Bid to block Nick Griffin from Queen’s annual showpiece
ANTI-Racism campaigners have reacted with fury after it emerged BNP leader has been invited to theBuckingham Palace garden party.
Nick Griffin is expected to accompany Richard Barnbrook, a BNP member of the London Assembly, to the event on 21 July.
While all members of the Assembly have been invited to the event, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson stressed the Queen is not consulted on the guest list, and that as yet no official invitations had been sent to prospective guests.
Today London Lord Mayor hit out at the invite calling on Mr Barnbrook to bring an alternative guest or “consider his invitation rescinded.”
His criticism of the BNP member was shared by Labour MEP Claude Moraes who accused MrBarnbrook’s move as a “cynical stunt” to further the party’s political agenda ahead of the June 6 European Elections where Nick Griffin is hoping to triumph.
Mr Moraes, who is also Chair of the European Parliament’s All-Party Anti-Racism Group, said: “For Richard Barnbrook to invite the leading BNP candidate in an election which is only days away, is a cynical move to hijack a non-party political event. It potentially comprises the Royal Family.
“The BNP are determined to show that they are a mainstream political party like other UK parties. The fact is they support policies such as voluntary repatriation of non-whites. They are clearly different from all other political parties and their mission, with stunts like this, is to do anything they can to appear be to within the mainstream. “To this end creating a situation where the BNP leader might meet the Queen is clearly a BNP tactic to give them the veneer of credibility.”
Earlier Boris Johnson wrote to The Chair of the London Assembly, Darren Johnson calling on the Assembly stop Mr Barnbrook from using his invitation for “political purposes”.
