Friday, Apr 08, 2005
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By Hasan Suroor
LONDON, APRIL 7. The far-right British National Party (BNP), which is contesting next month's general election on an openly racist platform, suffered an early embarrassment on Thursday when its leader Nick Griffin, founder John Tyndall and another high-profile activist, Mark Collett, were charged with a string of race-related offences. Mr. Griffin, who is a parliamentary candidate from the racially-sensitive Keighley constituency in west Yorkshire, currently held by Labour Party, called the allegations "politically motivated,'' and a "new Labour scam to win back the Muslim vote.'' The charges against Mr. Griffin and his two party colleagues followed a long police investigation after the BBC secretly filmed them making racially provocative statements against Asians. The three, who were arrested in December last year, appeared before a court in Leeds on Thursday and granted bail. They were told that they would be committed to Crown Court for trial on May 19. If convicted they face jail sentences of up to seven years each. The case does not interfere with Mr. Griffin's legal right to contest the elections but, if convicted, he could be barred from becoming an MP. The BNP, which advocates "voluntary'' repatriation of immigrants back to their countries of origin, has been accused of stirring up racial tension in areas where there is a large immigrant population. Mainstream political parties have been caught on the wrong foot by BNP's successes in local elections since in the past four years. Though the party drew a blank in the 2001 general election with none of its 31 candidates winning a seat, Mr. Griffin managed to get an unexpectedly large number of votes in Oldham west — the scene of widespread race riots — and finished third. This time the party plans to contest more than 100 seats across Britain.
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