Ex-KKK man ditches 'irrelevant' Griffin

Right-wing friends Nick Griffin and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke have fallen out in the wake of the humiliating Question Time appearance.

The former Grand Wizard blasted Griffin’s shambolic performance on the show as “horrendous”. He revealed on an internet blog that he is “considering legal action” after Griffin implied Duke was still involved with the KKK in 2000. Griffin drew howls of derision from the BBC audience when he said he had shared a platform with the former KKK leader and described the group as “an almost totally non-violent organisation”.

A spokesman for 59-year-old Dr Duke said: “The impression was clearly given that Dr Duke was still a member of the organisation at that time. The truth is, he had left many years earlier and had already served a successful term as a Republican on the Louisiana state senate.”

Four years before his meeting with Griffin, Duke unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the US Senate. His aide added: “Any statement that refers to Dr Duke being a member of the klan at the time is a blatant lie. He is very unhappy with this and is considering what course of action, legal and otherwise, to take.”

The BNP leader was dismissed as “irrelevant” by a KKK recruiter at the race-hate group’s office in Harrison, Arkansas. He said: “This guy is irrelevant to us, but he should think very carefully before bandying the klan’s name around. We can do without the kind of publicity he might attract.”

At its peak in the 1920s, the KKK boasted a membership of more than 4million in America. Today, the KKK, classified as a “hate group” by the US government, has about 8,000 supporters.

Express