Formal complaint against councillor

| Monday, 5 July 2004 | Click here for original article

AN anti-racist campaigner has reported Broxbourne BNP councillor Ramon Johns to the Standards Board of England claiming that he breached council codes of conduct over an election leaflet and letter to the Mercury.

In his complaint, Ian Dust, co-ordinator of anti-prejudice group Broxbourne Against Racism (BAR), attacked Cllr Johns (BNP, Rosedale) for failing to distance himself from "unscrupulous acts" and "lies" propagated in the name of his party.

Mr Dust blamed Cllr Johns for what he described as a "lying leaflet", which was distributed by the BNP in the Cheshunt Central ward - where the councillor acted as agent for BNP candidate Ian Seeby - in the run-up to yesterday's Broxbourne Council elections.

The leaflet, dubbed Broxbourne Patriot, urged locals to back Mr Seeby, and claimed that "hundreds of thousands of homes" were being built in areas around Cheshunt with 25 per cent "earmarked for asylum seekers and other economic migrants".

Mr Dust dismissed the claims and explained: "There is no Government policy that says that and there is no local policy that says that."

He slammed the leaflet and said: "They are trying to whip up hatred."

In his complaint to the Standards Board - a national body which supervises the conduct of councillors - Mr Dust also mentioned an "offensive" letter sent by Cllr Johns into the Mercury last year, in which he praised Jewish leaders for trying to ensure that "their people did not dilute the blood of the host nations with their genes".

Mr Dust said he would also be contacting the local returning officer over concerns about the way the BNP had run its election campaign this year.

He said he feared that the BNP had exceeded spending quotas for its local campaign and estimated that the group had delivered 30,000 leaflets.

However, Dr Phil Edwards, national press officer for the BNP, maintained that the BNP was sticking to electoral rules and dismissed BAR as "a bunch of spiteful losers".

He insisted information in the leaflet was accurate and told the Mercury: "It's all true."

Citing Government statistics and information gathered by independent watchdog Migration Watch UK, he said Britain's population was set to grow by 5.6 million by 2031, with 85 per cent of the growth due to immigration.

Attacking BAR members, he said: "They are just hysterical hate mongers - they are just cranks, these people."

A spokeswoman for Broxbourne Council said there had been no applications for hundreds of thousands of homes and added that it was not the council's responsibility to house asylum seekers.

The Mercury tried to get a comment from Cllr Johns - who stood as a BNP candidate in the Eastern Region in the Euro elections held on June 10 - but he had not responded to our calls before the paper went to press.