Quality | 2010.02.14
BNP to vote on allowing non-whites to join party
Meeting expected to agree new party constitution after legal threat over membership restrictions
The BNP will vote today on whether to change its constitution to allow non-whites to join the party.
Following a legal challenge by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last year, the BNP agreed to use "all reasonable endeavours" to revise its constitution to ensure it did not fall foul of race equality legislation.
The far-right party has so far failed to follow through on that promise and last month it was ordered to amend its rules , which restrict membership to "indigenous Caucasians", or face prosecution.
After the January hearing, a BNP spokesman, Simon Darby, said the party would have to "emasculate its constitution" and described the case as "a deadly serious attempt to put us out of business".
The BNP rushed out letters to its 14,000 members in order to allow for the 14 days needed to alert them to the proposed changes. An extraordinary general meeting being held today at a secret location is widely expected to agree a new constitution.
Griffin has urged party members to back the changes but has deplored the EHRC\'s actions and described them as a waste of money. He told the BBC that ethnic minority members would "be welcomed, providing they\'re there to do the things that we want to do, and providing they accept and agree with our principles".
Rajinder Singh , a Sikh man who has written letters of support to Nick Griffin, provided the BNP leader with a character reference at his 2005 trial for inciting racial hatred, and appeared on the party\'s online TV channel, is believed to have been lined up as the first non-white member in the event that the constitution is amended.
The party\'s communications and campaigns officer, Martin Wingfield, personally endorsed him on his blog, calling for the BNP to "give the brave and loyal Rajinder Singh the honour of becoming the first ethnic minority member".
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/[...]bnp-vote-non-whites-join-party
