FactCheck: BNP on Question Time
Updated on 23 October 2009
Nearly eight million people watched BNP leader Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time last night. How did the claims they heard check out?
The claim
"I'm very happy for [a non-white audience member born in Britain] to stay here. What we've said is that we believe it's time to shut the door because this country is overcrowded. That criminals, bogus asylum seekers and people who aren't loyal to this country should be deported and everyone else can stay."
Nick Griffin MEP, BBC One's Question Time, 22 October 2009.
The analysis
Griffin omits to mention a significant and contentious part of his party's immigration policy - to "offer generous grants to those of foreign descent resident here who wish to leave permanently".
The party's statement that "we want Britain to remain - or return to - the way it has traditionally been" is hard to square up with the sense that British people from ethnic minorities would be welcomed in a BNP-run Britain.
The sources
BNP immigration policy
The claim
"Our immigration policy is, I think, supported by 84 per cent of the British people at present who, according to a very recent opinion poll, said they're worried about immigration."
Nick Griffin MEP, BBC One's Question Time, 22 October 2009.
The analysis
On the morning of Griffin's appearance, Migration Watch chair Sir Andrew Green wrote a piece in the Daily Mail saying that "eighty-four per cent are worried about our population hitting 70million in 20 years or so, including two thirds of our ethnic population.
"Seventy-one per cent are worried about the impact of immigration, including 45 per cent of the ethnic communities."
Even ignoring the fact that the research is quoted by an anti-immigration organisation, it doesn't back up Griffin's claim.
To translate 84 per cent of people being worried about the projected population increase (around two thirds of which is expected to be as a result of immigration) as 84 per cent of people supporting a policy which includes voluntary repatriation just doesn't stack up.
In fact, only 22 per cent of people surveyed by YouGov for Migration Watch in July said they supported the end to all immigration; 32 per cent supported an end to net immigration (one in, one out). Then, 81 per cent rather than 84 per cent said they were worried or very worried about the population reaching 70 million.
And a smaller quibble - it was in fact 71 per cent of people who said they're worried about immigration, rather than the 84 per cent Griffin claims.
The sources
Daily Mail: We must halt this conspiracy of silence over our immigration crisis
YouGov/Migration Watch poll results
ONS population projections
The claim
"Guided tours in the Lake District have been cancelled because only English people, white people, were going on them."
Nick Griffin MEP, BBC One's Question Time, 22 October 2009.
The analysis
Griffin's statement's met with cries of "nonsense". Lake District tours have not been cancelled, although there was a suggestion of this in the past for reasons close to those Griffin suggests.
The BNP pointed us to recent reports of a £1.7mn government-funded project to get more people from minorities to visit the Lake District and other national parks. But if anything, the project should mean more rather than less call for Lake District activities.
However, there were reports in early 2005 that volunteer-led walking tours in the Lake District faced the axe.
The majority of walkers were "white, middle-class, middle-aged people", the park authority said at the time; the government was encouraging national parks to appeal to young people, to ethnic minorities and to people with disabilities.
"This was at a time when we had a huge financial problem - we were facing nearly a million pounds shortfall on our budget," a Lake District national park authority spokesperson told FactCheck.
The authority looked at cost-cutting measures across the board - scrapping the tours, which cost around £32,000 a year to run, being one of a number of options, but one that attracted a lot of publicity.
"A commercial sponsor saw this, and stepped in to fund the tours," the spokesperson said. "This all happened in January and February, when the walks weren't running anyway, so nothing was actually cancelled." After two years, the park authority went back to picking up the tab.
So there is a kernel of truth in Griffin's claim - the Lake District was (and is) trying to attract more visitors from minority groups, and "white, middle-class, middle-aged" walking tours were briefly under threat - but the axe never fell on them.
The sources
Asian Image: Plan to boost ethnic minority visitors to Lake District
Lake District National Park
BBC: Lake walkers too 'middle-class'
BBC: Ethnic groups want walks to stay
The claim
"Gloucestershire police turned down 108 recruits because they were white."
Nick Griffin MEP, BBC One's Question Time, 22 October 2009.
The analysis
There's a missing word here - "men". Three years ago, Gloucestershire police force was caught out "randomly deselecting" white male applicants, an illegal move constituting discrimination. Six months earlier, Avon and Somerset Police had admitted illegally rejecting almost 200 applicants for the same reason.
Fuel for the fire of those who complain about political correctness gone mad, although the police were hauled over the legal coals for it. And let's not forget the unlucky candidates lost out as much because of their gender as the colour of their skin.
The sources
BBC News: Force admits rejecting white men
The claim
"A misquotation in the Mail today says that I said that black people walk like monkeys and so on. That is an outrageous lie.... I never said such a thing.
"Adolf went a bit too far - I never said such a thing."
Nick Griffin MEP, BBC One's Question Time, 22 October 2009.
The analysis
"Over the rhubarb and custard, he cracked jokes about death camps and blacks 'walking like monkeys'" was the headline in yesterday's Daily Mail.
The text of the article, by one-time Griffin biographer Dominic Carman, details a conversation with Griffin about his student days: "One undergraduate [boxing] opponent was a Nigerian called Amure, with whom Griffin 'joked' about 'blacks behaving so badly and walking like monkeys'. Again, he chuckled at the memory."
A subtle distinction, but this suggests the quote came from a story Griffin was recounting (and laughing about), rather than something he came up with himself. Another Mail article by the same writer three years earlier gives more detail to this effect: "[Amure] used to say to me, 'These West Indians, they make me so ashamed to be black. They behave so badly and walk like monkeys' - which is quite funny."
The other disputed quote comes from a Mail on Sunday article, also by Carman, published on 9 April 2006. "When pushed, Griffin conceded: 'Yes, Adolf went a bit too far. His legacy is the biggest problem that the British nationalist movement has to deal with.'"
In this case, there's little doubt whose mouth the words came from, so for now it's Griffin's word against his interviewer's.
The claim
"I did not have a conviction for holocaust denial."
Nick Griffin MEP, BBC One's Question Time, 22 October 2009.
The analysis
No - and holocaust denial is not illegal in the UK. Griffin does have a conviction (from 1998) for distributing material likely to incite racial hatred.
He is also quoted as saying: "I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that 6 million Jews were gassed and cremated and turned into lampshades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the Earth was flat." He now claims to have changed his mind.
The claim
"I can't explain why I used to say those things, any more than I can tell you why I've changed my mind, I can't tell you the extent to which I changed my mind, because European law prevents this."
Nick Griffin MEP, BBC One's Question Time, 22 October 2009.
The analysis
Not in this country: holocaust denial is not illegal in the UK or by EU law (though it is banned in individual countries such as France, where Griffin attends the European parliament, and Germany).
The claim
"I don't believe [people voted BNP because of the government's failure to reassure them of the scale of immigration]... if you want to know why the BNP won here in the north west and in Yorkshire in June, it was a lot to do with discontent with all the political parties, particularly over the issue of expenses."
Jack Straw, Justice Secretary, BBC One's Question Time, 22 October 2009.
The analysis
Immigration wasn't the only factor, but it certainly seemed to play a part, according to a YouGov survey of 32,000 voters in June. Eighty-seven per cent of BNP voters said immigration was among their top three or four concerns, compared to 49 per cent of the public as a whole.
Seventy-seven per cent thought white people suffer unfair discrimination, nearly double the 40 per cent in the population at large. And 69 per cent of BNP voters thought there is "no real difference these between Britain's three main parties" (a similar sentiment expressed by those who plumped for Ukip and the Greens).
The sources
Who voted BNP and why?
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