United Reform Church and Allied Religious Institutions

¶ … United Reform Church and allied religious institutions such as the Methodist Church in Britain have expressed concern over election results for the British National Party (BNP). In the June 2009 elections, the BNP garnered two European Parliament seats and three seats in local councils around the United Kingdom.

The Secretary for Church and Society for the United Reformed Church, Frank Kantor remarked that "We must never become comfortable with the BNP using their position to promote racist policies. We will continue to their messages of hatred and fear. (United Reform Church,)."

A lot of commentators predicted a BNP success largely due to the low voter turnout and political instability in the weeks leading up to the election. The results were however much lower that BNP estimates of the elections returns (ibid).

The Methodist Church's public issues policy adviser Rachel Lampard said that "The limited success of the BNP does not change our steadfast message: God loves all. Racism is a sin. The campaigning work of the Churches and other grass-roots organizations has helped to highlight the need for people to vote positively, especially at a time when public confidence in politics has been shaken (ibid)." Also, the Reverend Graham Sparkes (head of faith and unity for the Baptist Union of Great Britain) also said that "It's deeply disappointing that we now have a racist party representing Britain in Europe for the next five years and it is vital that our remaining UK representatives dedicate themselves to promote the common good (ibid)."

While the initial reaction to the BNP elections results was definitely justified, the success of the party since then has not been nearly as dramatic. Indeed, the BNP has suffered in the press and in the British court system over exclusionary provisions of its constitution that ban non-white members from membership in the party. (Taylor, BNP leader Nick Griffin accused of lying over party's constitution).

The party's chief, Nick Griffin was accused of lying in the British high court during a showdown with the equality and human rights watchdog regarding the party's potentially discriminatory constitution. Griffin failed to show up for his latest court hearing due to kidney stones. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) accused the BNP of failing to comply with a county court judgment earlier this year that ordered the removal of potentially racist clauses from the BNP's constitution. If it does not comply, the party faces a find and/or steep costs or possibly the freezing of its assets if the court rules in favor of the EHRC. The BNP was forced by the high court to remove a "non-white" clause from the party constitution last year after it was ruled that it breached discrimination laws. In March, Judge Paul Collins ruled that the revised constitution was indirectly discriminatory based upon its applicants to oppose "any form of integration or assimilation of ... The indigenous British." The Equality and Human Rights Commission argued that this meant that the BNP constitution could not be endorsed by those in mixed-race relationships. In essence, non-whites could not possibly be members of the party. BNP leader Nick Griffin was accused of lying over the party's constitution Equality and Human Rights Commission which says BNP leader is refusing to obey court orders to remove the offensive clauses (ibid).

In addition to the non-white clause, the revised constitution document further required prospective members to submit to themselves to a two-hour vetting visit at their home by BNP officials. Judge Collins ruled that this could be seen as intimidating for non-white applicants. He ordered both of the offending sections to be removed. Griffin redrafted the BNP constitution once more, but the new version showed that the offending clauses had been only slightly amended rather than completely removed. The court is now angry that these offending passages have only been "suspended" and not expunged from the constitutional document (ibid).

Given the party's current legal problems, it certainly does not seem to be the juggernaut that it was feared to be about a year and a half ago. Rather, attrition seems to be setting in and sapping the BNP's power and forward momentum that it gained due to the election success that it achieved in June of 2009. Indeed, the party seems to be more capable of street theater than in parliamentary or legal maneuvers that will help its position. The court battles have been only one of a series of setbacks for the BNP. Infighting and resignations in the party since its poor performance in the May general and local elections have highlighted this even further. For instance, in September, Richard Barnbrook who is the party's sole representative on the London assembly, publicly split with Griffin when he was expelled from the BNP ranks. There have also been mounting concerns about the party's finances. The BNP further failed to comment on reports it was over £500,000 in debt (ibid).