The gay porn movie past of BNP’s leader on Barking council

Andrew Gilligan | Wednesday, 10 May 2006 Source: Evening Standard

A GAY porn film produced and directed by the BNP's leader in London can be revealed for the first time today.

Richard Barnbrook takes up his post as leader of the opposition on Barking Council this week after the BNP won 11 seats at last Thursday's local elections.

As the racist party's London co-ordinator, he has become second in prominence only to Nick Griffin, the leader, frequently appearing on television and in newspapers.

However, he risks ridicule after the Standard obtained a copy of his film HMS Discovery: A Love Story, described by one cinema website as "Marxist gay cinema from conceptual artist Barnbrook".

The BNP believes that homosexuality is "wrong and unhealthy for any community" and until recently promised to outlaw "this perverted practice". It has also been fiercely critical of "indecency" in the media.

The film includes long scenes of men undressing and fondling each other, including full-frontal nudity, naked men clawing passionately at each other's bodies while standing in a river, and a naked man apparently performing a sex act on another.

There are also repeated scenes of flagellation in which a group of semi-naked men apparently whip a fourth semi-naked man senseless to the ground, and scenes in which men dressed in sailor suits strip naked on a river bank, before frolicking in the river. In a nod to Mr Barnbrook's nationalist sympathies, the men are carrying the White Ensign.

The pictures are set to lines of "erotic poetry" scripted by Mr Barnbrook and another man such as: "A harsh scowl masks your smile, but weakens when your nakedness inspires.

"It bares you like a foreskin's folds … you will make of yourself a beauty, hard as rusting trucks and slag." As two men embrace, the commentary declares: "Fists in a toilet that smells of piss … open-mouthed, I shall dream of altar-boys."

And there is a homage to what the narrator calls "the briefest splendour, our ten minutes in a bus station".

Other lines and scenes in the film are more obscene.

The film was made in 1989 to semi-professional quality, though it achieved limited critical success.

It attempts to emulate the style of gay film-makers such as Derek Jarman or Peter Greenaway. Its existence was revealed last year.

The Standard has learned that the Metropolitan Police is also considering launching an enquiry into Mr Barnbrook for allegedly filing false nomination papers to evade a legal requirement that all candidates in local elections must live or work in the borough they wish to represent. Mr Barnbrook, whose real home is in Blackheath, claimed to live at 5a London Road, Barking in order to stand for the council.

He signed himself on the electoral register there six weeks before the election. But an Evening Standard investigation found that the address was a derelict flat with whitewashed windows and bare floorboards.

Neighbours said they had not seen anyone at the property for months, while neighbours at Mr Barnbrook's real address said they had seen him within the last few days.

Giving a false address on election nomination papers is a criminal offence punishable by disqualification from office and up to a year's imprisonment.

Mr Barnbrook said last night that the film was "not pornographic" but refused to comment further.