MEP quits BNP, saying Griffin destroyed party

One of the two British National Party Euro-MPs has left the far-right movement and made claims that he has been "constructively dismissed".

Andrew Brons was elected alongside the BNP's leader, Nick Griffin, in the European Parliament elections of 2009 at the height of the party's popularity.

The BNP has been hit by in-fighting and defections over the past two years. Seventeen months ago Mr Brons tried to oust Mr Griffin from the leadership but failed by just nine votes.

In a statement on his website yesterday, Mr Brons said: "I have been marginalised to such an extent, in what is left of the British National Party, that I have been expelled in all but name."

He cited employment law, adding: "My position in the rump of the BNP is analogous to that of an employee who has been constructively dismissed."

He said that 80 or 90 per cent of the party's members, activists and former officials had left it, and he accused Mr Griffin of bearing "heavy responsibility for having destroyed the party of which he is still nominally head".

He said he would continue to promote the policies for which he was elected as MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber.

He became the BNP's first MEP when he won the seat in 2009 with 10 per cent of the vote. Mr Brons was a lecturer at Harrogate College from 1970 until his retirement in 2005. His political career included serving as education officer for the National Front in the 1970s.

The BNP national spokesman could not be contacted for comment last night.