Barnbrook's apology for lying finally appears - after almost three months

Dicky Barnbrook and weak-bladdered friend at the hearing

More than a year after he blatantly lied to the electorate and nearly three months after a Barking and Dagenham Council disciplinary committee formally demanded that he apologise, pornmeister and pisshead Dicky Barnbrook has finally produced an apology - though clearly from between gritted teeth. Here it is, in all its glory:

'I would like to formally apologise in respect of statements I made in a video which was filmed during September 2008 and subsequently published.

In the video I said “In Barking and Dagenham alone, 3 weeks ago, there was a murder of a young girl. We don’t know who’s done it, her girlfriend was attacked outside an educational institute . Again, 2 weeks ago, there was another attack by knives on the streets of Barking and Dagenham where 2 people were murdered.”

These statements were unintentionally inaccurate and I apologise for giving out this information based on anecdotal reports and thereafter for not ensuring that the videos were removed or at least amended, once I knew the information to be incorrect. I have a passionate interest in the scourge of knife-crime which affects our whole community and will continue to speak out on the issue. I have no wish, however, to stoke fear of crime and realise the importance of conveying accurate information. I will seek to work far more closely with the Police and other agencies in future to ensure that I am able to do this.'

Barking and Dagenham suspended him during October, the Assembly censured him and ordered him to receive ethics training (which must have been a laugh to watch). It also demanded that he make a written apology which should appear on both the Assembly's website and his personal blog. Barking and Dagenham Council decided he must repeat the apology on his blog or risk the suspension being extended.

Barnbrook hearing being webcast now...

You can watch it here.

BNP politician Richard Barnbrook faces ban after 'making up' murders

The BNP’s representative on the London Assembly is facing a six-month ban after he fabricated murder stories to increase fear of knife crime

Richard Barnbrook, who is accused of bringing the authority into disrepute, may become the first politician in its history to be suspended when the case is heard today. An independent investigation found that Mr Barnbrook’s comments on YouTube about non-existent murders had showed “wilful disregard for the truth”. He said that he had got his words “jumbled up”.

City Hall’s standards committee will consider a penalty for Mr Barnbrook, who was elected in May, after he was found to have brought both the London Assembly, and Barking and Dagenham Council, the East London authority to which he was elected in 2006, into disrepute. Their options range from forcing him to apologise, undertake a course or participate in conciliation, to suspending him from both authorities for up to six months.

Supporters of both the BNP and Unite Against Fascism, which campaigns against rightwing groups, are planning to attend the hearing. London Patriots, a fringe rightwing organisation, says it will bus supporters to City Hall, raising fears of clashes between the groups.

In a video, which was posted on YouTube in May last year, Mr Barnbrook said: “Three weeks ago, there was a murder of a young girl. We don’t know who’s done it, her girlfriend was attacked inside an educational institute. Again, two weeks ago there was another attack by knives on the streets of Barking and Dagenham where two people were murdered.”

The Metropolitan police confirmed that there had been no murders or serious incidents in the time period cited, and that murders in the area were actually decreasing.

During a joint investigation by the GLA and the council, Mr Barnbrook admitted to investigators that he was aware that his comments were inaccurate. He was accused of making up the murders because knife crime was an emotive issue in the capital at the time. Valerie Rush, a Labour cabinet member at Barking and Dagenham Council, who made a complaint about Mr Barnbrook, said he had “openly and outrageously” lied to “whip up fears in the London community”.

Mr Barnbrook has since changed his position and yesterday told The Times that his comments should be excused because he had dyslexia. He said that he was the subject of a witchhunt because he had “humiliated” Boris Johnson, and his Tory colleagues, by highlighting the issue of knife crime.

Referring to the “young girl” he had spoken about in the video, he said: “I said she was murdered in Barking, but I should have said she was from Barking. She was actually murdered in Newham. The two additional murders that I spoke about, I should have said attempted murders. We had done five takes of the video. Some of the words would have got jumbled up.”

He said that once he realised the video was incorrect, it was removed.

Mr Barnbrook had been the most senior elected member of the BNP until June, when its leader Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons were both voted into the European Parliament. His disciplinary hearing was scheduled for July but was delayed when he claimed stress-related illness and was signed off work for two weeks.

Times Online

BNP GLA member admits murder claim was false - investigation finds "failure"

The British National Party's Richard Barnbrook faces a six month suspension after City Hall found he brought his office, the GLA and his council into disrepute.

The Greater London Assembly member and councillor at Barking and Redbridge admitted knowing that murder claims he made on YouTube were false.He wrongly stated on a video that three murders had taken place in the East London borough when in fact the trio were on life-support.

Breach of code - Standards Board for England?

Under section five of the code, assembly members are warned they must not conduct themselves in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing their office or authority into disrepute.

As well as a suspension, being forced to apologise, and undergo training he could face the Standards Board for England who may impose tougher sanctions. Valerie Rush, executive member of Barking and Dagenham with responsibility for safer neighbourhoods and policing, lodged the complaint.

Refused to comment - expresses "regret"

Barnbrook told investigators he knew there had been no fatalities when he stated a young girl had been murdered inside an educational institute and two people had died in knife attacks in the borough in the video clip in September.

The Goresbrook ward councillor declined to comment after receiving "legal advice". He has "expressed regret" over the false claim but refused to issue an unequivocal apology.

"Came out wrong" but recoding was not live

He claimed he had meant to say the young girl was from Barking and Dagenham but murdered in Newham and that it "came out wrong" because of the "speed of delivery".But the investigation showed the video had not been a live recording and he had refused to take it down.

A GLA report on the murder claims stated:

"We find that Mr Barnbrook has failed to comply with the code of conduct of both the GLA and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, by bringing his office and the respective authorities into disrepute."

London Daily News

BNP invite is the wrong race card for England 2018

The bright spark who suggested inviting members of the Greater London Assembly to Monday's launch of the 2018 World Cup bid probably thought they were doing England's chances a favour. You can't have too many cheerleaders, they might have reasoned.

Wrong. Among the assembly members that received the embossed invite was BNP councillor Richard Barnbrook, a high-profile member of the far-right party. Barnbrook's invitation represents an early and damaging own-goal for England's campaign and a blow to the FA's laudable work against racism.

The more you consider the incident the less forgivable it seems. Barnbrook represents a party that has a ban on non-white candidates, but he looked on from the VIP seats as Lord Triesman, the FA chairman, praised the cultural diversity England would bring to the World Cup.

In case we didn't get the message, the audience in the Bobby Moore Suite at Wembley had been bolstered by scores of schoolchildren drawn from the numerous communities whose presence in the UK Barnbrook's party so resents.

The FA's commitment to diversity did not extend to inviting Baroness Amos, Hope Powell or John Barnes, the only non-white members of the bid team, to share the platform with Triesman. These omissions would not have mattered half as much had the BNP not got an invite.

Barnes it turns out was unable to attend, but it is worth recalling that the winger's greatest achievement was to reach the pinnacle of the game despite routinely facing racist abuse from the terraces. We can guess how the BNP views his 79 England caps.

Barnbrook's presence at the launch also undermines one of England's unspoken advantages over their main European rivals Spain. The racist abuse of footballers and even motor racing drivers that has occurred in Spain in recent seasons is something the FA had hoped to exploit in its favour, arguing that England equals tolerance. Barnbrook's invite makes that equation harder to prove.

To be fair to the 2018 team they acknowledged their error in inviting Barnbrook as soon as complaints from supporters groups and politicians reached their ears. It should never have come to that however, and the furore serves as an early reminder that the bidding spotlight will illuminate England 2018's flaws just as clearly as its virtues.

This was a self-inflicted wound and a grubby, embarrassing one at that, but the bid will recover. Perhaps more profound will be the impact on the FA's wider work against racism.

The football authorities are quick to take credit for their work in tackling discrimination and there is much to be proud of. The Kick It Out campaign was pioneering and remains the benchmark for programs of its kind, playing a huge role in lowering the tolerance of racist abuse at football grounds and using the game to spread the virtues of tolerance more widely.

For those involved with Kick It Out, including its chairman Lord Ouseley, an FA councillor, Monday's events were deeply dispiriting. The FA, Premier League and Football League are all sincere in their commitment to tackle racism, but Ouseley and fellow travellers from all sectors of the game know that if football is to become truly accessible then it is not enough for the FA to talk the talk. It has to walk the walk too, and on Monday it fell flat on its face.

Telegraph

BNP politician could be suspended from Assembly after inventing three murders

Labour councillor accuses Richard Barnbrook of 'openly and outrageously' lying to 'whip up fears in the London community'

The most senior elected member of the British National party could face suspension from the London assembly for up to six months after he admitted inventing three murders to highlight knife crime, it emerged today.

A joint investigation by the Greater London authority and Barking and Dagenham council has concluded that Richard Barnbrook brought his office and the respective authorities into disrepute after falsely claiming in an interview that three murders had taken place over a three week period in the Barking and Dagenham area.

Barnbrook was elected to the London assembly last year and is also a councillor in Barking and Dagenham.

The findings relating to the BNP's highest profile member in elected office will be a blow to the party just a day after it used its European and local government election launch to attempt to present itself to the electorate as a credible alternative to mainstream parties following the debacle over MPs' expenses.

The complaint against Barnbrook was first lodged last September after he claimed in an interview posted on YouTube and his own website that a girl had been murdered within the borough within the past three weeks. "We don't know who's done it. Her girlfriend was attacked inside an educational institute," Barnbrook said in the prerecorded interview in which he sought to highlight failings in tackling knife crime.

He also said that two weeks previously "there was another attack by knives on the streets of Barking and Dagenham where two people were murdered".

Valerie Rush, a Labour cabinet member at the local authority, accused Barnbrook of "openly and outrageously" lying to "whip up fears in the London community". In her complaint to the GLA and the council, Rush said Barnbrook had acted in a way which brought his honesty and integrity as a councillor into disrepute.

Barnbrook, who is one of twelve BNP councillors in Barking and Dagenham, said that he knew at the time that he made the statements that "there had been no fatalities in Barking and Dagenham", according to a report documenting the investigation into the complaint (pdf).

Barnbrook nevertheless refused to apologise for the statements "until knife crime is over".

This meant that the interview – filmed by Simon Darby, the BNP's deputy leader, who works part-time for Barnbrook in the London assembly – was posted on the internet despite Barnbrook knowing the statements were incorrect, the report noted.

The Metropolitan police confirmed that there had been no murders or incidents resulting in critical injuries requiring intensive care in the time period cited, and that murders in the area were actually decreasing.

By the time the draft investigation report was published, Barnbrook had changed his position and claimed that he did not accept that "the inaccuracy of my statement was deliberate". He also stated: "I did not know that the data in the recording was incorrect. I would not have posted the recording if I had known that it was incorrect."

Barnbrook also insisted that "once I realised that the data was incorrect, the recording was removed from the internet on my instruction within 24 hours".

The investigation ruled that Barnbrook's original claim that he knew what he was saying was untrue "seems at odds" with the principles of honesty and integrity. "If the public were aware that Mr Barnbrook was in fact putting out statements that he knew were false, we consider that his could reasonably be regarded as undermining public confidence in both members and the authorities as a whole in being able to fulfil their function."

Barnbrook now faces a full hearing after the respective committees at the GLA and the London borough considered the investigation's report two weeks ago.

The report's findings prepare the way for one of a range of sanctions, including suspension from office for up to six months.

Guardian

Waddon byelection: BNP candidate quizzed by police in 2006

The British National Party candidate for Waddon was questioned by police over possible election fraud in 2006.

Charlotte Lewis stood in the May elections for a ward in Sutton, despite living in Thornton Heath. Electoral rules dictate candidates must live or work in the borough they intend to represent, but Miss Lewis did neither. She had placed on her nomination form an address in Lind Road, Sutton, as her home residence – only for a London newspaper to expose the address as false. Miss Lewis claimed she was in a relationship with a resident at that address at the time but admitted she did not live there full time.

Speaking ahead of the Waddon byelection, Miss Lewis said she had been “taken advantage of” by a party organiser who has since left the organisation. She said: “It was down to the previous branch organiser. There was a guy who lived in Sutton who was supposed to stand but he disappeared. I was drafted in at the last minute. I very much regret what happened in 2006. I was taken advantage of and it won’t happen again. I am wiser and that person who cannot be trusted has gone.”

The 36-year-old said she had got confused as the Greater London Assembly constituency combines both Croydon and Sutton. She added: “I did not have time to familiarise myself with electoral law.”

Miss Lewis was questioned by the police at the time but the incident was not taken up by the electoral commission, nor the local council, and no charges were brought against her.

Your Local Guardian

One Flew Over The Pig Farm: the BNP and us in 2008 - May

If the plans we have in place to prevent electoral fraud via the spoiling of ballot boxes works then I expect three BNP officials to be elected in London. If their is fraud then only Richard will get elected.

Around the country I expect 40 new councillors to be elected and us to come second in about 120 other places.

So wrote political genius and legal mastermind Lee John Barnes as polling for the local and GLA elections began on May 1st.

Mocked by many as the BNP's most suitable case for treatment, Barnes's remarks were derided for being hopelessly optimistic and quite in keeping with his usual predictive extravagance, but what shouldn't be forgotten is that - demented though he may be - Barnes is close to the core of the BNP leadership, and would have had a good idea of the party's private expectations.

Keeping their expectations secret was part of the BNP's game in the run up to the elections, but we have a fair idea that Barnes (himself possessing all the political acumen of a brick) was merely passing on what the leadership believed it could achieve in near perfect political and social circumstances for the racist party. The leadership wasn't alone: the BNP's keyboard army continually referred to 2008 as "the year of the BNP" and their hopes at times verged on the stratospheric.

Opinion amongst anti-fascists was divided as to how well (or badly) the BNP would do. As discontent with the Labour government reached new heights, as migration scares broke almost daily in the press, and as the BBC's infamous "White" season climaxed, it did seem to some that May 2008 really could see the BNP make its long-predicted breakthrough. At Lancaster Unity we exercised restraint, keeping in mind the BNP's failure of the previous year (also prematurely hailed as "the year of the BNP"), and having reported on a mostly uninspiring series of BNP local by-election results during the course of 2007 and early 2008. It wasn't that we didn't harbour concerns, but our experience told us not to expect a political earthquake on May 1st.

Following the dud that was the BNP's 2007 local election performance, and coming as another bout of internal feuding rumbled on, Nick Griffin and his inner circle were deeply concerned that another bad BNP performance would see the end of his leadership as the more astute among the membership tired of Griffin's endless "jam tomorrow" promises. Their plan to circumvent dissention and bolster morale was tried, tested, simple - and guaranteed to work on a party membership remarkable for its gullibility and lack of political perception: everything, no matter how trivial, would be claimed as a BNP victory, even if the polar opposite were true.

To that end members were encouraged to stand in the most paltry of parish and town council elections, and especially to stand in obscure parishes where the BNP's candidate could expect to be returned unopposed. This gave the party the opportunity to brag that it had so many councillors "elected" here or there even before a ballot had been cast on May 1st. That these parish councillors had little or no power was never highlighted, and the party was always careful to omit the all-important word "parish" before that of "councillor".

It was simple trickery, mostly designed to fool the BNP membership, and it worked handsomely.

On election day we experimented with "live" blogging, and the Lancaster Unity community rallied round to support us in what proved to be a long and interesting night.

May 1st 2008 represented the culmination of the BNP's biggest push to date, but as the results began to come in it was obvious that all their effort and bluster was bringing in but scant reward. Searchlight later reported:

On election day the BNP predicted it would win 40 new councillors and three seats on the London Assembly. However, when the first results came in, it quickly became clear that this was too optimistic. As the night continued the size of the BNP failure became apparent.

The BNP won three seats in Stoke-on-Trent and two each in Amber Valley, Rotherham and Nuneaton & Bedworth. It also took one seat in Thurrock, Three Rivers, Pendle and Calderdale. It also successfully defended seats in Epping and Burnley. This takes the number of BNP councillors to 55, up from 45 before these elections.

However, it also lost two seats it was defending in Epping and one in Kirklees.

In most areas the BNP share of the vote was well down on last year, which in itself was down on the previous election, particularly in its traditional heartlands.

An increase of ten councillors and a falling vote was hardly a glittering success and certainly not what a nervy Nick Griffin wanted to hear. Barnes quickly backtracked on his "40 new BNP councillors" statement, claiming that he had in fact meant 40 new parish and district councillors, and that was enough to satisfy the majority of BNP troops, who convinced themselves that they had somehow made an historic advance, with one of their better known but more moronic bloggers postulating that in future May 1st might be renamed "BNP Day".

Knowing that the more savvy and rebellious of his members would see straight through the hype, a threatened Griffin desperately hoped to pull a Barnbrook out of the hat in the GLA elections, which were counted on May 2nd.

The BNP could only win seats on the GLA (which, for their purposes, they elevated to something close to the fount of all power) through the party top-up system, and initially believed they were on course to take three GLA seats through these back-door means. As it became increasingly obvious that the party would be lucky to break the 5% barrier necessary to give them a single seat, so the expansive predictions were reined in and an anxious day began for Nick Griffin.

Lancaster Unity again "live blogged" the results with the help of our own loyal community (and as large an audience of BNP lurkers). For much of the night it seemed that the BNP's Richard Barnbrook would not pass the 5% threshold, and while we waited the BNP contented itself with euphoric celebrations on the news that Conservative Boris Johnson had ousted Labour's Ken Livingstone in the mayoral race. Lee Barnes commented incisively:

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

I AM LAUGHING AT YOU

AND I AM GOING TO BE LAUGHING ALL NIGHT YOU PRICK

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

RED KEN GONE

BNP IN THE GLA

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Barnes was more than premature in believing that the BNP had secured a GLA seat, since it was by no means certain at that hour that they had. Richard Barnbrook's appalling performance in the mayoral contest, where he had picked up a derisory 2.9% (not something Barnes dwelled on), suggested caution.

At one in the morning, however, it became clear that Barnbrook had crept into the London Assembly on 5.4%, and the online element of the BNP erupted with jubilation at their victory, egged on by Griffinites determined to gloss over the uncomfortable fact that in the most ideal circumstances possible the party had stalled in the local election polls and failed by a long way to achieve its GLA targets.

Naturally we weren't delighted with Barnbrook's election, but it wasn't the end of the world, given the pre-poll fears of many that London's PR system might provide the BNP with the electoral breakthrough it craved. We were also happy that the BNP's man on the Assembly was Barnbrook, who immediately demonstrated why in an incoherent slurry-shouty (not to say lonely) speech that set the tone for his GLA tenure.


Barnbrook's election was almost certainly the single most important factor in saving Nick Griffin's leadership bacon. The man had, after all, yet again presided over what were a generally uninspiring set of election results, the only real high point being Barnbrook's GLA seat. In consequence, the hyping of Barnbrook continued apace, but just in case any awkward BNP members of rebellious bent should point out that 5.4% wasn't really very good at all, the party came up with a tale of “massive and organised ballot box tampering”, claiming 400,000 votes went west, a lie quickly nailed by Searchlight.

It was at this moment that the most unlikely (and ill-timed) challenge to Nick Griffin's leadership was announced by disaffected Kirklees BNP councillor Colin Auty. Soon after that, an email of disputed provenance was passed on to Lancaster Unity. Allegedly from the irrepressible Lee Barnes in his capacity as Director of the BNP's Legal Department, the missive certainly hit all the usual Barnsian notes:

I have been instructed to inform you of a bogus and illegal leadership challenge and the disciplinary measures we are now putting in place to squash this diversionary and divisive activity in the bud. This is a deceitful and cynical attempt to divert the party’s attention away from the historical victory last week in London and to derail the activist’s attention away from the all important European Elections next June.

This is a sham nothing and more than a forged challenge devised by the liars, thieves and splitters who tried to wreck the party in December 2007 before their unsuccessful coup was successfully thwarted by quick action from the Party’s own security, legal and intelligence departments. The challenger claims is to be Councilor Colin Autty from Kirkless in Yorkshire, a decent man who is known to many of you but he is being used as a puupet by the gang of malcontents who stole party emails, stole party property, stole thousand of pounds of party monies, spread malicious rumours about the Chairman, myself and other senior party officers on bogus Blogs and through a series of bogus bulletins which they prepared using stolen membership lists which they then passed on to our enemies in MI5, The Special Branch, The Labour Party and the Searchlight organisation. They then tried unsuccessfully to set up a rival political party. It is a cylical attempt by our enemies to try and derail the Party and to stop activities to get BNP members electd to the European Parliament.

The dust had hardly settled after the local elections when three of the BNP's newly elected (unopposed) town councillors in Colwyn Bay resigned from the party for reasons not entirely clear, but protestations on the part of one of them, John Oddy, that "I have never been a racist" indicated a belated opening of eyes to what the BNP is really all about. That, however, proved not to be the case. Oddy had just been fined £100 for using a mobile telephone while driving his car, but later still he told the North Wales Daily Post:

“I feel as I have become more high profile I have clashed with the hierarchy in the party and this has now come to a head and led to my resignation. I am at odds with the opinions of the Welsh branch of the BNP, although I have no quarrel with the party nationally.”

Paul Harley, who resigned with Oddy, said: "I have found out more about the party and I am not happy with what I have found out."

Better late than never, but was that the whole truth? Antifascist wasn't convinced:

All three remain members of the local golf club, a place where the Colwyn Bay glitterati meet, confer and make deals which, in the words of one of our correspondents, is full of BNP sympathisers, covert supporters and party members, and none of the three protagonists have showed any sign of feeling the need to disassociate from the club - which leads one to believe that this evolution from BNP to Independent is nothing but a cosmetic change, designed simply to allay the fears of the locals that the Colwyn Bay trio may be too close to the BNP and thus they might get grubby by association.

The BNP met with a humiliating rebuff in Stoke-on-Trent, where Lord Kamlesh Patel was to discuss violent extremism with local community leaders. Refusing to speak to Alby Walker, BNP group leader on Stoke City Council, Lord Patel said:

"I make no apology for refusing to meet with the BNP during my visit to Stoke. My work is focused on looking at what positive actions local communities can take to prevent extremism. I do not believe that any party with extremist views has anything constructive to contribute to this agenda."

With a leadership challenge pending, Griffinite spin on the BNP's election performance reached new heights (or depths, as you will), with the party's website grandstanding the headline: "Tories, Plaid Cymru and Lib Dems trounced in Swansea". The problem was that the BNP had also been trounced, not winning a single seat. A spokesman for the Welsh Tories told the Swansea Evening Post: "These absurd claims fly in the face of the facts. The BNP's divisive, extremist views were rejected by voters in Swansea and every other part of Wales."

At Stafford Crown Court the trial of Stoke-on-Trent man Habib Khan opened. Khan was charged with the murder of Keith Brown, a BNP activist who had subjected the Khan family to "years of racial taunts, threats and violence", as The Times reported:

Mr Brown and his family, none of whom worked, were said to have been jealous of their industrious Pakistani neighbours and to have inflicted a spiral of abuse on them. Habib Khan is accused of stabbing Mr Brown to death with an eight-inch kitchen knife.

Keith Brown's tragic death the previous June was the culmination of a series of violent incidents between the neighbouring Brown and Khan families, one the BNP spun for all it was worth. Nick Griffin, who appears never to have met Keith Brown, cynically turned up at his funeral, which became little more than a BNP propaganda exercise as its leader gave a tearful interview to the risible "BNPtv News". The party shamelessly ignored sub-judice as it "reported" its version of events, which cast Brown in the light of a martyr to Muslim violence.


This was very far from the truth, as Stafford Crown Court heard. Habib Khan, described as a "mild and calm-mannered family man", had taken a knife to threaten Brown, who had hold of one of his sons. The trial judge said that Khan had acted "in the honest belief that he needed to protect his son" but in doing so had killed Mr Brown.

Khan was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and wounding, and later received an eight-year prison sentence.

Nick Griffin and Colin Auty

Meanwhile, alleged BNP elections "guru" and erstwhile Griffinite Eddy Butler waded into Colin Auty's leadership challenge in a strange, hectoring email that spoke in one moment of "our Parties [sic] openness and commitment to democracy" then talked of "anyone who has the temerity to wish to stand for leadership". The "temerity to wish"?

Butler gave out strong hints that the BNP's rules might need to be changed to preserve Nick Griffin's position: "There will be pressure, perhaps unstoppable pressure, to change the rules so that leadership challenges can only take place every four years." No prizes for guessing where the "unstoppable pressure" would originate.

As it later turned out, the Griffin-inspired notion of allowing challenges only every four years was a con being worked on the BNP membership, who would be got - through a bogus compromise - to give Griffin what he really wanted.

Butler, possessed of a very Stalinist idea of "democracy", called on members not to sign Colin Auty's nomination forms, referred to the councillor as a "joke candidate" and recommended that the leadership election "should be carried out in the most rapid manner possible with zero publicity allowed" to Auty.

Paranoic Griffinite attrition on Auty was relentless. The BNP's own secret forum banned any pro-Auty discussion, while its dirty tricks department marched around the internet spreading black propaganda. BNP branches were instructed not to invite Auty to speak at their meetings, and branches which had booked troubadour Auty to sing cancelled.

Auty's campaign manager, Roger Robertson, the BNP's former South-East Regional Organiser, was told that he faced disciplinary proceedings, much as Mike Easter (Chris Jackson's manager the previous year) found himself subject to a Griffinite fit-up.

The intention was clearly to dissuade BNP members from signing Auty's nomination papers, the implied threat being that they, too, would face expulsion. It was a telling measure of the febricity infecting the top of the BNP that this vicious overkill was deployed to protect Nick Griffin from a challenge everybody knew he would walk.

In the meantime Richard Barnbrook made an utter fool of himself when he threatened to stampede into London mayor Boris Johnson's office with "100 young people". The brown-suited one had been to Sidcup, hoping to exploit the murder of Robert Knox. In a since deleted blog post he wrote:

I have invited all of the young people there to come down to City Hall this Tuesday for 9:30 in the morning. This knife crime has to be stopped. If I have to bring a 100 young people into Boris's office then that is what I will do.

Barnbrook and his aides stood waiting outside City Hall at the appointed time, ready to greet the throngs of incensed young militants rallying to his call. He waited, and waited, and waited, vainly scanning the horizon for signs of massed greasy hair and acne on the march, but saw only the familiar face of self-inflicted humiliation grinning directly back at him.

To be continued...

City Hall worker Simon Darby admits: I use the office to do BNP business

The second-in-command of the British National Party is employed at public expense by the Greater London Authority, The Times has learnt.

Simon Darby admitted to The Times yesterday that he regularly used his City Hall office to work in his capacity as the BNP’s media spokesman, a job that is unrelated to his publicly funded position.

The disclosure will raise concerns over whether Mr Darby is receiving taxpayers’ money to support his prominent position in the far-right party.

Mr Darby became a salaried employee at City Hall after the breakthrough victory by Richard Barnbrook, the first BNP representative on the London Assembly, in May. He is employed as a personal assistant to Mr Barnbrook, who was also the party’s mayoral candidate.

Details of his position came to light 24 hours after the party’s membership list was leaked via the internet. With almost 14,000 names on the list, it revealed hotspots of BNP activity throughout the country and left many members fearing for their jobs. Police forces were ordered to root out any officers on the list and membership had already cost a radio DJ his job.

The Association of Chief Police Officers said that all 43 forces in England and Wales were checking the list against names of officers and staff.

The General Teaching Council said that teachers were allowed to belong to the BNP. Government sources said that civil servants could join the party although they faced the standard restrictions on political activism.

Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, pledged to take court action against those behind the leak but welcomed the publicity, while other political parties used the party’s discomfort to their advantage. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said: “It probably says something about the BNP that people don’t want to have it known that they are a member.”

The BNP has complained to Dyfed-Powys Police about the disclosure of its list. The party has spent the past 24 hours contacting service providers for websites that ran the names and urging them to remove them. The list includes 11 former Conservative councillors and four former Labour.

The party said it encrypted its membership list and that whoever leaked it must have taken considerable pains to change the material into a new format.

After the leak on Monday, Mr Darby said that those responsible should not be “sleeping very well tonight” as “it will turn out to be one of the most foolish things they have done in their life”. Mr Griffin said in a radio interview yesterday that the remarks were not intended as a threat of violence.

Critics were asking whether it was possible for Mr Darby to be the spin-doctor for the BNP and write a daily blog for the party without it interfering with his public service position. A source at the Greater London Authority told The Times: “There’s all sorts of equipment in there he could be using for political BNP work – mailouts, all sorts of stuff.”

The Times attempted to contact Mr Darby twice at his office in the City Hall yesterday afternoon, but the phone was not answered. Answering his mobile phone, he admitted that he did often carry out BNP business at his London Assembly office but said that he would then “make up the time later”.

He said: “I don’t use GLA resources. Whatever time I use there [at City Hall] for the BNP, I have to make up. I don’t use up paper. I use my own laptop.”

He said that he was paid less than £16,000 a year for his role, for which he was contracted to work 22 hours a week. He denied that there was anything inappropriate about his position and said that his City Hall job hardly earned him “big bucks”.

Mr Darby, who is also listed as West Midlands organiser for the party, refused to say how much time he spent in London. He denied that the City Hall office was a useful resource for his work as the BNP’s media officer and said that he had a separate internet connection for the two roles.

“I don’t need an office. I can do [BNP] work on the train, I can work in my car. What do you expect? When a BNP member is elected, they’re not going to have a Communist or Liberal Democrat working for them.”

Mr Darby was interviewed by a panel of members of the authority before he was given the job as personal assistant. One of the criteria was that he should be able to “promote equality of opportunity” at the assembly. His office is in the same building alongside the Thames as that of Boris Johnson, the Mayor.

Mr Darby is such a confidant of Mr Griffin that he was lined up as care-taker leader when the party chief went on trial for inciting racial hatred. He was cleared in 2006 after a retrial.

The Greater London Authority said that all staff were subject to a code of practice that forbade them from using City Hall resources for political campaigning. He said that the authority had a duty to provide “proportionate resources” to each elected member of the Assembly. Staff earning less than about £35,000 were not politically restricted, but work unrelated to their job should be carried out in their “personal time”.

Times Online

BNP's Richard Barnbrook calls for flying of Union Jack and a ban on burkas

The mainstream party candidates walked off the stage when Richard Barnbrook stepped up to speak after becoming, early on Saturday morning, the first member of the British National Party to win a seat on the London Assembly. Mr Barnbrook was unpeturbed.

He expects to be treated as a pariah for the next four years, but insists that he will not be cowed. “If I have to be a lone wolf I will be one,” he told The Times.

Mr Barnbrook, 47, said that he intends to become the voice of “true Londoners”, fighting against political correctness and preferential treatment for racial minorities. He will press for the Union Jack to be flown permanently over City Hall, for burkas to be banned from public buildings and for official celebrations to mark St George's Day. He will resist the planned construction of a huge new mosque, the biggest place of worship in Britain, in Newham, East London.

“I haven't been elected to simply sit back and be like the other parties, sticking with the status quo and the gravy train movement,” he said.

Mr Barnbrook won 5.6 per cent of the vote, just above the 5 per cent threshold. His election represented the BNP's biggest electoral success to date and came as the party claimed to have boosted its tally of local councillors around the country from 84 to more than 100. “The quiet revolution is getting louder,” the party crowed on its website.

But Mr Barnbrook's success appalled the BNP's many opponents, who fear that it will tarnish London's image as a model of racial diversity and the world's most cosmopolitan city: one third of Londoners are foreign-born.

Gerry Gable, of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, called it a victory for hatred, violence and stupidity. Dave Prentice, the general secretary of Unison, the public sector union, said: “We are particularly worried about the effect that the election of a BNP assembly member will have on race relations and community harmony in the city.”

A spokesman for the Greater London Authority said: “However much Boris Johnson regrets the election of a BNP member and is appalled by both the policies and principles of the BNP, Richard Barnbrook was duly elected under our democratic system.”

He added, pointedly: “As an elected representative, Richard Barnbrook must recognise his responsibility to represent all of his constituents.”

Mr Barnbrook is a former artist who trained at the Royal Academy and is engaged to Simone Clarke, until recently a leading ballerina at English National Ballet. She supports the BNP but played no part in the campaign beyond declaring, in a campaign leaflet, that “immigration is out of control”.

Mr Barnbrook's election came only a few days after Gianni Alemanno, a former neo-fascist, was elected as Mayor of Rome. “Maybe people not just in the UK but across Europe and the world are saying their [national] identities are being abused,” Mr Barnbrook said.

The Times

Race, diversity and 1 May

Operation Black Vote's Simon Woolley on the closest run and bitterest mayoral contest to date

This third London Mayoral contest will be by far the closest run yet. It’ll also be the bitterest.

Of course, a bittersweet dynamic of this fierce contest should lead to a better-than-average voter turnout - crucial if the BNP are to be denied any Greater London Assembly seats. But my worry is that many Londoners will be left feeling ‘don’t we deserve a better contest than this?’.

Unlike the previous two mayoral elections race has taken centre stage and I’m sorry that it has because London generally has a lower level of racial tension than we have seen in recent years in Paris, Bradford, or Birmingham.

For hundreds of years, particularly in the last 50, the capital's teeming diversity has been its strength. Diversity won us the 2012 Olympic games. But that’s not to say there aren’t tensions, or that tackling race inequality is no longer a priority.

The fact is that for the vast majority of people living in the capital, particularly the young, their identity as a Londoner is worn as a badge of honour. The identity of race and religion are not diminished, however, whether or not you are born here; the inclusive nature of London is very appealing. The biggest problem young Londoners face is not a racial divide but rather a territorial division that pits one neighbourhood against another - that's a serious problem for any mayor.

The capital's identity politics, as in the politics of voting, also takes on a life of its own. When the novelist Jeffrey Archer began his ill-fated quest to become the capital's first Mayor he made it his business to schlep all over the capital in an attempt to win over potential voters.

He courted the black vote so much that it was said he would go to the opening of a fridge if he knew there would be a black audience. It began to pay dividends. Archer would tell anyone who would listen, that he was not like his then exceedingly unpopular Conservative Party. His politics, he argued, were ‘for a world beating multicultural city, dynamic as they are different from the ‘run of the mill politics’. In a poll commissioned by Operation Black Vote (OBV) back in 1999 asking black communities who they would vote for as Mayor, Archer beat Livingstone, Trevor Phillips, and Susan Kramer. The next Tory candidate Steve Norris continued Archer's narrative that celebrated multicultural London.

So, why has race negatively come to the forefront this time around? There are two main factors. The first has been the wholly disproportionate attention towards Ken Livingstone’s former equality aide Lee Jasper, and a number of black groups and individuals, including Doreen Lawrence and Pastor Nims.

No-one in the black community condones financial wrongdoing but many have asked, was the scale of this focus on these allegations fair, and how come everyone targeted by this media onslaught just happens to be black?

The second element has come from Boris Johnson himself. His remarks about Africans and Africa have forced him to make an unreserved apology. Johnson has had to learn quickly that the politics of London demands that it’s not enough not being a racist, you have to be a passionate anti-racist.

There is a third racial element, which until last week largely went ignored. The Ken v Boris Punch and Judy Show has focused attention away from the politics of race hatred: BNP. Masquerading as democrats, and even courting their once archenemies - the Jewish community - the BNP are hoping their claim that they are no longer bigoted boot boys will win acceptance.

If they can keep up the charade, and there is a low voter turnout, the BNP would hope to pick up one or two Assembly seats. The result would be disastrous for London. The very essence of what brings people to London from all over the world to a multi-cultural metropolis would be threatened by politics that has its roots in fascism.

Some commentators have suggested the BNP’s success might not be a bad thing as it would shake up the mainstream parties. I disagree. Any far right political success directly translates into racial abuse, verbally and physically. Worse still their bigoted ideas would, even more, seep into mainstream thinking.

Last week, the mainstream candidates stopped attacking each other to unite against the threat of the BNP. Speaking at OBV’s coalition against the BNP, Boris Johnson declared that Londoners must register to vote and defeat the BNP. Ken Livingstone argued that as well as attacking the capital's cultural identity the BNP’s racial hatred ‘would turn visitors away’.

I agree with both of them and would add that, if we value what we have in London, lets protect it on May 1st.

New Statesman