The BNP’s “apartheid” constitution will be outlawed under legislation before parliament, Commons leader Harriet Harman told MPs yesterday.
Ms Harman said she was “shocked and horrified” by the election of BNP leader Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons to the European Parliament last week.
She said there was “no place” in Britain for having a political party that only accepted white people as members and that the Equality Bill would prevent this.
During questions on future business she told MPs: “We have all been shocked and horrified by the fact that two regions of this country, the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside, are represented by the British National Party, a party who have in their constitution a provision that you cannot be a member of that party if you are not white.”
She added: “All of us should agree that there is no place for a political party in this country to have an apartheid constitution and the Equality Bill will prevent that being the case.”
According to the BNP’s constitution, members must be from the “indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of Indigenous Caucasian”‘.
Tory Philip Davies said: “The reason why so many people voted for them the BNP wasn’t through an endorsement of their nasty creed of politics but out of frustration. The mainstream political parties don’t seem to be addressing their legitimate concerns in these areas.”
A spokeswoman for the Government Equalities Office said: “The Equality Bill would give individuals a right to take legal action against the BNP, in respect of it excluding anyone from membership on grounds of race.”
Source: The Herald, Scotland, June 21 2009