Anyone remember Charlotte Lewis?

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Does anyone remember the ghastly Charlotte Lewis, former BNP and now doyen of the even smaller British Freedom mob? As you can see, she's still as bad as ever.

Who do you think you're kidding?

I seem to recall a beaten and dejected Nick Griffin leaving an election count in London last year telling crowds of jubilant anti-fascists that the great city of London was "lost", beyond hope etc, etc. With him and his own electoral ambitions went out the door a dozen of the BNP's beaten former councillors with their tails between their legs.

London has always been difficult for Griffin and as he left that election count, Eddy Butler the BNP's (failed) election specialist and Richard Barnbrook the (often absent) London Assembly member were already plotting together against their leader in a side room.

Of course, Griffin is on record describing people that live in cities like London as being "degenerate" people who unlike him, don't live in rural seclusion.

Now though, with Butler and Barnbrook gone (Butler more than likely now to run the campaign of the rival English Democrats) Griffin has had to focus on London once more. Preparations are now underway for the GLA elections in London for 2012. London currently has more ex-BNP members than it does paid up members. It's fair to say that London is in fact the centre of the anti-Griffinites.

The early stages of the campaign have not got off to a good start either. Claire Khaw, a Chinese BNP supporter was initially mooted to be the BNP's "shock/surprise" choice for their candidate. But Khaw had too much of a habit of publicly promoting the policy of murdering disabled people. So extreme was Khaw that some BNP members even threatened to murder her!

So instead it would appear London will be getting "charismatic" Carlos Cortiglia a Uruguayan who once volunteered to fight for Argentina against Britain during the Falklands war. Last Sunday the BNP begun the first in a series of proposed fundraisers in the capital that they hope will fund their London campaign. Only 29 people made it to Liverpool Street in east London, and that includes his small army of thugs and pornographers that make up his security detail. The scene was so desolate and desperate, Khaw herself managed to get herself an invite under the auspices of being a photographer!

Last night I got another one of Griffin's begging emails. "Savour the idea of 25 fully equipped, ultra-professional stalls out all over London on the same day" it instructed me in bold lettering. How that is going to happen based on the turn out for their London social is beyond savouring, is actually beyond belief! The BNP has so few active members in London that they must be planning on only having one person on a stall at a time. I walked past the BNP in Dagenham earlier this year when they were manning one of their stalls. Based on that experience, the email should have read "imagine 25 stalls with BNP members swearing at the public and making racist comments at the general public". That, I can imagine.

They even have a special leaflet to go with their campaign: "And what a campaign it's going to be!" (Their bold emphasis again), "We've just taken delivery of the first 100,000 of these leaflets". Before I could query the sense in that, one former BNP member beat me to it. "Surely nobody in the printing world would touch the BNP with a bargepole" wrote Charlotte Lewis a former Croydon BNP candidate with an equally nasty viewpoint on just about everything and everyone. "If I did a job for them, I'd want cash up front".

It's not often I agree with the equally nasty Charlotte, but experience would suggest that the BNP does not really have 100,000 of any of these leaflets. Giving-as they say they plan to do- 25 pop up posters and banners "to our local activist teams all over London" they'd still struggle to shift fifty of the mysterious leaflets, let alone pay for them!

Still, we'll make sure that for every house that gets a BNP leaflet, there will be at least one from Hope Not Hate telling people the truth about the BNP.


Thanks to Nick Lowles at HOPE not Hate

Croydon BNP member Charlotte Lewis investigated for race crime

Detectives are investigating BNP member, Charlotte Lewis, for racist comments she made on her Facebook page. The former animal rights campaigner and BNP election candidate for Carshalton and Wallington, advocated the murder of illegal immigrants in the wake of the recent Cumbrian massacre.

Right-wing activist Charlotte Lewis, from Thornton Heath, wrote on her Facebook page that mass-murderer Derrick Bird should have come to London and slaughtered illegal immigrants rather than his "fellow British people".

Miss Lewis was reported to the police after someone reading the comments decided she had gone too far in her racist rhetoric.

Detectives have logged the complaint as a crime and are now deciding whether or not they can prosecute her for inciting racial hatred. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “We can confirm the MPS are investigating a complaint that has been made to them regarding alleged comments made. Detectives from Croydon CID are dealing but no arrests have been made.

Her tirade is the latest in a string of hate-filled rants and calls for violence against "pakis" through her Facebook page. The latest post reads: "Ok, so I may well get in to trouble for saying this - but I've got to get it off my chest. I wish that Derrick Bird could have come down to London & shot dead some illegal immigrants, rather than killing his fellow British people.

"If that offends you then tough; it's my opinion and I'm entitled to it."

Her comments refer to taxi driver Derrick Bird, who went on a killing spree in west Cumbria on June 2, shooting dead 12 people and injuring 11 others.

Her latest Facebook rant was highlighted by website Hope Not Hate, Searchlight's campaign to counter racism and fascism in elections and beyond. Gerry Gable from Searchlight said: "I think anybody advocating the murder of illegal immigrants should be prosecuted. People may view Charlotte Lewis as being a bit potty, but the overwhelming interest in firearms of the BNP tells a much more serious story."

Croydon Guardian

'I wish Cumbrian murderer shot illegal immigrants' says BNP election candidate Charlotte Lewis

A BNP election candidate advocated the murder of illegal immigrants in the wake of the recent Cumbrian massacre.

Right-wing activist Charlotte Lewis, from Thornton Heath, wrote on her Facebook page that mass-murderer Derrick Bird should have come to London and slaughtered illegal immigrants rather than his "fellow British people".

Her tirade is the latest in a string of hate-filled rants and calls for violence against "pakis" through her Facebook page. The latest post reads: "Ok, so I may well get in to trouble for saying this - but I've got to get it off my chest. I wish that Derrick Bird could have come down to London & shot dead some illegal immigrants, rather than killing his fellow British people. If that offends you then tough; it's my opinion and I'm entitled to it."

Her comments refer to taxi driver Derrick Bird, who went on a killing spree in west Cumbria on June 2, shooting dead 12 people and injuring 11 others.

Her latest Facebook rant was highlighted by website Hope Not Hate, Searchlight's campaign to counter racism and fascism in elections and beyond. Gerry Gable from Searchlight said: "I think anybody advocating the murder of illegal immigrants should be prosecuted. People may view Charlotte Lewis as being a bit potty, but the overwhelming interest in firearms of the BNP tells a much more serious story."

When contacted by the Croydon Guardian Miss Lewis, 37, questioned why her "innocuous" comments were being treated so seriously. In a bizarre rant she flip-flopped repeatedly over whether illegal immigrants should be murdered or not, before asking why her love of Chandi the dancing dog in Britain's Got Talent was not being treated as a story.

She said: "It would be preferable to kill illegal immigrants than fellow British people, because they shouldn’t be in this country."

Miss Lewis' true face was revealed in April after pictures were discovered of her swigging from a bottle of alcopops while clad in a burqa during a Halloween party. The Carshalton and Wallington parliamentary candidate, who also ran for Croydon Council’s Shirley ward in the May elections, was snapped revealing her contempt for Muslims by hitching up her costume to reveal her underwear.

Your Local Guardian

BNP members plan and glorify racist murders

Charlotte Lewis shows her contempt for Muslims as she smokes, drinks
alcopops and reveals her underwear while wearing a burka at a Halloween party

“I wish Derrick Bird could have come down to London and shot dead some illegal immigrants, rather than killing his fellow British people. If that offends you then tough; It’s my opinion & I’m entitled to it.”

Who would write such a thing just two days after the terrible and tragic events in Cumbria where Derrick Bird used his guns to murder 12 people and injure 11 on 2 June? Perhaps a stupid, ignorant teenager in a desperate grab for attention?

At around the same time this comment was posted, Nick Griffin, the BNP leader and MEP for the North West, was rightly offering his condolences to the victims and their families. Given the BNP’s wish to put more firearms into the community, writers at Searchlight proffered that the BNP’s policies would probably lead to more such events as it so difficult to legislate for what makes seemingly normal people “snap” or “go postal” to use the American expression.

The writer of this bile was, however, no attention seeking teenager, but an adult woman and associate of Griffin. Charlotte Lewis is a frequent Croydon BNP election candidate, spokesperson on BNP TV and campaigner for animal rights.

“Ok, so I know I may get into trouble for saying this – but I’ve got to get it off my chest,” wrote Lewis on her Facebook page prefacing her offensive comment.

The 37-year-old who was the BNP parliamentary candidate in Carshalton and Wallington in last month’s general election is no stranger to controversy and threats of violence. Lewis received a six-month jail sentence in 2001, when she wrote threatening letters to staff at the Huntingdon Life Sciences animal research laboratory in Cambridgeshire.

During the elections she was exposed as a foul-mouthed racist who encouraged attacks on the home of a teenager, writing “I hope she gets cancer”. She had earlier caused offence by turning up at a Halloween party dressed in a burka, swigging alcohol from a bottle and flashing stockings and suspenders, an act that she described as “hilarious”.

No sooner had Lewis written her vile message than a host of other BNP members and supporters expressed their support. Dave Castle wrote of “going down to southall [sic] with a f***ing machine gun” if he were ever diagnosed with a terminal illness. In fact Southall has a large Asian and Sikh population, a community to which the BNP is desperate to reach out in its anti-Islam campaign.

But it didn’t end there. Among the dead in Cumbria was a trade union organiser, an innocent victim of Bird’s rampage. “At least amongst the innocent was a f***ing union organiser,” wrote Sam Cash, another BNP member and, at 67 years old, not a stupid teenager.

Lewis’s and her colleagues’ views are sickening. Even hardened journalists who know Lewis and other BNP members were surprised at BNP members’ openly expressed hatred. They do not discriminate: asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, Sikhs, Muslims and trade union organisers are the very people that, deep in their hearts, BNP members would wish to see brutally murdered. As we have always said, away from Question Time and BBC interviews, this is how the BNP generally feels about modern Britain and other human beings.

People like Lewis, Cash and Castle are the very people, one must assume, that the BNP would wish to see armed for their “own protection” under a BNP government. These are the “decent law abiding folk” that the BNP claims make up the membership of the party. These are the very people who Griffin and his party claim will be one day involved in a “civil war”.

Make no mistake: not only is the BNP racist, ignorant and vile, if your face does not fit, it is also potentially murderous.


Hope not hate

New BNP? Same old nazis and thugs

The BNP claims it has changed. A quick review of its election candidates shows that they are the same old nazis, thugs and racists that they always were

Tom Gower
Coventry North East

Gower works full-time as the BNP enquiries officer. He is also the Coventry contact for the racist and pagan Woden’s Folk and was involved in the English Heathen Front (EHF), ‘a racist group espousing “blood and soil” ideology. The EHF was the English “chapter” of the Allgermanische Heidnische Front (AHF), an international network of “tribes” that evolved out of the Norsk Hedensk Front, a group founded in 1993 by Varg Vikernes, the Norwegian black metal musician and murderer whose own brand of heathenism included a heavy dose of national socialism, antisemitism, eugenics and racism.

Shelley Rose
Luton North

A rising star in the BNP, Rose is part of a social group of BNP activists in the East Midlands and an antisemite who wrote on her Facebook page, “I would rather put myself out and pay a bit more at a smaller local shop, than line the pockets of the kikes that run Tesco”. She attended the National Front Remembrance Day parade in 2009 with Chris Hurst, the BNP PPC ‘for Twickenham.

Robin Evans
Blackburn

Evans was once a Blackburn BNP councillor but found the council budget too much to cope with. “It’s all mumbo jumbo, I don’t understand a word of it,” he stated. He resigned from the BNP in 2003 after an internal dispute and joined the openly fascist British National Socialist Party, returning to the BNP.

Ken Booth
Newcastle upon Tyne Central

Booth is the former North East National Front organiser who caused widespread disgust in 2007 when he compared the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz to Disneyland. He refused to believe the “official figures” of those who died in the Holocaust and did not recognise the “authenticity” of the buildings at Auschwitz.

Lynne Mozar
Buckingham

Mozar, who runs the BNP’s Trafalgar Club fundraising group, is notorious for her appearance on the Sky TV documentary BNP Wives in which “in private sometimes” she admitted calling black people “niggers”. ‘She also claimed that “Pakis” was the ‘“legal term for them [Asians]”. While manning a stall opposite a mosque in Fareham, Mozar shouted “fat slag” at a passerby who questioned her views.

Mathew Tait
Milton Keynes South

Tait, the Buckinghamshire BNP organiser, travelled to the cancelled 2010 American Renaissance conference, where he moaned to those who turned up that the Equality and Human Rights Commission court case had forced the BNP to accept “people who we would wish to not have in our country really to be members of our party”.

Mike Shore
Broxtowe

Until 2003 Shore was the National Front’s East Midlands organiser and treasurer. He was also Midlands convener of a British incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan. His conversion to the BNP came as a surprise to former colleagues.

Richard Hamilton
Milton Keynes North

A former soldier, Hamilton took part in the mock trial and execution of a gollywog at the 2009 BNP Red, White and Blue festival. The News of the World noted that before the trial, “Hamilton’s ghettoblaster blared out songs supporting Hitler and attacking ‘niggers’”. The BNP claimed his membership had been “suspended” as a result of the affair, though evidently not for very long.

Chris Beverley
Morley and Outwood

Beverley is a leading figure in Yorkshire BNP and a key link with the National Democratic Party (NPD) in Germany whose leader believes that Hitler was a “great statesman”. Beverley works as PA and constituency office manager for Andrew Brons, the BNP MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, and recently refused to condemn Hitler in a radio broadcast saying that he did not hate him.

Ian Meller
Leicestershire North West

Meller, a BNP councillor in North West Leicestershire, is a former National Front activist who took part in a demonstration against a Gay Pride march in Leicester in August 2000. Meller, then 35, was fined £400 and £55 costs for carrying an offensive weapon, believed to have been a chair leg.

Charlotte Lewis
Carshalton and Wallington

Lewis was jailed for six months in 2001 for sending a series of “chilling” death threats to employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) animal research laboratory in Cambridgeshire. She posts racist comments on social networking sites but claims she is ‘not a racist but a “racial survivalist”. ‘In 2009 Croydon Council considered taking action against her after she boasted of participating in a racist hate campaign against her neighbours.

Barry Bennett
Gosport

Bennett was, until recently, a regular user of the American-based nazi Stormfront website, despite being half Jewish, “from ancestry not religion” he is keen to stress. “I believe in National Socialism, WW2 style, it was best, no other power had anything like it,” ‘he wrote. “The ideology was fantastic. The culture, nothing like it. If it was here now, I’d defect to Germany.”

Eddy Butler
Harlow

Butler has been involved with the far right since the early 1980s when he was the Tower Hamlets organiser for the National Front. After he joined the BNP he and a team of thugs laid into a group of anti-fascists with hammers and other weapons in east London in 1992. In 1993 he organised the “Rights for whites” campaign that won the BNP its first councillor, Derek Beackon, in a Tower Hamlets by-election, though he only held the seat for seven months. Until his sudden demotion Butler was the BNP’s national organiser and elections officer. He is also standing for Barking and Dagenham council, despite still living in Loughton.

Chris Forster
Hayes and Harlington

A National Front supporter in the 1970s and a former treasurer of the Conservative Monday Club, Forster, who is also standing for Barking and Dagenham council, works as a psychic but failed to foresee Searchlight’s exposé of him in the Evening Standard in 2009. Forster helped compile the BNP’s 2009/10 Barking and Dagenham council budget, which attracted great opprobrium. Hypocritically, he is married to a Chinese woman with whom he has a child.

Tess Culnane
Orpington

Tess Culnane was a BNP member until a row with the party after which she stormed off to join the National Front for which she stood in the 2008 London Assembly election. She also addressed meetings of the openly Nazi British People’s Party. The BNP denounced the NF as “neo-fascist” but this has not proved an impediment to Culnane rejoining the BNP and working for Richard Barnbrook, the BNP’s London Assembly member.

Edward Sheppard
Coventry North West

Sheppard stood for the BNP in the 2001 general election in Coventry North East, but could not stand in 2005 as he was jailed for three years in 2002 for shooting a man at point blank range. Mold Crown Court heard how Christopher Willans had mistakenly knocked on Sheppard’s window, believing it to be part of a property owned by a close friend. ‘On discovering his mistake, Willans apologised to Sheppard and left the area. While walking home Willans was confronted by Sheppard who shot him at close range with a .22 calibre pistol through his car window.

Marlene Guest
Rotherham

Guest is the Rotherham BNP organiser. Like Mozar she appeared on the Sky TV BNP Wives documentary in which she claimed that the number of deaths in the Holocaust had been exaggerated and that the Jews were putting Germany on a guilt trip. ‘Asked if any good had come out of ‘the Holocaust, she replied: “Well, apparently, didn’t they get a lot of dentistry and plastic surgery”, referring to the Nazis’ barbaric “medical experiments”.

Jeffrey Marshall
Eastbury ward, Barking and Dagenham Council

Marshall, the central London BNP organiser, displayed the poisonous side of the BNP in February 2009 following the death of the six-year-old son of David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader. In a cruel and warped outburst against those who had expressed their condolences at the death of Ivan, who suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy, Marshall wrote in an internet politics group: “We live in a country today which is unhealthily dominated by an excess of sentimentality towards the weak and unproductive. No good will come of it.”

Marshall continued his sick tirade, stating that although it would be “a kindness” to kill children with disabilities, this was not the same as advocating such a measure as compulsory state policy. “But so what if it is,” he declared. “At least we would all know where we stand. There is actually not a great deal of point in keeping these sort of people alive, after all.”

Sharif Abdel Gawad
Bolton and Undercliffe ward, Bradford Council

Abdel Gawad of Bowling, Bradford, was convicted for possession of heroin by Bradford magistrates in December 2007. He first stood for the BNP in Bradford in May 2006, when his candidacy caused uproar in the party because of his less than Aryan credentials. The party insisted that he was of Armenian descent and most certainly “Christian” not a Muslim. Interviewed by The Independent he said he was “concerned about law and order, particularly the drugs epidemic in Bradford”.

Hope not hate

BNP council candidate denies assault charges

A BNP council candidate is due to appear in court days before the May 6 local elections charged with attacking two women at East Croydon train station.

Dave Clarke, who hopes to win a seat in the Heathfield ward, is accused of punching and shoving the two women, who were anti-fascist protesters, after spotting them handing out anti-BNP leaflets. The 41-year-old is also charged with another two counts of assault in relation to the alleged scuffle.

Clarke, of Dunley Drive, New Addington, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which relate to the alleged incident on May 27 last year. He will face trial just eight days before the local elections.

Clarke is one of 13 candidates the party is putting forward in the local elections for Croydon and Sutton.

Clarke's agent Charlotte Lewis told the Advertiser he had pushed leaflets out of the protesters' hands but maintains he did not hit anyone. She said: "Dave completely denies these allegations and, although as a party we have little confidence in the British justice system, he did not assault these people. These types of people [the alleged victims] are against the BNP. Dave just introduced himself to them and did throw their leaflets into the street but if anything they pushed him. He is adamant that he had nothing to do with this. The Crown Prosecution Service is politically motivated and I am sure if it was the other way round there would not be a prosecution."

Prospective parliamentary candidate for Wallington and Carshalton at the general election, Miss Lewis hit the headlines two weeks ago when pictures of her dressed in a burkha and fishneck stockings clutching an alcopop emerged. She explained that Clarke's reluctance to speak to the Advertiser directly was because of his "shy and retiring nature".

Clarke, whose brother John is also running as a council candidate in Fieldway, denied four counts of assault by beating when he appeared at Croydon Magistrates' Court on April 7. He will face trial next Wednesday.

Croydon Advertiser

Met inquiry into BNP’s ‘dirty tricks’ against Margaret Hodge

Police are investigating the British National Party for allegedly running a dirty tricks campaign against a rival candidate.

The Met confirmed it was looking into claims the far-right party had lied in literature about Margaret Hodge, the Labour hopeful in Barking. BNP leader Nick Griffin is challenging the culture minister for the east London seat.

In a newsletter sent to residents, his party claimed Mrs Hodge had financial interests in a proposed new prison for Barking. It also carried a cartoon suggesting she was personally behind a ‘racist’ housing allocation. It also said a member of her staff hung up on an ex-soldier when he called her office.

Mrs Hodge said: ‘This is politics of the worst kind. Griffin creates a big lie, tells it often enough and it hopes it becomes a truth.’

Her lawyers have contacted the BNP over the claims. The BNP denies any wrong-doing. Meanwhile, Charlotte Lewis, a BNP candidate, defended as ‘hilarious’ pictures of her wearing a burka and fishnet stockings at a party.

Metro

BNP candidate revels in Burqa shame

This is the true “face” of British National Party election candidate Charlotte Lewis she would rather you did not see

As she swigs from a bottle of alcopops at a Halloween party, burqa clad BNP parliamentary hopeful Miss Lewis reveals her contempt for Muslims. The right wing activist is pictured smoking and drinking and revealing her underwear while on the night out dressed as a Muslim. And these exclusive pictures of the woman standing as a candidate for Carshalton and Wallington, and a Croydon Council nominee, are just the start of her bigoted views.

Miss Lewis, 37, has been using her Facebook page to openly call for violence and post hate-filled racist rants about “pakis”. Lewis has previous convictions for sending death threats to staff of Huntingdon Life Sciences and served a six month sentence in 2001 after she pleaded guilty to four charges of harassment. Now she is using the internet to encourage others to take up her campaign of terror against what she calls “animal abusers”.

Lewis joined a Facebook group dedicated to tracking down the home address of a teen convicted of harming a cat, declaring; “I hope people turn up in the middle of the night & throw bricks through her windows - frighten the life out of her! The internet is great! There was no such thing as the internet when I was a kid. Now we can share information about scum.”

She went on to say: “Her brain needs to be re-programmed. She's sub-human, & not fit to breathe the same air as the rest of us. I hope she gets cancer.”

Lewis’s Facebook profile features repeated calls for foreign “paki” criminals to be executed. In one racist rant she declares that “The Pakis that murdered Kriss Donald should be put on it (the electric chair). They were born in Glasgow I think, but their parents were from Pakistan - so they are Pakis.”

The hate-filled MP-hopeful has also targeted the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Philips, whose recent court proceedings forced the BNP to open their membership up to non-whites. Lewis declared: “If that wanker Trevor Phillips died then I would open a bottle of champagne and party.”

In February 2009 Lewis lost the Croydon by-election and the BNP cash deposit when her violent animal rights background was revealed. In 2006 she was questioned by police over possible election fraud after standing for election in Waddon. She had placed on her nomination form an address in Lind Road, Sutton, as her home residence, which was later exposed as false.

Miss Lewis said: “I think it’s completely acceptable to dress that way. I thought it was hilarious and so did everyone at the party. Anyone who does not find it funny needs to develop a sense of humour. You can print the pictures if you want and give your readers a bit of a laugh.”

Croydon Guardian

Croydon BNP candidate leaves offensive messages on web

A British National Party candidate who claims she is not racist left discriminatory comments on a social networking site, the Croydon Guardian can reveal.

Charlotte Lewis, who stood as a BNP candidate in the recent Waddon byelection, left the disasteful comments on stories relating to ethnic minorities. On the website Digg.com Miss Lewis wrote “Bloody Pakis” beneath a story entitled New shock figures reveal how UK student visa scheme is abuse.

On another story headlined Schoolboy’s killers facing life she wrote, “No surprise that they’re black........”

Her actions were condemned by Croydon Council’s Labour leader Tony Newman who said: “With general and local elections looming we are starting to see the real face of the BNP and the nasty individuals involved with them. I hope people think long and hard before they consider putting a cross against their name.”

People’s Party candidate Mark Samuel, who stood against Miss Lewis, said: “The party is banging a drum but are beating themselves to death with it. I don’t care what a person’s past is but if they are standing they have to be able to represent everyone not just their own views. I find the BNP to be offensive and I don’t like the way they treat other people.”

Miss Lewis, who served a prison sentence after sending death threats to a drugs company involved in animal testing, defended her comments. Miss Lewis said: “I am not a racist, I am a racial survivalist and anyone who calls me a racist is a genocideist (sic). I think you have your priorities all wrong.”

Croydon Guardian

Croydon Council looks to take action over BNP member's sick boast

Croydon Council is looking to see whether it can take a BNP member to court after she boasted about mounting a hate campaign against a family of immigrants living in the flat above her.

Charlotte Lewis, who earlier this year stood as a candidate in the Waddon by-election, told a meeting of British National Party members she played loud music late into the night - which may have contributed to the Afghan family moving out. The comments were made at a meeting in east London to celebrate the party's showing in the recent European elections.

Addressing party members at a pub in Dagenham, she said: "I don't think they could take any more of my penchant for playing heavy metal at 1am."

When the Advertiser asked the 36-year-old, who lives in Bensham Lane, Thornton Heath, to explain the comments, Ms Lewis said she had "embellished" the story for the sake of her audience. But she added: "I'm of the opinion that none of them should be in this country anyway. It would be in the best interests of this country if they moved back to Afghanistan. If British people were to move in upstairs I would keep the noise down."

Asked if she had made any efforts to get to know her neighbours, Ms Lewis added: "That would be hypocritical, and I'm not hypocritical. What on earth would we speak about, even if they could speak English? They're immigrants in my country and I'm a member of the BNP."

Croydon North MP Malcolm Wicks - a patron of the West Croydon Refugee Centre - said he was appalled at her remarks. He said: "If she admits that she made the comments, it's a really extraordinary thing. It's clearly anti-social behaviour and the idea that someone could be considered for elected public service after admitting this kind of anti-social behaviour is bizarre. It shows the good sense of the people of Waddon for not voting for her."

Councillor Alison Butler, who represents the Bensham Manor ward where Ms Lewis lives, was equally disgusted by her bragging. She said: "I'm going to see if there's any action we (Croydon Council) can take. I'm just horrified at her despicable remarks, I just wish we'd heard about it sooner."

Gavin Barwell, the council's cabinet member for safety and cohesion, has asked officers to investigate what steps they can take against her under anti-social behaviour laws. He said: "I share Councillor Butler's concerns and will be looking into it. I view it very seriously, and I'm taking advice from officers about whether there is any legal action we can take."

This is Croydon

BNP fan: Give Iron Cross to refugee-hater

British National Party supporters cheered for one of their candidates to be awarded a Nazi military medal at a Euro election after-party.

A member of the crowd made the call after learning that Charlotte Lewis had travelled to Calais to lead a protest against the refugee camp there, taking placards reading "Britain's full up" and "Asylum seekers don't unpack, you're going back". The ex-jailbird was telling the meeting about her exploits when a supporter shouted she should be given an Iron Cross - strongly associated with the Nazis and an emblem of the German army during World War Two.

Undercover Sunday Mirror investigators infiltrated the event on Thursday night in the back room of a pub in Dagenham, East London.

London Assembly member and local councillor Richard Barnbrook appeared briefly at the event, billed as a celebration of the party's "success" in the Euro election where they won two seats. But the evening turned into nothing more than another opportunity for activists to express racist views. Bob Bailey, 43, a BNP councillor in Barking and Dagenham, gave two talks at the event, with Lewis - a candidate for Waddon, South London - giving a third.

Although the BNP, led by new Euro MP Nick Griffin, have tried to reinvent themselves as a serious political party, it soon became clear that many party members still harbour extremely offensive views. Lewis - who was jailed for six months in 2001 for making death threats against workers at a drugs company - made no effort to hide her contempt for immigrants.

Talking about her trip to Calais, she said: "The invaders are dangerous and they are not people we want in England or Europe or anywhere in the civilised world." She claimed they "swaggered" around Calais before recounting a story about her Afghan neighbour. She said: "The Afghan who lives in the flat above me... well, I say that, he hasn't been seen for two weeks, so I'm hoping him, Fatima and the brat have moved out." After a pause, and to raucous laughter, she added: "I don't think they could take any more of my penchant for playing heavy metal music at 1am. It's wishful thinking that they have gone back to Afghanistan, but it's more than likely they have been allocated one of numerous brand-new housing association flats in the area."

Lewis then described people who work in soup kitchens to provide food for refugees as "idiotic dim-witted liberals". It was after this that Bailey made his ridiculous pledge to give Lewis a medal if the BNP get into government.

Sipping a pint, he said: "Under the BNP people like Charlotte would get a medal... there is no doubt." Someone in the crowd then shouted out "the Iron Cross". The German medal is closely associated with the Nazis - Hitler reintroduced it and added a swastika.

Bailey then went into an antiMuslim rant. He said: "We do not need Islam in Europe and we do not need it in the UK. In London we know the stark realities of Islam more than anywhere else. They bomb buses, they bomb trains, they have created terror here."

Bnp spokesman Simon Darby said yesterday: "It was a joke. People in this country are famous for their sense of humour. We are quite open that we don't regard the mass importation of Afghans and replacement of the native population as a good thing."

Mirror

Meet the BNP hijacker … or maybe not

As part of our service of keeping BNP members informed about what is going on in their own party, we pass on details of a Hounslow BNP branch meeting featuring the guest speaker Paul Golding, well known in the party as a "London super-activist" and driver of the BNP's lie lorry.

In an attempt to round members up for the meeting on Friday 13 February, Councillor Bob Bailey, the BNP's London organiser and leader of the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham council, says: "Paul is an excellent speaker and leading light in the south east and London. He is the candidate in a by election in Seven Oaks [sic] Kent. Polling day Thursday 12th so with any luck we may be greeting Councillor Paul Golding!"

This may cause consternation among BNP activists being dragged over to Swanley St Mary's ward, Sevenoaks, to carry on canvassing for their candidate right up to the actual polling day on 19 February. This latest blunder by Councillor Bailey follows his glowing endorsement of the BNP's candidate in the Waddon ward, Croydon, by-election on 12 February, Charlotte Lewis. When her animal rights terrorism conviction was revealed, Bailey told the local paper it would increase the BNP's share of the vote.

Why Bailey was acting as as a BNP spokesperson for Croydon, south London, is unclear. Party members are wondering what has happened to Bob Gertner, the south London organiser.

Members and supporters wanting to attend the Hounslow meeting in west London are told to make their way to the rendezvous point at Uxbridge underground station at 7pm and "look for activists with Union flag". Is that the Union Flag Golding claimed to have hijacked in his recent statement, widely publicised by Searchlight: "We have hi-jacked the Union Flag, now we must hi-jack the word ‘British'"?

Confused? Why not give the Hounslow organiser, Dan Finch, a call on 07722 166755?

Stop the BNP

BNP's Bob Bailey claims candidate's criminal past and death threats will win votes

Bailey and Lewis - as mad as each other

The hypocrisy of the British National Party is legendary, as is the blatant insanity of many of its more prominent members, though we're finding it difficult to decide if Bob Bailey, the party's London organiser, is hypocritical, insane or just plain stupid. Or possibly a combination of the three.

Bailey was in the news a couple of days ago, referring to the BNP's candidate in the Waddon by-election next week and trying to boost her chances by taking the 'insanity' approach to politics. That is, to talk bollocks loudly enough to drown out the stupidity of what you're actually saying.

Bob Bailey is a curious and unstable character. It was he who berated a vicar who dared to have 2,000 anti-BNP leaflets printed and delivered ahead of a local by-election, claiming that the clergyman was a fascist for getting involved with politics. He also had a go at a Labour councillor who dared to take issue with him at a Barking and Dagenham council meeting, calling him a Nazi, presumably for being so disagreeable.

Bailey also had a well-publicised go at the principal of Barking College Ted Parker, just hours before the college held a Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) event at its Dagenham Road, Dagenham campus, ordering him to stop hosting such events or there would be 'problems' from BNP members.

Even more publicised was his foul-mouthed telephone tirade against the Barking and Dagenham Recorder news editor Sally Lowe, who he again branded a Nazi after seeing the Recorder's coverage of the London Assembly elections. After slamming the phone down, Bailey turned up outside the Recorder's offices with a group of BNP members, shouting garbled messages through a megaphone until they were moved on by the police.

Bailey has also lied on his profile on the BNP London website, claiming that the party had secured 5,000 new homes in his borough. Of course, it had done no such thing and never will.

Unstable, abusive,foul-mouthed, a liar and stupid. No surprise then, that Bailey should do more than simply endorse the candidacy of Charlotte Lewis, who is contesting Waddon ward, Croydon for the BNP, a former animal rights activist who was jailed for six months in 2001 for a campaign of harassment against employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a Cambridgeshire laboratory that carries out product testing on animals.

Regular readers will recall the fuss the BNP made about the membership list being leaked and how it would place the lives of every one of the party's members in jeopardy, how it raved about claims that members had received abusive phone calls and letters (unverified by the police) and how anti-fascists were unprincipled bastards for daring to have a go at the racists and fascists living in their midst (though the party had studiously ignored Redwatch for years, which has details of thousands of those who oppose such organisations as the BNP, many supplied by known BNP members and even BNP councillors).

When it was revealed that Charlotte Lewis, in her animal rights days, had sent death threats to employees of HLS, Bailey's response was peculiar, bearing in mind the response from the party over the leaked list.

'She only sent some letters...we didn't think that it should hold her back from standing as a candidate.'

One of the letters she sent had this little gem in it.

'This is a warning. Your life is in grave danger if you don't stop working at HLS. You will find yourself having a gun aimed at your stupid ugly head.'

Lewis even managed to send letters to people who had left HLS two years before, leaving one woman 'hysterical and very scared'.

The ethics of animal rights activism are hotly debated, particularly when it comes to confronting individuals either at home or work but this is not the place for such a discussion. The fact is that Lewis sent a number of frightening and threatening letters, was convicted of a number of counts of harassment and was jailed for six months. And what is Bob Bailey's considered response to an action that is likely to earn little sympathy from a public that has heard many horror stories about animal rights activists over the past couple of years?

'It's free advertising. There's no such thing as bad publicity. It's extra publicity for us and it will increase our share of the vote. It was ages ago. I honestly don't feel it's worth commenting on. I'm not going to make a big deal out of it.'

The BNP as an entity doesn't feel anything is a big deal if it comes from their side (though one can easily imagine the cries of outrage if a Charlotte Lewis were to stand for the Labour Party). One of its more important members is Lambertus Nieuwhof, a South African IT specialist who oversees the party's internet operations. Nieuwhof is an interesting character - in January 1992, he was one of three men who planted a home-made bomb at the Calvary Church School in protest against the school's decision to become racially mixed. The bomb, thankfully, failed to go off and he received a derisory 12-month prison sentence for his role in this act of terrorism. He's still in the party though and remains one of its increasingly important South African members.

Bailey's point about there being no such thing as bad publicity makes one wonder where he's been living for the last six months. Was the revelation last November that a couple of its members were child abusers good publicity? Will it still be good publicity when a couple of its senior officers are finally done for attempting to have sex with a couple of underage girls, should that ever actually happen?

Bailey is clearly the worst type of modern BNP organiser. Completely blinkered, unstable and prone to at least verbal violence, and utterly incapable of seeing reality even if it comes up and headbutts him on the bridge of the nose. Charlotte Lewis has been jailed for several acts of violence by proxy - there's no getting away from that. Any amount of bullshit from Bob Bailey will make no difference - her record will lose her votes and the stupidity of a party that stands a woman described as having 'a history of psychological problems' that appear to have manifested themselves in such a manner will do nothing for its credibility with the electorate.

BNP candidate is jailed animal rights extremist

A British National Party candidate in a Croydon, south London, by-election this month was an animal rights activist who served a prison sentence for a campaign of terror against an animal research laboratory.

Charlotte Lewis, who is contesting Waddon ward, Croydon, on 12 February, was jailed for six months in 2001 after being found guilty of four charges of harassment as part of a concerted campaign against the staff of Huntingdon Life Sciences, whom she called “animal abusing scum”.

Lewis, who was a member of Stop Animal Rights Cruelty, wrote a series of anonymous threatening letters to people working at the Cambridgeshire laboratory. One warned the recipient: “If you don’t quit HLS then your life will not be worth living. You will always have to be looking over your shoulder.” Another threatened: “This is a warning. Your life is in grave danger if you don’t stop working at HLS. You will find yourself having a gun aimed at your stupid ugly head.”

One family received over 50 such letters from animal rights activists before a brick was thrown through their window. Shortly afterwards Lewis wrote to them saying: “I was there when a brick was put through your window. If you don't quit HLS you can expect more of the same.”

Peterborough Crown Court heard that Lewis, who today is the London BNP regional treasurer, had “a history of psychological problems and suffers depression”. She was arrested after forensic scientists matched her saliva with DNA found on the back of the stamps used to post the letters.

Judge Richard Pollard imposed four concurrent six-month prison sentences on Lewis, saying that her letters had had such an impact upon their recipients that a custodial sentence was necessary. He also imposing a restraining order to prevent Lewis from harassing HLS staff further.

Whatever one’s views on animal testing there can be little doubt that the campaign against HLS was long, violent and, for those on the receiving end, terrifying. Lewis was sentenced in 2001 amid a terrorist campaign in which deadly nail bombs were sent to organisations and individuals, some only marginally connected with animal research.

On 21 January 2009 seven “fanatical” leaders of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) were jailed for between four and eleven years on charges of conspiracy to blackmail during the course of a campaign described by the judge as “urban terrorism”.

Having joined the BNP in 2003, Lewis was in trouble with the law again in 2006 while standing as a BNP candidate in the May council elections in St Helier, Sutton. Lewis put a false Sutton address on her nomination form to make her eligible to stand and was questioned by the police over possible election fraud. However despite her clear breach of electoral law she was not charged.

Asked about the incident by the local paper during her current campaign, Lewis lied again, blaming a party organiser “who has since left the organisation”. If she is referring to the former Croydon and Sutton BNP organiser, this might be news to him. Far from leaving the BNP Bob Gertner was recently promoted to south London organiser. His replacement in the Croydon and Sutton role: Lewis herself.

Lewis’s Croydon campaign was slow to take off, with London activists prioritising the East Wickham by-election on 22 January, but BNP efforts on her behalf are set to intensify in the final three weeks before polling day.

Not content to wait for the cavalry, the long-term unemployed candidate decided to shoot her own campaign video. It was not a great success. Filming without permission outside a local school quickly landed her in hot water as teachers came out to remonstrate, causing her to skulk off with her tail between her legs.

At one point her speech to camera is interrupted by what sounds like an aeroplane flying overhead. Rather than re-shoot the scene, Lewis left it in. Could her decision have anything to do with her penchant for telling all and sundry that she is going to become an airline pilot? Good luck to her, but her ambition might prove a little hard to realise without a pilot’s licence or, as her recent internet posts make clear, any intention of returning to college to get the necessary qualifications to gain one.

Searchlight

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.

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