British far-right leader Nick Griffin accused the BBC Friday of mounting a "lynch mob" on him in a charged appearance on a TV political panel show, and called for it to be re-recorded. Griffin, accused of a weak performance on BBC's "Question Time", suggested audience members who fired angry questions at him at the show's recording in London came from a city which had been "ethnically cleansed" of white people.
Some eight million people watched the British National Party (BNP) leader's controversial "Question Time" turn when it was screened Thursday night, the BBC said, nearly treble its normal viewing figures. A furious Griffin told reporters Friday he was putting in a formal complaint to the BBC accusing it of changing the format to show him in a bad light. He used the slot to attack Islam and defend the Ku Klux Klan.
"That was not a genuine 'Question Time', that was a lynch mob," said Griffin. "Let's do it again and do it properly this time". Asked to rate his performance, he said: "I think under the circumstances, I did just fine", adding that the audience was drawn from a city, London, which was "no longer British" due to the size of its immigrant population.
As a debate rages about whether the BBC was right to invite Griffin on the flagship primetime show, the broadcaster said the size of the audience for "Question Time" proved it was the right decision. "The agenda of the programme was set by the audience's own questions," Mark Byford, deputy director general of the BBC said.
"The BBC is firm in its belief that it was appropriate for Mr Griffin to appear as a member of the panel and the BBC fulfilled its duty to uphold due impartiality by inviting him on the programme." The broadcaster said it had received over 350 complaints about the show, most of which alleged bias against the BNP.
Griffin was invited on after he and a colleague were elected to the European Parliament in June, with the party taking nearly a million votes, its best-ever election result. The BNP wants to stop immigration and has a whites-only membership policy, although that is set to change after a recent court battle.
Around 500 protesters staged angry demonstrations Thursday against Griffin's appearance outside BBC Television Centre in London, where the show was being filmed. Around 30 of them broke in to the building and there were six arrests, while three police officers were injured. Cabinet minister Peter Hain, a veteran anti-apartheid campaigner, has accused the BBC of legitimising "racist poison" by inviting Griffin on, while many newspapers were also critical Friday.
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