The BNP Attacks UKIP For Being Racist

    The British National Party's electoral campaign consists largely of attacks on Nigel Farage. Apparently UKIP's immigration policy is bad for Europeans.

    Jim Waterson
    by Jim Waterson

    BuzzFeed News Reporter, UK

    Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

    The far-right British National Party has branded UKIP as racist, claiming that Nigel Farage's party backs an immigration policy that would discriminate against white Europeans.

    Steve Squire, the BNP London spokesman, told BuzzFeed that UKIP proposals to limit immigration were racially biased, unlike his own party's policy:

    UKIP's immigration policy discriminates against white Europeans, whereas our immigration policy is non-discriminatory. We don't pick on white people from Europe: we don't care where you come from, black or Asian or white, we don't want you. We think that is a non-racist position.

    He claims UKIP's plans to limit immigration would only benefit individuals from the "third world" who will then undermine "the indigenous people of this country" who cannot cope with any further immigration.

    Yes, there are people that would support us normally but because of the media hype they're going to give UKIP a go. That's because they feel UKIP has got a better chance than us of destroying the cartel that runs the country. We're fighting for the seats that we've got.

    As a result BNP leaflets now attack Nigel Farage more than the other party leaders.

    Via Twitter: @jimsmallman

    Previously the BNP presented itself as the only group that could challenge mainstream UK political parties, spending most of its time attacking Labour and Conservatives for their perceived elitism.

    But in a sign of changing times its publicity material and election broadcasts now spend as long attacking Nigel Farage.

    He's a Thatcherite and he's for big business, he votes in favour of big business. They [the public] might buy it this time, just as Margaret Thatcher took the National Front's votes in the 1970s and then changed [her policies] when in office.
    BNP

    But either way the BNP is going to struggle to retain its MEPs at the forthcoming elections.

    The BNP has been badly hit by internal splits and financial problems since the last European elections, with its poll ratings plummeting as a result. Membership has plummeted and most of the party's councillors have lost their seats. Andrew Brons, one of the two MEPs elected on a BNP ticket in 2009 has already left the party.

    In a sign of the party's troubles earlier this year the BNP had to issue a national appeal earlier this year to find candidates to fill its slate for the forthcoming EU elections, while party leader Nick Griffin has been declared bankrupt and risks losing his MEP's salary unless the party can stage a comeback in the north west of England.

    If Griffin does lose his seat then the BNP will be left with just two elected representatives: one borough councillor in Leicestershire and another in Pendle, Lancashire.