Anti-fascists slam Tories taking on the language of the fascist BNP

Unite Against Fascism tells Tories only challenging BNP racism, not embracing it, will defeat fascism

Anti-fascists have condemned Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi's comments stating BNP voters have 'legitimate views' about immigration and crime, and that they must be 'listened to'.

The comments come on the eve of Conservative Party Conference as speculation about a general election grows.

In an interview today with the Independent, Lady Warsi stated: "The BNP and what they represent, they clearly have a race agenda; they clearly have a hate agenda. But there are a lot of people out there who are voting for the British National Party and it's those people that we mustn't just write off and say 'well, we won't bother because they are voting BNP or we won't engage with them...They have some very legitimate views - people who say 'we are concerned about crime and justice in our communities – we are concerned about immigration in our communities.'

Denis Fernando, Joint Secretary of Unite Against Fascism said:

"The Tory party only need to heed the warnings of Europe - mainstream parties attempted to pander to the fascist vote but this only helped it grow : by attempting to accommodate their extremist positions on immigration and Islam, mainstream politics legitimised fascist parties at the ballot box. This disaster was responsible for embedding fascist parties in mainstream politics, and governmental positions across Europe.

A similar picture was seen in Barking: the backdrop to the BNP's gains in 2006 was the whipping up of racism in the media and by some politicians against foreign nationals who had served prison sentences - it had the effect of equating immigrants with crime. The BNP fed off this hostility and fabricated racist lies about African migrants getting grants to move to Barking. This period saw a 30% rise in racist attacks. Claiming these views have legitimacy is an endorsement of the racist lies of a group with the sole aim of causing division and hatred and the declared aim of an all white Britain which would only be possible by violence. In the run in to any major election, mainstream parties would be foolish, irresponsible and dangerous to add a chorus to the call of fascists."