British National Party 'so poor it should sell scrap metal'

Nick Griffin: 'Have you any idea of the price of copper?' (Getty Images)

Nick Griffin, leader of the cash strapped far-right BNP, once fed his family on a rabbit that had been killed on the road.

This was one of the strange revelations from an hour long speech he delivered in Coventry at the weekend, watched by an academic from Nottingham University.

In the same speech, he urged every local BNP branch to have “an eBay officer” – presumably to keep an eye out for bargains that could fill the party’s empty coffers. He also shared a fund raising idea with his audience. “We are going to begin collecting scrap. Have you any idea of the price of copper?” he said.

Leaving the subject of money, Mr Griffin informed his audience: “We have produced an invaluable document, it’s called ‘what to do if you get arrested’.” His remarks were noted down by Matthew Goodwin, an associate professor at Nottingham University, and published online.

They suggest that BNP finances have not improved since April, when the party declared that at 31 December 2010 it owed £582,961 and had £15,846 in the bank. Since then, the party has seen a decline in its political fortunes.