Labour fight back against British National Party 'poison'

The BNP's "poison" has no place in British communities, Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman said today.

She told the Labour Party conference in Brighton: "We are fighting back against the BNP."

Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz also attacked the far-right party from the conference platform, claiming it would "destroy" British society.

Ms Harman said: "The BNP pretend they've changed, pretend they're respectable. They are no such thing.

"They're still the same party that wanted the Nazis to win the war.

"They're still the same party whose constitution excludes from membership anyone who is not 'indigenous Caucasian'.

"It's right that the new Equality Bill will ban that clause. There can be no place in our democracy for an apartheid party."

She added: "The poison of the BNP has no place in our communities - not now; not ever."

Mr Vaz told the conference: "Those who seek to destroy the world's most sophisticated and diverse society - Britain, the mirror of the world - are on the attack once again.

"And they are even getting elected, politically laundering their racism into legitimacy."

He called for greater representation of ethnic minority people in public life - including in the new UK Supreme Court.

Councillor Mahroof Hussain, from Rotherham, said: "I stand before you as a proud British citizen, a proud Yorkshireman and a proud Labour activist.

"But the BNP say I'm not British and I'm not a Yorkshireman. They class me as a foreigner.

"Let me tell the BNP: my father worked in the steelworks of Rotherham and Sheffield for 30 years, he helped to build our great country.

"The only people not wanted in this country are the likes of the BNP.

"The BNP prey on vulnerable people like vultures, constantly circling around with a long list of lies."

Labour activists were urged to raise funds to beat the "bullies and boot boys" of the BNP at the next General Election.

Labour's treasurer Jack Dromey said the party's finances had improved after a period of living beyond its means.

But he told the Brighton conference they still needed to raise large sums of money "to beat the BNP - the bullies and the boot boys in suits who disgrace Britain".