BNP leader set to stand at election

12 April 2012

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, has confirmed he will stand in Barking at the next General Election.

Speaking to the Press Association shortly before he addressed the BNP's annual conference in Hindley Green, Wigan, he also set out the key topics on which the party will fight for seats in the House of Commons.

He said: "For the first time ever, we are really serious challengers in a number of seats."

He added: "We're looking at half a dozen really seriously with big amounts of resources.

"And on top of that we will be fighting, I'm sure, our largest number ever - so I guess in excess of 200."

The BNP's annual conference began on Saturday and finished with a keynote speech by Mr Griffin, in which he spelt out the future of the party to delegates.

He explained why he has chosen to fight in Margaret Hodge MP's Essex constituency in his campaign to get to Westminster.

"I am going to stand in Barking," he said. "The thrust of that campaign will be the housing and education problems in the borough, and the way that the Labour party has let that borough down in a catastrophic way."

The MEP for the north-west said bringing home British troops for Afghanistan is a key policy for the party and one that he believes has wide support across the country. He said: "It is the issue that everyone in the public wants a party to take the lead on. The three main parties are completely out of kilter with public opinion.

"The gulf is growing literally by the day, with every extra boy that comes home in a box, that gulf grows. We want to give people a moral choice, between backing one of the parties which supports a futile and counter-productive war, and one which says we should be out of there immediately."

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