'Christians should reject BNP'

Lord Carey said it was "chilling" to hear Mr Griffin claim to represent "Christian Britain" in his appearance on BBC1's Question Time on Thursday, and accused the BNP leader of trying to "hijack one of the world's great religions".

His comments came as a poll suggested that a number of controversial BNP policies on immigration, sex education and Islam have resonance with significant numbers of voters.

The survey in the News of the World found that almost two-thirds of voters feel the mainstream parties have no credible policies on immigration. But only 6% said the BNP had the best policies on the issue and just 10% agreed with the far-right party that there should be a halt to all future immigration.

The ICM research follows a YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph which suggested that 22% of voters would consider backing the BNP in a local, European or general election in the wake of Mr Griffin's controversial TV appearance.

Numbers saying they intend to vote BNP had increased from 2% to 3% since September.

The poll provoked a furious response from Labour's long-time anti-racism campaigner Peter Hain, who fought to keep Mr Griffin off the airwaves. "The BBC has handed the BNP the gift of the century on a plate and now we see the consequences. I'm very angry about this," said Mr Hain.

Lord Carey said the decision to invite Mr Griffin on to the BBC's flagship political discussion programme was "a mistake".

The former archbishop told the News of the World: "The BBC's director-general errs in arguing that in a democracy all views should be heard. The views of the BNP are not simply false, they are dangerous, indeed irredeemably evil."

During his appearance on Thursday, Mr Griffin said if Muslims wanted to remain in Britain they had to accept that it was "a fundamentally British and Christian country". But Lord Carey responded: "This squalid racist must not be allowed to hijack one of the world's great religions."