Church leader withdraws support for the BNP

posted by: Nick L | on: Wednesday, 2 April 2008, 00:50

It really has been a bad day for the BNP. Hot on the heals of the Eriksen debacle and the continued support he has received from the party's deputy leader Simon's Darby, it now emerges that a local organiser has left the party.

Yesterday the Rochford Echo revealed that local church leader and one-time Liberal Democrat chairman Rev John Stanton was the local BNP organiser.

Today the same paper has announced that he is quitting the BNP.

"I have ended my involvement with the BNP after finding out more about them at the weekend,” he said.

"It was very stupid of me, but I only read what they said about themselves, which I agreed with.

"Friends have contacted me to say: Those people are nasty.' My daughter rang me sobbing and said: What have you done?'"

He went on: "I had no idea party leader Nick Griffin has been convicted of inciting racial hatred. I also discovered the party was anti-Semitic and homophobic.

"I was misled by what they said about themselves. The impression I got when they joined was that it was just a very British, Christian organisation. Now, I don't really trust anything that they say.”