Griffin to complain over 'unfair' treatment

BNP leader Nick Griffin said today he planned to complain to the BBC about his “unfair” treatment on 'Question Time'.

The leader of the far right party appeared on the programme last night alongside Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, Justice Secretary Jack Straw, Tory peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and writer Bonnie Greer.

But he said he was treated unfairly by the panel and audience and complained that the show, held at BBC Television Centre in London, was broadcast from a city which had changed beyond all recognition because of what he called uncontrolled immigration.

Mr Griffin, 50, said: “London is no longer a city my grandparents would recognise. It is changed beyond all recognition. Many of the ancestral Londoners have left over the last 20 years because they can no longer call it home.”

He added: “We know from the floods of emails and numerous telephone calls we have had that the programme was not shown in its normal format.

Mr Griffin said that the BBC had deliberately changed the format of the programme to concentrate on him and his policies.

He said that the party was now making a formal complaint to the BBC over the way in which the programme had been “twisted”.

“They deliberately changed the whole format of 'Question Time' in order to deal with me. I wanted to appear on 'Question Time' to be talking about the postal strike, the fact that our boys are coming back from Afghanistan in body bags or with no legs, or to talk about the banks.”

More than eight million viewers tuned in to watch Griffin, the BBC said today.

The corporation has defended the appearance, in which the BNP leader gave a twitchy performance and described homosexuals as “creepy”.

Hundreds of angry protesters massed outside Television Centre in west London last night as Mr Griffin also denied he was a Nazi and said the Ku Klux Klan were “almost totally non-violent”.

Responding to the BNP leader's comments about the capital, London mayor Boris Johnson said: "Nick Griffin is right to say London is not his city.

“London is a welcoming, tolerant, cosmopolitan capital which thrives on its diversity.

“The secret of its long-term success is its ability to attract the best from wherever they are and allow them to be themselves – unleashing their imagination, creativity and enterprise.

“The BNP has no place here and I again urge Londoners to reject their narrow, extremist and offensive views at every possibility.”

Mr Straw said that while it had been right to debate the BNP on Question Time, the political agenda should now move on.

“Mr Griffin was last night exposed as a fantasising conspiracy theorist with some very unpleasant views and no moral compass. But now that he has been exposed for what he is it is time to move on,” he said.

“There is no denying that many people are disillusioned with mainstream politics. The imperative now is to engage with them directly and put the extremist BNP sideshow behind us.”