BNP Leader Threw Eggs In Protest

LONDON — Demonstrators in Britain threw eggs Tuesday at the leader of a far-right political party, forcing him to abandon a news conference outside Parliament.

Police say two people have been taken to hospital after protesters threw eggs at BNP leader Nick Griffin.
Unite Against Facism who organised the demonstration, says one of the group was hit when a car, driven by a BNP member, "drove at" two protesters.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said officers had received an allegation of common assault and were investigating reports of a road collision.

Mr Griffin told SkyNews it was he and his colleagues who had been subjected to "serious physical harm" by the protesters.

"I make no apologies for having a small group of security," he said.

"I would rather it was done with the police, but the police, no doubt on orders from the Home Office, stood on the other side of the street.

"We were all kicked and punched."If, in their haste, one of the mob got in front of our car, I'm afraid that is their problem, not ours."

Mr Griffin was forced to abandon a news conference outside Parliament after the disruption by UAF.

The newly-elected MEP for the North West of England, arrived on College Green in front of Parliament with fellow BNP MEP Andrew Brons just after 2.30pm.

Mr Griffin started by attacking articles from today's newspapers that criticised him and his party.

He had only been speaking for a few minutes when the protesters appeared, chanting and waving banners reading: "Stop the fascist BNP."

Eggs were thrown at Mr Griffin and his bodyguards bundled him away through the crowd.
Mr Griffin told Sky News it had been "a desperate display of mob violence" and alleged the group had been funded by the Labour Party.

"They are entitled to demonstrate, but not to use violence or stop me from talking to constituents.

"If we are so evil and bad, expose us, don't shut us up using violence."

He added:"It is not ordinary people attacking us, it is an organisation funded by the Labour Party and backed by the entire political class."

Jon Cruddas, who is Labour MP for Dagenham where the BNP has gained support in the past, said the demonstration was not the way to fight the party.

"They want to pit themselves as victims, the only ones to challenge the Westminster bubble," he told Sky News.

"As soon as they come here, they have eggs or whatever thrown at them. This reinforces the image they have tried to set up to set up.

"We should be challenging them in terms of policy, ideas and their views about black people, rather than reinforcing the sense that they are victims and outsiders."

The BNP won two seats in last week's European elections - the first Parliamentary seats the party has ever held.

They took almost 10% of the vote in the Yorkshire and Humber region, up by 2% on the last election.

It achieved 16% of the vote in Barnsley, nearly 12% in Doncaster and 15% in Rotherham - all Labour strongholds.

The protesters, many of whom carried signs reading “Stop the Fascist BNP,” chased British National Party leader Nick Griffin from the area.

Griffin was elected to the European Parliament on Monday. The BNP won two seats in the Parliament for the first time.

The BNP does not accept nonwhite members and opposes immigration.



Interviewed by the BBC after the demonstration, Griffin said he was outraged by his inability to hold the news conference.

“It’s very, very wrong,” he said. “It’s a very sad day for British democracy.”

There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.

Speaking to BBC News afterwards Mr Griffin alleged that the three main political parties were trying to prevent the BNP getting its message across by colluding with protesters who he said were mainly left-wing students.

"It's a very, very sad day for British democracy," he said.

"People should be entitled to hear what we have to say and to hear journalists question us robustly."

He described protesters as an "organised mob that's backed by all three main parties to stop us getting our message across to the public" and added: "It does not represent ordinary people."

He said he suffered only a "glancing splattering" with egg but a television cameraman was hit full in the face.

He says the BNP is not racist and says it won votes because it "spoke openly about the problem of immigration".

And he argued that the "political elite" were responsible for making "the indigenous British majority... second class citizens in every possible sphere".

Mr Griffin said the BNP plans to hold a press conference in Manchester tomorrow and he hopes that the police will take action against any violent protests.

On Monday Tory leader David Cameron and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said they were "sickened" by the BNP's win and Labour deputy Harriet Harman said it was "a terrible thing".

The number of people voting BNP across the UK as a whole went up slightly, from 808,201 to 943,598 in the European elections, but went down slightly in the two regions where it gained MEPs, with the party benefitting from a collapse in the Labour vote.