NICK GRIFFIN, leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP), was forced to abandon a press conference outside the houses of parliament in London yesterday after he was surrounded by protesters who barracked him and threw eggs.
Mr Griffin, who was elected as an MEP for northwest England last week, was chased down the street by demonstrators shouting “off our streets Nazi scum”. He was bundled into a car by bodyguards and driven off.
Sky News reported a Scotland Yard spokeswoman as saying that police had received an allegation of common assault and were investigating reports of a road collision.
Mr Griffin was speaking on College Green opposite parliament before the protesters appeared, chanting and waving banners reading: “Stop the fascist BNP”.
Weyman Bennett, national secretary of Unite Against Fascism, which had helped organise the protest, said it was important to stand up to the BNP. “The majority of people did not vote for the BNP, they did not vote at all . . . The reality is that they got elected because the turnout was so low.”
Mr Griffin described the protesters as “a mob of leftwing students and lecturers” backed by the three mainstream parties.
The BNP saw only a small increase in its share of the vote in the European elections but gained two MEPs. – ( Guardianservice)