2 Big Stories
Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time
British National Party leader Nick Griffin has used his Question Time appearance to criticise Islam and defend a past head of the Ku Klux Klan.
He also told a largely hostile audience that Winston Churchill would be a BNP supporter if he were alive, and said he would find two men kissing “creepy”.
Anti-fascist protestors scuffled with police outside BBC TV Centre in west London before the show was filmed.
Minister Peter Hain said the BBC had legitimised the BNP’s “racist poison”.
But the corporation defended the invitation to the leader of the anti-immigration party to appear, saying it had a duty to be impartial.
One of the panellists, Justice Secretary Jack Straw, said it had been a “catastrophic week for the BNP because for the first time the views of the BNP have been properly scrutinised”.
And following the programme, other panellists said Mr Griffin had been exposed. BBC (with video)