BNP race row with Dr John Sentamu over 'spear-thrower' comments

The deputy leader of the British National Party has made an astonishing attack on Dr John Sentamu, the former Bishop of Birmingham, describing his Ugandan countrymen as SPEAR-THROWERS.

Simon Darby blasted Dr Sentamu, now Archbishop of York, after the cleric criticised the BNP’s controversial call for black and Asian Britons to be described as “racial foreigners” in future.Darby, who is bidding to become a Midlands Euro MP, said: “Dr Sentamu should not interfere in the political process. He’s not in any position to tell me or anyone else who is, or isn’t, English. If I went to Uganda and told them that they were all genetic mongrels and that anyone could be Ugandan I’d still be picking spears out of myself now.”

He also described Dr Sentamu as an “anti-British zealot” and an “ambitious African” – warning that he should “have thought about the consequences” of speaking out against the BNP.

The war of words broke out after last week’s statement by BNP Leader Nick Griffin that black and Asian Britons should be described as “racial foreigners”, and “no more British than an Englishman living in Hong Kong is Chinese”. He was defending a BNP election leaflet which stated that black and Asian Britons “do not exist”, adding that the use of the terms denied “the English their own identity”. It was leading to a “bloodless genocide” in the UK, Griffin added.

Outraged by the suggestion, Uganda-born Dr Sentamu said it was not up to the BNP to define Englishness.

“You don’t have to be a member of the BNP to be clearly English,” he said. “It is quite a mistake to suggest that everybody who wants to affirm Englishness affirms that narrow thinking. This ‘bloodless genocide’? I think that is just language which is beyond belief.”

Writing on the internet, BNP spokesman Simon Darby then made the savage attack on the Archbishop.

Under the headline ‘And the Lord said, arise though art all English’ Darby stated: “Our old friend John Sentamu, or to give him his full name John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu, has been up to his old tricks once again. As if the responsibilities of being the Archbishop of York were not enough, the ambitious African has apparently used his power and influence to kindly bestow upon the world the right to be English.”

Adding criticism of Labour MP Shahid Malik, Darby wrote: “I somewhat doubt whether or not this collection of professional anti-British zealots, who try oh so very hard to disguise their true motivations, have thought about the consequences of BNP success in spite of their very public interference. However, what is certain is that should the BNP triumph in Yorkshire or elsewhere, the likes of Malik and Sentamu will be able to wallow in their newly acclaimed marginalisation, obscurity and irrelevance for years.”

Yesterday anti-fascist campaigners Searchlight condemned Mr Darby’s comments.

“Simon Darby’s threats and thinly veiled racism expose the true face of the BNP,” they said. “Dr Sentamu is internationally respected, but even he is not immune from the smears and hate being peddled by Darby and his colleagues. It’s a measure of Darby’s desperation that he is resorting to these vicious attacks on a man of Faith.”

But last night, Darby was unmoved.

“As soon as anyone speaks out defending the English they are branded racist,” he said. “It’s ridiculous. This is all part of a smear campaign by Labour in the run-up to the European elections. I have no criminal convictions so so they are trying to insinuate I’m racist.”

The attack on Dr Sentamu follows the revelation that the BNP has been producing posters claiming Jesus Christ would support the BNP and their policies.

Sunday Mercury