BNP to contest hotspot

The British National Party has announced that its leader will fight one of the most racially sensitive seats in Britain:

Nick Griffin, a Cambridge University graduate who has struggled to give the far-right group a respectable face, will stand in Keighley, West Yorkshire, where the Labour MP Ann Cryer had a 4,005-vote majority over the Conservatives in 2001.

Mr Griffin is on bail after his arrest last month over inflammatory comments at a BNP meeting in Keighley which were secretly filmed for a Channel 4 documentary broadcast this year. The party leader, who is 45, called Islam a "vicious, wicked faith" and claimed that, unless people backed the BNP, Muslims would "do for someone in your family".

He said yesterday he had been invited to stand in the general election by local members, including two BNP councillors elected to Bradford district council in June. Mr Griffin said Keighley, where the party was accused of hijacking a local campaign against schoolgirl prostitution, was one of the BNP's "best hopes".

"It certainly is sensitive and that is why it's important there is the most credible possible outlet for people's concerns and anxieties," he said.