BNP constitution 'discriminates'

The BNP has been accused of 'indirectly' discriminating against black and Asian people
12 April 2012

The British National Party has been accused of "indirectly" discriminating against black and Asian people even though the party no longer bars them from joining.

A new constitution allowing people of any ethnic origin to join the party obliged prospective members to support its principles, which meant the door was, in reality, only "pretty narrowly open" for "non-indigenous Britons", London's Central County Court heard.

But the BNP, which voted to amend its constitution last month after the Equality and Human Rights Commission took legal action over the far-right party's whites-only membership policy, denied the allegations and said it had a "waiting list" of black and Asian people and would welcome more applications from ethnic minorities.

The party will have to wait to find out if its decision to scrap the previous policy went far enough to meet race relations laws.

After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Paul Collins said he would issue his judgment on the matter on Friday.

During a day of legal submissions, the court heard prospective members had to sign up to principles including a duty to oppose the promotion of any form of "integration or assimilation" that impacted on the "indigenous British" and a requirement to support the "maintenance and existence of the unity and integrity of the indigenous British".

Robin Allen, QC, representing the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: "That is something which we would submit is indirectly discriminatory.

"They will put persons who do not fall into the indigenous British category at a disadvantage."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT