Holocaust survivors will confront BNP on Question Time
The row has been building since the BBC announced last month that it was considering inviting the BNP to send a representative to join the Question Time panel. This was confirmed last week when it announced Griffin would be appearing on Thursday, alongside Bonnie Greer, the black American writer, Baroness Warsi, the Conservative peer, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, and Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman.
Security is being stepped up, with hundreds of police officers drafted in to prevent clashes between left-wing protesters and BNP supporters outside the studio and security guards and plain clothes officers inside ready to prevent any attempts to disrupt the broadcast.
The Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, has now stepped into the row telling David Dimbleby, the Question Time presenter, that the BNP was an “illegally constituted” organisation because it barred black and Asian people from its membership, and that appearing on the show would give the “despicable” party “a legitimacy they