hush-hush affair as Le Pen descends on sleepy Altrincham (but not for long)

By Ian Herbert, North of England Correspondent | Monday, 26 April 2004 | Click here for original article

The Stockport branches of Pets at Home and Office World have known a few busy Sundays over the years but a role as background in a hush-hush security plot involving the French nationalist leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was something new.

The action started around 1.30pm when a large man driving an even larger E-registered Bentley pulled into the car park shared by the stores, closely followed by other less conspicuous men wearing dark glasses and suits. They were all British National Party activists - here because a car park normally reserved for those in need of £1 boxes of staples and £2.99 dogs' toothbrushes was the meeting point at which the media would be informed where M Le Pen would help to launch the party's European election campaign.

The cloak-and-dagger approach, according to the BNP, was undertaken on the advice of Greater Manchester Police as a deterrent against "leftie bastards" who would try to spoil the show. At first, the party's plans worked with military precision. "I've done a dry run and I can only say the location is 20 minutes away," declared David Jones, the party's north west press officer. So where had M Le Pen, 75, passed the morning since jetting into Manchester airport? "I've been working on a strictly need to know basis and I don't need to know that," Mr Jones said confidentially.

But evidence that the secret operation was shot to pieces abruptly materialised when a Liverpudlian in a grey T-shirt and cap shouted: "Stop killing people in this country. We're fed up with people coming here and telling us that we are over-run when we are not." He was Alex Jones, the secretary of the Merseyside Coalition Against Fascism, it later emerged.

"Well you're from Liverpool," said Mr Jones, who seemed to be implying that it was a different country. "Go away" The anti-right shouts had changed into chants before a fist flew, landing on the chin of a Manchester anti-racist campaigner, Bill Jefferies. Its owner, a BNP leafleter, refused to disclose his name.

The squat, barrel-chested subject of all the fuss was perched, presidentially, in an air-conditioned room at Altrincham's Crest Court hotel, five miles away, flanked by his translator, and the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, a man whose grin suggested he was scarcely able to believe his luck in securing M Le Pen.

But for all his years of experience, the BNP's guest speaker did not show much of the political acumen that Mr Griffin might have been expecting when he invited him on this visit, which culminated in a £50-a-plate, roast-beef dinner in Oswestry, Shropshire, last night.

Nor was there much of the combative, occasionally compelling, stage presence which secured M Le Pen a place in the second round of France's presidential elections two years ago, when he was asked how many European far right candidates he wanted to see elected on 10 June. "Le plus possible," he said vaguely, with an upward thrust of his famous jutting chin.

"I can answer that in a more technical sense," Mr Griffin intervened, diplomatically. "We need 16 candidates from five countries." He was talking about the numbers the far right needs to create a nationalist bloc with speaking rights in the European parliament in June. Italy's Northern League will provide some support, but BNP success at the ballot box is imperative and Mr Griffin is also thought to have visited far-right groups in Belgium, Germany and Sweden in the past few months, to help achieve the aspiration.

The BNP's hopes of success in the elections are unclear. It is fielding candidates in every constituency and the low expected turnout for the European poll - 18 per cent say they intend to vote compared with 24 per cent four years ago - mean the party could sneak a seat with as few as 100,000 votes in one of the big European constituencies. Campaigners fear the campaign of anti-asylum-seeker sentiment may contribute to the party's chances. The north west, where Mr Griffin is lead candidate, appears to provide the party's best chance.

M Le Pen's words demonstrated how, if created, the bloc will contain the usual rag-bag of attitudes towards race which he has presided over down the years in France. While Mr Griffin wants a white-only party, M Le Pen will accept "toutes dénominations, toutes couleurs", as he told yesterday's press conference. But there is plenty of mutual racial intolerance too. Britain, like France, faces the prospect of being "submergé par la population étrangers," M Le Pen insisted.

As the chants of "Fascist scum, never again." and "Hitler, Griffin and Le Pen." issued through the open windows of the conference room, M Le Pen expressed amused surprise. "I've walked about freely in Iraq and Turkey, in Malaysia and Indonesia," he told the news conference, through an interpreter. "I don't see why I shouldn't be able to walk about freely in England." They were a mere "dizaine" or less. His message to them? "Fermez-vous."

Maybe the knowledge that Warren Bennett, a former Combat 18 activist from Scotland, was organising the security for this trip contributed to M Le Pen's nonchalance as he swaggered around after the press conference, occasionally peering into the dial of a small, black mobile phone.

His confidence was certainly misplaced. After being spotted exiting through a side door at the hotel, M Le Pen quickly discovered the level of opposition he was up against when around 100 protesters made for his blue, chauffeur-driven, Vauxhall Astra and pelted it with eggs.

The BNP's security master plan had not accounted for the building site beside the hotel, which provided ammunition for demonstrators who upturned vats of half-set cement and sent the residue spilling over the car windscreen and bonnet. Bin bags containing the remnants of the previous night's hotel dinner were also dumped on the car as M Le Pen stared blankly ahead during the 20 minutes it took to leave.

Nevertheless, Mr Griffin put on a brave face. "If the intention was to cause trouble we would have [chosen] Bradford or Oldham - not quiet, sleepy Altrincham where everyone will go home," he said. "These people are trying to beat up an old age pensioner. They'll soon disappear back to college."