THE BNP has been reported to the Electoral Commission over a campaign leaflet that falsely claims there are more Muslims in the UK than Scots.
A pamphlet was put through letterboxes across Scotland which said the BNP would put an end to mosque-building and warning of a “flood” of Eastern European immigrants about to arrive in Scotland.
Campaign group, Hope Not Hate, has reported the party over its claims. There are an estimated 2.4 million Muslims in Britain and more than five million people in Scotland alone, 89% of whom declared themselves Scottish in the last census.
The far-right BNP is planning to field a record number of candidates in the next Holyrood and Westminster elections, but the Sunday Herald can reveal that a shortage of candidates has meant Nick Griffin’s daughter Jenny has been forced to stand in English, Welsh and Scottish elections under her married name, Jennifer Matthys.
Opponents said it was damning evidence of the BNP’s lack of support.
A spokesman for Hope Not Hate said: “The BNP’s campaign of hate has been rejected by the Scottish people, which is why they have resorted to a tissue of lies.
“The BNP is desperate when Nick Griffin is forced to pressgang his own daughter into standing in three separate elections. This makes a mockery of their claims to be building support across the country.”
Aamer Anwar, human rights lawyer, said Muslims could be intimidated by the leaflets and they should call the police if they felt threatened. He said: “This could be considered breach of the peace. It’s racist nonsense which is totally inaccurate and trying to play on people’s fears.”
BNP Scottish organiser Gary Raikes said the leaflets were checked before going out and questioned whether the UK’s Muslim population had been accurately measured.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article