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British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin bowed out of attending a Buckingham Palace garden party today, saying he had “no wish to embarrass the Queen”.
The right wing politician had been invited to the event by BNP colleague Richard Barnbrook who, as a London Assembly member, was nominated for two tickets by the Greater London Authority (GLA).
Mr Griffin said he would not now be attending the party after the controversial invitation led to the Mayor and senior members of the GLA accusing the BNP of exploiting the situation for publicity.
Mr Griffin said: "We believe it is still outrageous that a democratically elected member of the London Assembly can't invite who he likes as a guest to the party at the Palace.
"Nevertheless, because we have no wish to embarrass the Queen and allow the liberal left to do more damage to our institutions, I've withdrawn from the idea of going myself."
He said Mr Barnbrook would still be going and would be taking the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan.
Mr Barnbrook said he would not reveal the name of the soldier's mother, but added that he had been working closely with her in east London.
Speaking outside the Houses of Parliament, Mr Griffin said: "While we expected some coverage, we never expected it to be quite as hysterical from the opposition as it was."
He said he did not want to give the "intellectual elite" the opportunity "to use us and the British National Party to further their ends, particularly by potentially embarrassing the Queen and the institution of the monarchy".
"Our institutions are in enough trouble as they are at present," he said.
Mr Griffin denied he was trying to exploit the invitation for party political gain.
"If Boris Johnson and all the rest hadn't started screaming about it, no one would even have known," he said.
"There's 8,000 people going to that garden party apart from Richard. No-one knows who any of them are."
But he acknowledged that if he had insisted on remaining as Mr Barnbrook's guest, both invitations would have been withdrawn.
Mr Griffin said the public "would have been absolutely disgusted with the liberal elite for this bullying so that not only I wasn't able to go but Richard wouldn't have been able to go".
"We could have gone down that road and got us a great deal of positive publicity but it would have been at the cost of embarrassing the Palace," he said.
Mr Barnbrook said he had been told Mr Griffin was an "unsuitable character" to go to Buckingham Palace.
He said he had chosen Mr Griffin "as a close friend and colleague of mine".
"I think it really is quite ironic and disgusting that the mayor and the entourage in the GLA can start pointing fingers at us about who we can and can't take when they can't even keep their own house in order."
At the weekend, Jeff Jacobs, the GLA's deputy chief executive, wrote to Mr Barnbrook to tell him to change his controversial guest, and stop exploiting the situation for "publicity", or his nomination would be "reviewed".
The BNP campaigns for the "voluntary resettlement" of immigrants back to their countries of origin, claims white Britons have become "second class citizens", and wants to bring back corporal and capital punishment for criminals.
Last week the organisation said: "You can't withdraw the invitation because you don't agree with someone's views.
"How is it going to look if the three main political parties conspire to deny us our rights - and the people that voted for Richard?
"They are seeking to subvert the democratic process."
The London mayor said he was concerned about any potential embarrassment to the Queen if Mr Griffin had been allowed to join thousands of guests on the Palace lawns on July 21.
Any potential greeting could have resembled the moment when the Prince of Wales shook hands with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe after he was "caught by surprise" at the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.
The garden party will come after the June local and Euro elections, which could see the BNP gaining more local council seats and their first MEPs.
Disillusionment with mainstream politicians over the MPs' expenses scandal and fears over jobs and immigration could lead to a surge in support for the party, according to political experts.
Buckingham Palace said the London Assembly is one of more than 1,000 organisations given allocations of places for individuals at the garden parties, and the organisations then nominate people to attend.
The nominations are sent to the Palace for consideration before the invitations are issued.
Reader views (8)
As someone has said, ‘a sad day for democracy’.
- P. C., rainham. essex., 28/05/2009 07:23
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Democracy is dead in Britain. Unless you follow the Liberal elite and their insanely crank ideas, then forget it. Those mad people in Westminster and other establishment cranks such as the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have rendered free speech dead. Those people who still alive plus those that died fighting tyranny in two world wars must be wondering what the hell has happened!
- Chris Roberts, Benfleet England, 27/05/2009 23:33
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I could have understood the establishment's complaints if the bloke had done something like being caught with having his hands in the tax-payers pockets for years on end or something serious like that. Oink, oink, oink!
- Derrick, A Once Great Land, 27/05/2009 22:17
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Mr Griffin has shown some class here.
- John Miller, Enfield, 27/05/2009 21:32
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Well I'm sure Nick griffin didn't really want to go anyway. The publicity he and the BNP have received by not actually doing anything has been immense.
- Ranter, Maidstone, UK, 27/05/2009 17:45
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Shame the on tyrannical liberal establishment for hounding him into pulling out when he, as someone who represents the views of so many voters, had every right to attend. A sad day for democracy.
- Richard, Welling, 27/05/2009 17:42
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So much for being a democratically elected.
- Shallotman, Basildon, 27/05/2009 16:48
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Does anyone think that he would ever have been "presented" to the Queen or any other Royal. These garden parties are huge and out of 8000 or so people a maximum of 50 or 60 are pre-selected for introductions.
- Jb, London, 27/05/2009 16:46
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