BNP racism exposed in undercover documentary

Leading figures in the British National Party are shown in a new BBC documentary admitting violence and racism towards Asians and delivering speeches inciting racial hatred.

Leading figures in the British National Party are shown in a new BBC documentary admitting violence and racism towards Asians and delivering speeches inciting racial hatred.

Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, is filmed telling a party meeting in Keighley in West Yorkshire, where there had been a series of sex attacks, that the Koran allows Muslims to take non-Muslim women by force. Mr Griffin, who admits during his speech that it is against the law, urges members to "do something for the BNP because otherwise they will do someone in your family".

John Tyndall, the party's founder, accuses the Conservative leader Michael Howard of being "this interloper, this immigrant or son of immigrants" and saying that all Africa has given to the world is "voodoo, cannibalism and Aids".

The film, The Secret Agent, to be shown on BBC1 tonight, follows a BBC undercover reporter, Jason Gwynne, who posed as a BNP sympathiser in West Yorkshire during the run-up to the local authority and European elections in June. He was helped by Andy Sykes, a BNP member who says that he turned against the party after being asked to commit acts of violence. The BBC said last night that both were now under protection for their own security.

Stewart Williams, a BNP candidate in the local elections, is filmed saying: "All I want to do is shoot Pakis." David Midgley, also a council candidate, tells Mr Gwynne that he spent three weeks putting dog excrement through the letter box of an Asian restaurant, while Mark Collett, another candidate, calls asylum-seekers "cockroaches".

Another BNP activist, Steve Barkham, boasts of attacking an Asian man during the riots in Bradford three years ago. He said that he was never arrested because the man picked out the wrong person in a police identity parade.

The BNP were shown the documentary yesterday morning. In a statement on its website, the party accused the "institutionally anti-white and Islamophile BBC" of using paid agents provocateurs to create "smears and hatchet jobs".

The programme makers have said that it was important to reveal the true nature of the party at a time when it was seeking respectability and electoral success.

Phil Edwards, the BNP spokesman, said it was "quite disreputable" for the BBC to "eavesdrop" on private conversations. He added: "People say things they don't mean. But obviously if people did do these things or hold these views we would expel them." He said Mr Tyndall was "proscribed" by the party, but could not be stopped from speaking at meetings and that Mr Collett was "a fool" to make the comment about cockroaches. Asked about Mr Griffin's comments, Mr Edwards said: "I can't see anything wrong with what he said."

Mr Griffin later said that Mr Midgley and Mr Barkham would be expelled, while Mr Williams will face an internal disciplinary tribunal. Mr Griffin also accused the BBC of selectively editing his speech and said he believed that Mr Midgley had been working for the programme makers.

West Yorkshire Police are expected to examine the film to establish whether any of the comments made could lead to a prosecution.