Demonstrators descend on BBC as far-right-wing politician goes on air

LONDON (AP) — The leader of Britain’s far-right party outlined his vision in a controversial television debut that critics fear could help his whites-only party ease into the political mainstream.

British National Party leader Nick Griffin feuded with fellow panelists and was excoriated by hostile audience members in a tense appearance on BBC’s “Question Time” program Thursday night.

“It was hard-going,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview after the show, describing the program as “a bit like a boxing match. I took some punches, but I was able to land some punches too.” Still, he complained that the audience had been stacked with minorities.

“They put us on in London where the indigenous population is in the minority, so we don’t have much sympathy or support,” he said.

“Question Time” gathers Britain’s leading politicians, journalists and other public figures in a panel to take questions from a studio audience. The three-decade-old program has become something of a national institution, and many have condemned Griffin’s invitation as awarding his far-right group an undeserved aura of political respectability.

The BBC said that, as a publicly funded broadcaster, it must cover all political parties that have a national presence. The BNP has no seats in the Britain’s Parliament, but earlier this year the party won two seats in the European legislature.

The program showed Griffin defending himself against accusations that he sympathized with the ideals of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party — but also showed him ducking the question of whether he ever denied the Holocaust.

Fellow panelist Chris Huhne, a lawmaker with Britain’s Liberal Democrats party, spoke for many of the show’s guests when he predicted that Griffin’s credibility “is going to be seriously damaged by his performance.”

“This is a person who comes from a fascist background; anyone who watches the program will see exactly what he stands for,” he told the BBC after the show.

But Griffin’s appearance on the taxpayer-funded show has divided the country — with one government minister saying the BBC “should be ashamed of single-handedly doing a racist, fascist party the biggest favor in its grubby history.”

“Our black, Muslim and Jewish citizens will sleep much less easily now the BBC has legitimized the BNP,” Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said after the show’s taping.

Griffin’s performance will be dissected in Britain’s media.

His defense of the “indigenous Britons” drew scattered applause in the program, but he seemed to stumble when he claimed the media was distorting his message. He declined to give any examples, saying there were “far too many to go into.”

Griffin’s appearance was greeted by rowdy and sometimes violent protests at the BBC Television Center in west London. Hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators rallied outside the BBC headquarters, and at one point about 25 people breached a police cordon and ran into the center’s lobby.