BNP not racist claim

Sonia Gable | Monday, 13 November 2006 Source: Searchlight

Councillor David Exley has said that the BNP supports the Kick Racism out of Kirklees campaign and that his party is not racist.

However neither he nor the other two BNP members on Kirklees council spoke up after a group of young people addressed the council and handed over a petition demanding that racism be kicked out of Kirklees, although all the other main parties had backed the campaign.

In an unusual display of diffidence, councillor Exley, the leader of the BNP council group, told the Huddersfield Daily Examiner that he was going to speak, but other councillors had taken a few swipes at his party during their statements and he was not prepared to be the council's "whipping boy".

He claimed that he supported the campaign "100%" but had "one reservation and that is that it's looked at in an even-handed way and it's recognised that racism comes from both sides". Not quite 100% then.