The far-right British National Party (BNP) voted on Sunday to drop its whites-only membership policy, following a threat of legal action.
BNP leader Nick Griffin said he expected a “trickle, rather than a flood” of applications after race relations laws forced the party to amend its Constitution to allow black and British Asian people to join.
“Anyone can be a member of this party. We are happy to accept anyone as a member providing they agree with us that this country should remain fundamentally British,” he told Sky News television.
SOON A SIKH
He said he expected to welcome the party’s first non-white member, a Sikh called Rajinder Singh, soon.
“I will be absolutely delighted to shake his hand and give him his membership card,” Griffin said.
A London court had ordered the party to amend its Constitution to comply with race relations legislation. It warned the BNP that it would face legal action from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, an independent body set up by the government, if it failed to change its membership policy.
The commission said on Sunday it had not yet seen the new Constitution, but added that it hoped “that the BNP’s revised membership policy is no longer discriminatory.”
It will receive the new Constitution today, and will have a week to respond before both parties head to court next month.
Previously, the BNP rules said: “Membership of the BNP is strictly defined within the terms of, and our members also self-define themselves within, the legal ambit of a defined ‘racial group,’ this being ‘indigenous Caucasian’ and defined ‘ethnic groups’ emanating from that race.”
The vote to change the rules was taken at an extraordinary general meeting just outside London, and the event was marred by the ejection of a journalist from the Times newspaper.
Explaining why the reporter was ousted, Griffin said: “Because he is from The Times, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and it lies and it lies and it lies about this party.”
WARNING
The BNP, which has no lawmakers sitting in the British parliament, warns that “the indigenous British people” face becoming an ethnic minority in their own country if current levels of immigration continue.
It also predicts the “overwhelming and extinguishing of Britain and British identity under a tsunami of immigration,” in comments on its Web site.
Griffin and fellow party member Andrew Brons were elected to the European Parliament in June, the first time the BNP had been voted into a legislature.
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