Teachers, community leaders and MPs have condemned plans by the far-right British National Party to recruit children as young as 15 in a campaign that will target schools and colleges in the district. The newly-formed Young BNP has identified Keighley in particular as a battle-ground where it intends to exploit the claims of so-called "grooming" of young white girls by Asian gangs.
The move has appalled educationalists and politicians in Bradford and Keighley. Jane Rendle of the National Union of Teachers in Bradford said: "Anything which is to the detriment of community cohesion we would be very concerned about. Anything the Young BNP are likely to be doing would be detrimental to race relations in Bradford and we certainly wouldn't welcome that being focused in our schools. For a divisive party such as the BNP to be targeting schools is reprehensible."
Labour MP for Keighley Ann Cryer said she would work with the schools to stamp out the Young BNP's recruitment campaign. She said: "If the schools or their representatives need my help to make representations to the police in order to rid our schools of the malign influence of the BNP I will be happy to do so. There is no place in our schools for the type of poison propagated by the BNP."
The Young BNP's newly-elected national organiser, 21-year-old Danny Lake, was arrested in 2005 after handing out extremist literature at a multicultural diversity event at a Swindon college. He boasted to the T&A: "We have a lot of members but membership could be higher, we will be firing on all cylinders this year to recruit more young people to the party."
He added that the following weeks would see the biggest recruitment campaign in the BNP's history and he said they would be "targeting school, college and university students between the ages of 15 and 24."
Mr Lake said the Young BNP's campaign would focus on "the racist grooming of teenage girls by Muslim paedophile gangs in Keighley" and the "anti-BNP bias" in schools. He said a programme of targeting universities would begin within the next few weeks, with schools and colleges to follow.
The Bradford-based Hope not Hate group also joined the condemnation. Paul Meszaros of the group said: "This is a matter for serious concern, they are talking about targeting young people at a vulnerable age. There is legislation to protect minors such as the race relations amendment act, but the BNP may well employ sneaky tactics such as hanging around the school gates. I would call on parents, teachers and pupils to be vigilant and, if they see any publications which could be incitement to hatred, to report the issue."
Mr Lake and another young BNP activist were frogmarched from the Swindon College building in March 2005 when they handed out leaflets at an event aimed at highlighting multiculturality in Britain.
Mr Lake himself later wrote on the BNP's website about being told to stop handing out leaflets by the police. He said: "Obviously I refused to comply and I informed Tony Blair's stormtrooper that I was there representing a legitimate political party and was not breaking the law."
He was arrested on suspicion of a racially-aggravated Section 5 Public Order offence. He was released after several hours after having his fingerprints and a DNA swab taken.
Bradford Telegraph and Argus
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