Is immigration destroying Britain?

The British National Party certainly thinks so.

The far-right political party, which has a white-only membership policy, claims Britain is overcrowded and that it’s time to shut the doors to migrants.

The party’s ‘Chairman’, Nick Griffin, who was convicted for inciting racial hatred in 1998, has blamed migrants for everything from higher crime rates and unemployment, to lower educational standards and less happiness.

The party claims to stand for the rights of ‘indigenous British people’ and their policies include paying immigrants to leave, deporting non-white criminals and rejecting asylum seekers who have passed safe countries on their way to the UK.

But critics label them ‘Nazi-loving fascists’, and their white Briton membership policy is now being investigated by Britain’s Equal Opportunity Commission.

Evan Williams finds that support for the BNP is growing, as voters across Britain abandon Labour amidst anger and dissatisfaction in the handling of the MPs expenses scandal.

While the BNP is not currently represented in the British parliament, they recently won two seats in the EU parliamentary elections. Ironically, they run an anti-EU platform and claim Britain would be better off without the EU.

Many fear that the rise of the BNP may legitimise racially motivated attacks. Paul Jenkins, an activist with Unite Against Fascism, says “The BNP is a Nazi party, it is a fascist organization. Their leader, Nick Griffin, has a conviction for denying the holocaust ever happened. Griffin wants to deny the holocaust because he wants to repeat it,” he says.

With 2.3 million or eight percent of Britain’s workforce unemployed, there is concern that support for the BNP’s message will continue to grow.

On air: 30th August 2009