Conference to 'name and shame' BNP members

Saturday, 26 February 2005 12:00 AM

Kevin Curran, general secretary of the union the GMB, is leading calls for greater public awareness of the criminal elements within the British National Party.

Several members of the far-right party will be named and shamed at the Unite Against Fascism conference today.

According to anti-fascist body Searchlight, the BNP is expecting to field between 100 and 120 candidates at the general election and the party will have the option of an election broadcast and a mail shot campaign to seven million homes.

The BNP won 800,000 votes in European elections last year and has 23 local councillors.

The GMB will join others in campaigning against the BNP's "odious" and "divisive" views in the run-up to the election, expected on May 5.

"That lack of confidence has opened the door in too many parts of this country for the fascist BNP. If we do not act now, in numbers, they could become a lightning conductor for the angry votes, for hatred in communities," Mr Curran will tell the conference.

"With an election probably only weeks away, trade unionists have a unique role to play.

"We are not politicians but we are political. We are not asking for votes for ourselves, but for working people. So we can earn confidence that perhaps politicians on the doorsteps will not.

"We must get out and tell the British people the truth about the BNP. We have to remind people that not to vote is a waste, but to vote for hatred is far, far worse."

The conference's names and shames Burnley BNP councillor Brian Turner, awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to beating his wife and assaulting a police officer; Len Starr, councillor and prospective MP for the town, cautioned for selling alcohol to under-18s; Luke Smith, banned from every football ground for three years for hooliganism; Adrian Marsden, a Halifax councillor, who has three convictions for threatening behaviour; and Hull BNP organiser David Hannam, imprisoned for three months in 2000 for distributing leaflets likely to incite racial hatred.

A "more unattractive bunch of people would be hard to meet outside a horror film," Mr Curran will say.

"Yet these people claim to stand for British values.

"Their values of violence and intolerance against Britain's new communities have no value at all in this country."

The UAF conference will be held at the TUC conference centre in London.

The BNP responded angrily to Mr Curran's comments, and released a list of politicians from other parties who they claimed are the "real criminals".

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