin has said the ejection of a journalist from a meeting proved his party had not gone "soft".

Times reporter Dominic Kennedy was manhandled by BNP security guards as he tried to cover a vote on changing its whites-only membership rules.

Mr Griffin said: "That's not the actions of a snivelling PC party, but of an organisation that has had enough of being lied about."

He made the comments in an e-mail to BNP supporters.

Mr Kennedy was at an extraordinary general meeting of the BNP, which had been threatened with an injunction by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) if it did not change its membership policy to admit black and Asian people.

'True face'

In a front page article for his newspaper, Mr Kennedy describes how he was ejected from the meeting at an Essex pub.

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"Although I had been invited, one prominent BNP politician had taken exception to an article in Saturday's edition of The Times. After he lost his temper with me I was quickly shoved and lifted out of the building, hit in the back and had my face squashed."

Mr Kennedy, who was not seriously hurt in the incident, ends the piece by saying: "I never thought I would actually get my nose bloodied trying to cover a press conference for a political party - but that is the true face of Nick Griffin and his BNP."

The meeting voted to change the rules to allow non-white members, although the party must now go back to court in March when a judge will decide if the new rules meet race relation laws.

In an e-mail to party supporters, Mr Griffin described the meeting as an "unqualified success".

But he also addressed reported concerns from some BNP supporters that the party was "going soft" or feared being infiltrated by members of campaign group Operation Black Vote, following the rule change.

"That we're not going 'soft' was shown to millions of viewers who will have seen the report of us ejecting a lying Times journalist from the press conference," he said.

"That's not the actions of a snivelling PC party, but of an organisation that has had enough of being lied about."

'Hostile infiltrators'

He stressed that despite the party's rule change "our principles remain: We will always be a British Nationalist Party".

And he warned any "hostile infiltrators" they would hit a "hit a well-constructed brick wall that will shut them away from the levers of power and influence" but added: "This will in no way involve racial discrimination, well-meaning members of legally settled ethnic minorities will indeed be allowed to join".

He added: "We continue to avow the right of the indigenous British to be recognised, accorded our full rights as an indigenous people, and to organise ourselves and our non-indigenous friends to fight politically and legally to secure and defend those rights.

"The fact that a few of those non-indigenous friends (let's be realistic, there is not going to be a flood) will henceforth be card-carrying members instead of watchers from the sidelines, will change very little. Except that, as some of our less bigoted and more intelligent opponents are already complaining, our enemies will have far more trouble making the 'racist' tag stick against us."

Mr Kennedy said he did not want to comment on Mr Griffin's e-mail.

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