Teacher banned for life appointed to replace Nick Griffin as BNP leader
|
Version 0 of 1. Nick Griffin has been replaced as leader of the British National party, the far-right group has announced. The BNP's website said Adam Walker, a former teacher who this year was struck off the teaching register for life, had been appointed acting chairman after Griffin "stepped aside", two months after he lost the party's only seat at the European parliament in a disastrous set of election results. Griffin, who was declared bankrupt in January, had "taken up the position of president", it said, adding that the national executive was "united in their support" for his replacement. After voters in north-west England ousted him as an MEP in May, Griffin accepted that the BNP, which now has only two local councillors, could be described as a "racist" outfit. Its supporters wanted to "send them all home", he said, suggesting they would end up disappointed if they had voted for Ukip as an alternative. Steven Squire, the London organiser of the BNP, said on Monday that although there had been some "bickering" within the party in the past "that is all over now and, unlike other political parties, we are not in debt". He added: "We are all behind Adam, though Nick was the most successful nationalist leader the country has ever had." Walker was banned from teaching in February after he lost a legal challenge against the then education secretary, Michael Gove. Walker had received a suspended jail sentence for verbally abusing three schoolboys, chasing them in his car and slashing the tyres on their bikes with a Stanley knife. He took Gove to court, claiming that this decision was "prejudiced" because of his membership of the BNP. Walker argued that the National College for Teaching and Leadership, which replaced the General Teaching Council, had recommended that he be banned from the classroom for a minimum of two years. But the punishment was increased to a life ban without review by a senior official, in Gove's name, the next day. Just five years ago, the BNP achieved electoral success, with leader Griffin and his colleague Andrew Brons elected to the European parliament and more than 50 councillors sitting in town halls up and down the country. But that high point was short lived. Dogged by bitter infighting and financial turmoil, scores of key activists left and the BNP had a series of disastrous elections. As the party's finances worsened, lack of discipline, heightened by personal rivalries and concerted campaigning by opponents, led to several key activists either being sacked or leaving to join smaller far-right groups. In 2012 even Brons quit the party to form his own organisation – the British Democratic party. Griffin lost his seat as member of the European parliament in May, and his party's share of the vote in the north-west of England collapsed from its 2009 level of 6.1% to just 1.9%. As well as electoral defeat, Griffin was declared bankrupt in January following a dispute with a firm of solicitors over outstanding debts of £120,000. |