Around a fifth of the British population would "seriously consider" voting for the British National Party (BNP) despite its leader's racist image, a poll taken Friday in the UK says.
The party is chaired by Nick Griffin, who is widely known as a Holocaust denier and recently defended of a former Ku Klux Klan leader during a BBC appearance.
Protestors outside BBC headquarters (Photo: AFP)
The YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph found that 22% of the population would consider voting for the BNP, which doesn't accept non-white members.
| Griffin On The Air |
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| UK far-right leader in controversial TV appearance / Associated Press |
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British National Party leader Nick Griffin defends himself against accusations that he sympathizes with Nazi ideals, but is also shown him ducking question of whether he ever denied Holocaust |
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Griffin's appearance on Question Time Thursday sparked controversy in the UK, and on the eve of the broadcast 25 anti-fascist demonstrators broke into the BBC's London headquarters in protest against the interview. Hundreds of other protestors gathered outside.
Griffin claimed on the show that Islam was not compatible with modern life in the UK and that he found homosexuals repulsive.
He also defended himself against accusations that he sympathized with the ideals of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party – but ducked the question of whether he ever denied the Holocaust.
"I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial," he said, smiling faintly as the studio audience snickered. He later said he had changed his mind about the Holocaust, but then refused to explain exactly how.
But Griffin later said he was not satisfied with the interview, claiming that he had been the "true victim" of the broadcast because the show's producers had shown him in a negative light.
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